‘Sorry you didn’t spend your last days at home’: Mellieha house collapse tenant passes away

A woman whose house in Mellieha collapsed last June as a result of works on an adjacent site, has passed away.

Maggie Smith was the only person injured in the collapse last June. She was pulled out of the four-storey building and rushed to hospital on 8 June after the building where her apartment collapsed.

The building had started to collapse at around 6am in the morning and was still falling half an hour later.

Smith was the only person who was in the apartment at the time of the its collapse. She was fortunately in her bedroom at the back of the apartment at the time of the collapse. She sustained slight injuries as a result of the collapse.

“So sorry you didn’t pass your last few days in your home surrounded by your surroundings. This makes me both angry and sad. But I am glad that I gave you hope in your last days,” read a Facebook post by Janet Walker, another woman who was forced out of her Gwardamanga home after it collapsed.

The wall of Walker’s apartment block in Gwardamanga collapsed in June, leaving unable to enter her home.

The incident prompted the government to suspend all demolition and excavation works and to amend the legislation regulating the industry, however Walker has still not been able to enter her home.  

“Two months ago, 13th June 2019, one moment you are inside and happy with your surroundings, a moment after you’re out,” she recently wrote on Facebook. “61 days later and we’re still out [of our house] with no idea of the outcome. Five families in total!”

“I for one have tried my very best to report to the Planning Authority, the Building Regulations Office, their architect, the developer, the contractor way before this happened. I have all documents and all…..I have got my own architect and lawyer and paid from my own pockets to not end up homeless, but I was no one. Why investigate further? This is against human rights or is it because I am a woman?! Would a man have been heard more?!”