Enfield building collapse: Developer fined $180k over 2016 chaos

It caused chaos and one resident escaped serious injury “by good luck” when the building crumbled in 2016. Now, four years later, the company behind the shocking failure has been handed a huge fine.

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The developer behind the construction of a project in Sydney’s inner west that caused several neighbouring buildings to collapse has been handed a huge fine for their actions that left residents scrambling for their lives.

A two storey building and a row of shops on Liverpool Rd, Enfield collapsed and were eventually destroyed when the building site adjacent to it began digging in February 2016.

The company behind the project that caused the damage, Erector Group Pty Limited, has been convicted and fined $180,000 while its director Rong Feng Wang has also been fined $36,000 by Safe Work NSW.

The apartment block gave way after excavations began on a building site next door.

The chaos had erupted just hours after Erector finished its first day of earthworks on the site on February 29, 2016.

By 8pm, neighbours reported noticing their walls shake.

By the time police arrived, officers watched on from the street as one of the walls of the apartment building’s eastern side began to partially collapse, causing forty residents to flee for their lives.

“The incident happened due to the oversight and recklessness in giving instructions on the part of Erector and me,” Wang said in an affidavit tendered to the District Court.Both Wang and the company pleaded guilty to failing to comply with health and safety procedures.

One of the first signs that something had gone horribly wrong was when residents noticed the strong smell of gas.

Multiple emergency service crews were called out in the early house of the morning once the panic set in after the building eventually collapsed. Picture: Bill Hearne

A nearby hairdresser which had been operating for 20 years reported the shaking was so bad during the earthworks their building was rocking and items were constantly falling off the shelves.

Just hours later the building was in ruins.

Judge David Russell found it was only by “good luck” that no one was injured, with one resident evacuating just in time before the building crumbled.

A number of residents were forced to sleep in their cars before neighbouring buildings were deemed safe enough to return to. Picture: Bill Hearne

Documents tendered to court reveal Wang had delivered a curt one sentence email mostly threatening financial consequences if the excavation was not done in the week before the disaster, despite warnings of the risk from an engineer.

He had written to a worker on site that “nothing should affect the progress of the earthworks” on the day of the incident.

Judge Davis found the actions of Erector and Wang, who were facing maximum fines of $1,500,000 and $300,000 respectively, were at the higher end of seriousness.

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