27m metal structure falls from height in Bartley, narrowly missing man

A 27m-long external structure fell off a building in the Bartley area and crashed onto the street below on March 11, narrowly missing an employee from a store on the ground floor.

Images of the scene show debris consisting of metal beams strewn across the road near Inspace at 24 New Industrial Road.

Footage from a ceiling camera inside the employee's office, seen by ST, shows him just outside the unit as a thunderous crash is heard. He jumps backwards towards his office door just before a piece of debris hits the ground where he was standing.

The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) told The Straits Times it received a call from the police on the afternoon of March 11 that "a strip of architectural feature" had fallen from the eight-storey light industrial cum office building.

It added that the 27m-long architectural feature had dropped from the roof level and struck another facade feature on the fifth floor, leaving it dislodged and dangling. Parts of the 27m strip landed on the ground.

The area directly below the affected section has been cordoned off. The building owner's appointed contractor will remove the loose and overhanging architectural features to prevent further hazards, BCA said.

It has also instructed the building owner to appoint a professional engineer to investigate the cause of the incident and inspect the condition of the rest of the building facade. The owner will also be required to carry out permanent rectification works as recommended by the engineer.

A tenant at Inspace, who wanted to be known only as Ms L, said earlier she was not informed by building management of the incident, and was merely told not to use the entrance and exit on the ground floor.

Members of the building's security team were seen moving the metal debris away by themselves, she added.

A representative from another tenant, Everyday Curtains, said its business has been "severely affected", with the company having to cancel all appointments for the day due to the debris outside its unit.

When ST arrived at the scene at about 3.50pm, the debris had been moved off the road, with some relocated to a nearby grass patch and the rest stacked at parking spaces outside the units on the ground floor.

The Inspace building, developed by SLB Development subsidiary SLB-Oxley (NIR), is managed by Chambers Property Management Services. Completed in 2022, it has 84 units across eight floors.

ST has contacted Chambers Property Management Services for more information.