Anxious families remain outside the ruins of an Islamic boarding school in Sidoarjo, Indonesia, waiting for news of their children days after the building collapsed on September 29. Officials confirmed five deaths, and 59 students are still unaccounted for three days later.
Hundreds of students were inside when the two-story school suddenly gave way. On October 2, rescuers using thermal drones reported “no signs of life” beneath the wreckage.
Authorities revealed the school was undergoing unauthorized construction at the time of the collapse, with two additional floors added without permits. The building’s foundation, they said, could not support the extra weight.
Designing and constructing a building requires expertise, resources, and strict adherence to safety standards. Given that, one has to ask: how do such catastrophic failures still happen?