Panic as floor of house caves in

TIRUCHY: Panic prevailed after the floor of an old house at Navalur Kuttapattu in the outskirts of the city, suddenly caved in to a depth of around six feet on Tuesday.  A Sebastian, a farmer of Madha Colony in Navalur Kuttapattu, who was out for work in the field, returned home around 9.30 am.  As he proceeded to switch on the light in the hall, he noticed that something was different about the cement floor of the house.  Soon after, a portion of the floor caved in.  However, Sebastian managed to escape from falling into the ditch that had formed, in the nick of time.“I saw the earth caving in till a ditch of about six feet was formed,”  he said.The fact that the incident took place on his 38th birthday was a point of concern for Sebastian. “I was sentimentally hit as the incident took place on the day I turned 38 and the ditch was about six feet deep,” said Sebastian, unable to hold his breath.“More than three generations of our family have lived in this house, which is more than seventy years old. To my knowledge, this is the first time that such an incident had happened,” he said. On information, a team of officials led by assistant director of mines M Govindaraj rushed to the spot and inspected the ditch.  “The soil should have eroded due to the rains, thus creating a vacuum at the particular spot resulting in such a cave in,” Govindaraj told Express. He said that the buildings in the particular area should have been built with strong foundations as the soil was loose.However, Govindaraj assured that there was no reason to panic.  “This is just a soil erosion due to the rains. We have directed that the house be locked to prevent any further incidents in case the ditch widens in due course,” he added.