Tragedy in Brazil where a girl of only 21, an employee of a department store, died after five metal shelves they collapsed overwhelming her. The victim, identified as Elane de Oliveira Rodrigues, worked at the Mateus Atacarejo Mix supermarket in St. Louis for only three months. On 2 October, the accident that was fatal occurred, when the shelves full of goods suddenly fell to the ground for reasons that are still being investigated, overwhelming her. Eight other people, including company staff and some customers, were injured. Everything was filmed by internal surveillance cameras. The girl’s clients and colleagues, after hearing a loud roar, rushed to look for the remaining people buried under the stack of goods.
They created a real one human chain to remove boxes in search of buried people. The work of the rescuers continued throughout the night. It took more than 11 hours to rescue the people, with over 270 firefighters engaged. The recovery operations ended on Saturday morning. Six of the eight injured needed hospital treatment but were discharged shortly after. But Elane didn’t make it and was declared dead as soon as the body was recovered. “She was very happy with her new job because three months ago she had just started working as a warehouse worker for the company. In the last photo she took with the phone, she was wearing her blue work shirt,” said the cousin. Ruan to the local press. Meanwhile, in a statement, the Mateus group, which runs one of the largest supermarket chains in the city, stressed that everything is being done to support the victims. “It is with deep regret that the Mateus group (joins) in solidarity with the family of Elane de Oliveira Rodrigues who, unfortunately, died in the accident”, reads the note. It is likely that the cause of what happened is to be found in the malfunction of a forklift truck, which seems to have caused the fall of one of the gondolas, triggering the huge accident. A full investigation was launched by health and safety officials and the police.
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