Man crushed to death

Eyewitnesses told Newsday that Ifill’s blood drained out of his body through a narrow gap between the wall and a concrete decking. As he breathed his last, while several persons could only watch helplessly, Ifill muttered, “boy, I get pinned here yes.” When firemen removed the wall, Ifill — a father of five — was dead.

He was employed with the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Regional Corporation and took a private job to demolish the house for a friend. His co-worker luckily escaped injuries. The incident occurred at 10.45 am.

The owner of the building, who asked not to be identified, said the freak accident had left her deeply traumatised as Ifill was not only a worker but a family friend. The man’s grieving children, the owner said, visited the scene after hearing the news. “We go way back and that is why he agreed to do the work for us,” she cried.

“He did part yesterday (Sunday) and came back today to finish it off. He told me when the wall comes down, he will bring a pardner with a backhoe to clear out the rest of the rubble,” the woman said.

She said they were clearing the old structure to begin construction of their new house. She recalled that moments before the tragedy, they were laughing and talking on the roadside.

“I just now gave him water to drink,” she recalled. He went back to the structure and someone told Ifill to move from where he was but he replied that the place was safe enough for him to continue with the demolition. “And then later, we heard this massive crashing sound,” the woman said, adding that people ran to the collapsed wall but they could not even shift the wall much less lift it off of Ifill.