The structure gave way overnight during heavy rainfall, injuring multiple people and crushing adjacent properties the second building collapse in the Kissy corridor in under two months, and the latest in a pattern that has now claimed dozens of lives across the capital in recent years.
Another building has fallen in Freetown.
A five-storey building collapsed late last night on Kissy Road during heavy rainfall, injuring multiple people and crushing adjacent properties. Emergency responders and community members arrived at the scene to navigate the rubble, assess the full extent of the destruction, and assist affected residents. Reports indicate some individuals sustained injuries, though no confirmed fatalities were available as of press time. Photographs from the scene show massive piles of debris where the five-storey structure once stood.
Witnesses say the building suddenly gave way after hours of intense rainfall. The sound of the collapse sent residents and road users into panic along one of Freetown’s most heavily trafficked arteries, with people scrambling from nearby structures in fear that the disaster might spread.
The incident has immediately reignited local concerns regarding structural safety standards and the vulnerability of Freetown’s residential neighbourhoods during the rainy season. Those concerns are not new, and they are backed by a grim recent record.
The collapse comes just weeks after another building disaster in the same area. On 7th April 2026, an unfinished building at 87 Blackhall Road, Kissy just a short distance from the Kissy Road corridor collapsed, killing two children and leaving a third in critical condition. In that incident, the children were reportedly playing near the structure when part of the multi-storey building gave way. Fire and rescue teams, ambulance crews, and police quickly secured the site, with structural engineers expected to examine the construction practices, permits, and adherence to safety protocols at the unfinished site.
There is no indication that those examinations produced any enforcement action before last night’s collapse.
Zoom the lens wider and the picture is worse. In September 2024, a seven-storey building collapsed along Shell Bai Bureh Road in east Freetown. Early reports suggested structural weaknesses, substandard iron rods, and substandard building materials as contributing factors. That collapse killed at least ten people, with rescuers working through debris to reach survivors who were, in some cases, communicating their locations by phone from beneath the rubble. Among the dead were two girls and a boy, all under five years old.
Building collapses have emerged as a critical concern in Freetown, particularly during the rainy season when risk is significantly heightened. Previous incidents have included the collapse of a three-storey building in Regent and a four-storey structure in the Wellington community along Joshua Street the latter claiming four lives, while a Congo Town incident resulted in two fatalities and two hospitalisations.
The geography of these disasters is not random. They cluster in the east of the city Kissy, Wellington, Shell Road areas characterised by dense, informal, and rapidly built housing stock, steep and unstable terrain, and limited regulatory oversight on the ground.
A critical factor in construction safety is the assessment of soil and topography prior to building. The viability of a structure is heavily influenced by the ground on which it sits. In a city built on hills, with a geology that shifts dramatically under prolonged rainfall, multi-storey construction without rigorous foundation assessment is not merely negligent it is predictably lethal.
The regulatory picture compounds the problem. Building permits in Freetown fall under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Lands, but enforcement on the ground has long been inconsistent. Structures go up without proper inspections, without certified engineers overseeing key stages of construction, and frequently using substandard materials sourced from informal supply chains. The rain does not cause these buildings to fall. It merely reveals what was always there: the absence of the structural integrity that was supposed to be built in.
Residents and business owners in the Kissy Road area have renewed calls for authorities to conduct thorough investigations into the cause of Tuesday night’s collapse and to put in place lasting safety measures rather than the temporary responses that have followed previous disasters.
Authorities have not yet released an official statement on the cause of the incident. This is consistent with the response pattern that has followed previous collapses: swift arrival at the scene, expressions of concern, promises of investigation, and too often silence thereafter.
Read Also: Two Children Dead, One Critical After Unfinished Building Collapses at 87 Blackhall Road, Kissy
The National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA), the Sierra Leone Correctional Service, the Ministry of Lands, and the Freetown City Council each have a role in the overlapping chain of responsibility for building safety in the capital. The question that residents in Kissy are asking tonight the same question their neighbours were asking after Blackhall Road in April, and after Shell New Road in 2024 is whether anyone in that chain will be held to account this time.
Rescue operations and investigations are continuing. Ground Report Africa will provide further updates as they become available.
