Three men die in floor collapse at Zarqa home — CDD

AMMAN — Three men died late Tuesday in Zarqa following a collapse in a room where they were digging, official sources said on Wednesday. 

Two brothers and a cousin, aged between 20 and 46, were digging in a room in their house in Ghweirieh when the floor collapsed and they fell over 15 metres, a senior Civil Defence Department (CDD) official said.

“The hole was deep and led to a cave. It took CDD rescue teams over three hours to pull the men from the rubble,” the CDD official told The Jordan Times.

The official added that all three were dead by the time their bodies were recovered “because of the lack of oxygen down there”.

“The victims were using a diesel pump and that contributed to their deaths,” he said.

Family members told authorities that the trio were doing maintenence in the room and “had no idea that there was a deep hole underneath them”, a second official said.

The victims’ bodies were taken to Prince Feisal Public Hospital where an autopsy by a team of government pathologists headed by Rajae Shouha, Mohammad Ertimat and Mohammad Momani indicated that they died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

“The three men died of carbon monoxide poisoning that resulted from carbon emitted by the diesel pump,” a medical source told The Jordan Times.