Cinema Collapse Sparks Investigations

Photo courtesy of Everything Cebu

Photo courtesy of Everything Cebu

Nine moviegoers at the Ayala Center Cebu were left injured after the ceiling of Cinema 5 collapsed during a campaign launch of crazydomains.com.au by Dreamscape Inc. 350 people were present inside the cinema when water started pouring from the ceiling before completely falling. Initial findings state that the sprinkler system released water without due cause until it caused the ceiling to collapse. 

Mark Evans, chief executive officer of Dreamscape Networks, will be duly filing charges against Ayala. “Without a doubt, we will file a case against Ayala. We got photos and videos of the event. We were actually filming the event,” he says.

As security guards arrived 25 minutes after the incident, Mark had to help people get out safely. He continues, “The emergency response was zero. It was so embarrassing. No one knew what to do. So we, ourselves, began to pull people out. And the steel frames were all over.”

Investigations are currently being conducted by The Office of the Building Official. While the injured patrons were immediately attended to, five had to be admitted to the hospital for obtaining serious injuries.

The mayor of Cebu City Michael Rama will be meeting with other cinema owners to call for more vigilance when it comes to their respective facilities.

This is the second time an accident at an Ayala property has been reported. The first one was two years ago, which was tagged as the Two Serendra explosion that was caused by a gas leak.

[Inquirer.net]