Elderly couple knocked to ground by falling wall

Two people were knocked to the ground and onto a busy Rotorua road when a temporary wall outside a burnt-out Warehouse Stationery building fell on them. Photo / Christine Cornege.

Two people in their 70s were knocked to the ground and onto a busy Rotorua road when a temporary wall outside the burnt-out Warehouse Stationery building fell on them.

June and Peter England, of Rotorua, were walking on the footpath beside the Central Warehouse Stationery store, which was badly damaged in a fire on December 15, when one of the wooden panels from the temporary wall around the site fell on them about lunchtime last Thursday.

"It was very heavy and it happened very quickly. We instinctively put our hands up, but we couldn't hold it. We had no chance to defend ourselves. It pushed us across and crashed us into the road,'' Mrs England told The Daily Post.

The two landed in a puddle on the road and Mrs England said they were fortunate the car they fell in front of had been travelling slowly enough to stop about a metre from them.

Given how busy the mall was that day, she said she was just glad it had not fallen on a child or people more frail than themselves. She is 75 and her husband is 78.

"A couple of ladies helped us up, took us into the mall and sat us down. It was a terrible shock - so unexpected.''

The Englands escaped with bruises and grazes, but were convinced to go to the hospital to get their wounds cleaned and dressed and to make sure there were no more serious injuries.

Mrs England said they were grateful to members of the public and a store owner who had helped them.

Fletcher Construction is in charge of the work site and, when the company heard about the incident, two senior representatives visited the Englands to see how they were and to assure them the panels had been checked and secured so there was no chance of it happening again. The representatives also gave the Englands a large bouquet of flowers.

"They were very apologetic and addressed my concerns that the same thing could happen to somebody else,'' Mrs England said.

Fletcher Construction regional manager Mark Ritchie told The Daily Post he was also concerned about the incident.

He said the hoarding had been put up under difficult, emergency circumstances, but the team was confident everything was safe before the Christmas holiday.

"We only found out about this on Wednesday and our health and safety manager went down there immediately to make sure everything was secure. It was probably an unusual gust of wind from where the shell of the building has been demolished, that caught us by surprise.''

Mr Ritchie said he would be back on Monday and would be visiting the site and the Englands personally to investigate the incident and see if there was anything Fletcher Construction could do for the couple.