Ayala Center Cebu Cinema Ceiling Collapses

[Monseratto]

Cinema Ceiling in Ayala Center Cebu Collapses
By Cheryl Golangco on June 16, 2015


At around 8:40pm last night, water was said to have started leaking from the ceiling of cinema 5 in Ayala Center Cebu. According to witnesses, the cinema was full with over 300 attendees as it was reserved for the launch of an Australian company’s latest tv ad campaign.

One of the witnesses, Alexis Y. shares his experience with WhenInManila.com:

“Water started to fall from the ceiling. We thought it was raining hard outside. So the people started walking out of the cinema very calmly until the ceiling started to fall. When we got outside the cinema, there was no rain at all. So it was probably the water pipes,” shares Alexis.

“When the ceiling started to fall, everyone started running out. We were in shock. Then i started calling my friend who might still be inside. I was hosting their pre-event at The Social just across the cinema. So I stayed to watch the actual launching. I was seated at the very front row, closest to the cinema door. My friend and I got out safe. We left immediately after we found each other.” he adds.


“God, thank you for saving everyone…’twas supposedly a big night for our company as we launch our new brand ad campaign… but this thing happened… so sad Ayala took sometime to respond for the emergency.”

“I am one of the employees of Dreamscape Networks and that night was supposedly the launching of our new brand ad campaign for Crazy Domains. Everyone was having fun watching the company’s presentation. We weren’t even halfway through the event when something burst on top of the ceiling. Then seconds later, water starts sprinkling. We actually thought that that was a part of the event as an effect but sprinkle turns into pouring water… heavy pouring water so everyone is moving away when suddenly the ceiling collapsed.” shares Theo J.



Though unverified, a few attendees were said to have been injured from the event. We do hope however that no one was seriously hurt.

Read more at Cinema Ceiling in Ayala Center Cebu Collapses - When In Manila

[chua_riwap]

Langya, may swimming pool ata sa tapat nung cinema. Bumigay yung kisame, buhos yung tubig e.

Di mo akalaing mangyayari sa Ayala Center yan. Ano yan, substandard ang pagkakagawa?

[jaypee10]

malamang napuno ng tubig ang rooftop kung saan ang ilalim ay sinehan..tapos substandard ang mga materyales na ginamit hindi nilagyan ng water sealant ayun bumigay..

[Monseratto]

Kakahiya ang kapalpakan ng ALI... to think the theater in question is newly refurbished with 4DX. Imagine if that happened during a fully packed film showing...

Mark Evans, CEO of Dreamscape Networks, has sent us the company's official statement regarding the incident last night in Cebu where six people were reportedly hurt after parts of the ceiling of a cinema room at Ayala Center Cebu collapsed.

We are reprinting it in full and still awaiting an official statement from Ayala Center:

Crazy Domains is Australia’s number 1 domain name provider and had just released a national multi- channel marketing campaign named “Crazy Easy for the Crazy Busy”. The brand purpose is to make it “Crazy easy” to succeed online.

At 5:30pm guests attended pre-event drinks at The Social bar and restaurant in Ayala Mall, Cebu City. There were 350 attendees in total, a mixture of our staff, their partners, and some special guests -- including three VIP Guests from the international BWM Dentsu advertising agency’s office in Melbourne, Australia.

At 7pm, attendees walk across to Cinema 5 nearby on the rooftop of the new Ayala Shopping Centre extension – this building is only approximately 1 year old.

Staff, partners and guests all happily took their seats for the Crazy Domains event, where the new advertising campaign would be first released to all in attendance.

The event commenced at 7:50pm and at approximately 8:49pm an explosion was heard from within the roof – with sparks seen overhead. There was a very loud rumble, before water was heard, and a few drops were felt from below. At that moment, water then began gushing in a ******* from the ceiling, soaking everyone in their seats.

Because there was as no alarm sounded, or information given from the Ayala employees, everyone had started to evacuate themselves without assistance or instruction. The water started to flow even faster, and was now gushing like large, powerful waterfalls, and we were shocked by the volume of the water.

As the attendees hurried forward to the exits, and one of Crazy Domains’ manager -- who happened to be working in the technical viewing box at the top of the cinema -- called others through to a small single exit at the top of the cinema.

The lights then all went out, and suddenly two-thirds of the ceiling collapsed: falling heavily onto the seats below. People were caught under the collapsing ceiling, and a few managed to crawl upwards to safety along the ground, and towards the top of the cinema where our Global Support Manager John hurried staff and guests out a single exit door by the viewing box.

I was fortunate to avoid the dropped ceiling at the bottom of the cinema, and so began looking for people trapped under the waterlogged, wrangled mess of a ceiling. I picked up one girl called MJ, and told her to get out of the cinema as she was much disorientated. I then lifted other parts of the ceiling up, and -- with the help of Jaycee, one of my employees -- released another girl who had also been trapped.

With help from others mainly our own including my Father Colin Evans and Murray White one of our VIP guests from BWM Dentsu advertising agency, we continued to search the area. We didn’t know how many people were trapped, and had to continue to break through parts of the collapsed ceiling, and look down the aisles in-between the fallen, twisted aluminum frames.

While this was going on, I cried out for help from the Ayala Security staff, who had run away from the scene and were too scared to enter the cinema. I called out to them to help us, but they hid in the exit laneway, and didn’t offer any help.

I shouted for the water mains pipe to be turned off, as water was still gushing very heavily at this stage. We had no emergency lighting, and no alarm had sounded. In the dark and without help, while water still poured down from the ceiling, we had to continue to break through parts of the ceiling, in search for people trapped.

The Ayala staff were totally incompetent, and it took at least 15 minutes before they switched the mains water off. At this point, some Ayala staff started to turn up within the cinema, but had no idea what to do, or where to start. I told them I wanted every single seat checked for people, and that I wasn’t leaving until it was done. I refused to leave the scene until I knew my guests were safe and accounted for. Meanwhile we conducted head counts outside to make sure nobody was missing.

It was 25 minutes before emergency staff arrived at the scene, and they arrived without tools, and were completely unequipped. I was shouting for them to get the cutters, so we could cut the steel and start removing portions of the ceiling, but they looked at each other dumbfounded. The total incompetence from the Ayala Staff and emergency services made it clear there were no evacuation or disaster procedures in place.

When I was informed inside the cinema that all seats had been checked, and there was nobody else caught under the ceiling, I exited the cinema and waited outside for formal clearance of the safety check from the emergency team.

The Ayala GM introduced herself outside on the rooftop, and had nothing valuable to say as she barely said a word. Ayala staff were actively seen stopping people from taking videos and photos, and trying to usher them out of the way. They made no apology, and had no consideration for what had happened.

During the organising of this event the Ayala Group were difficult, arrogant. They showed a complete lack of customer service towards us as the client, and the whole process was a challenging time to even organise the event. We were paying a lot of money for the exclusive use of the venue, and at times felt we were treated with total disrespect in view of requests to get access to the venue, prior to the event.

This has been a very traumatic experience for my staff, and this negligence has caused undue stress and injuries to my staff, their partners, and our guests. We will be visiting our staff this afternoon in hospitals and making sure they are taken care of. Ayala Management have called one of my managers, and offered to take care of the medical bills. We have declined their offer at this point in time.

After the disaster, those lucky enough to be uninjured went to The Social restaurant where our pre event was held. The manager from Ayala Management had called Jimmy, the restaurant Manager, to offer to take care of our bill. Again, we declined.

I’m yet to personally hear from Ayala Management at this point in time. Mark Evans, CEO, Dreamscape Networks

[oj88]

A water pipe apparently burst. The ceiling is practically made of acoustic material which is light and the frames that support it were only designed to bear its own weight, not the weight of hundreds of liters of water.

If the ceiling were made of plywood or similar materials, the injuries would be much more substantial... fatal, even.

[crazy_boy]

While this was going on, I cried out for help from the Ayala Security staff, who had run away from the scene and were too scared to enter the cinema. I called out to them to help us, but they hid in the exit laneway, and didn’t offer any help.

classic.


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[vinj]

This incident would probably be hushed down from media quite effectively i'll bet.

[chua_riwap]

Sprinkler system is the culprit daw.

Kung ako taga-cebu, di na ako manonood ng sine sa mga cinemas dyan sa ayala center. Pare-pareho nang deffective ang structures nyan.

[chua_riwap]

Dpost.....

[zoomzoom]

t was 25 minutes before emergency staff arrived at the scene, and they arrived without tools, and were completely unequipped. I was shouting for them to get the cutters, so we could cut the steel and start removing portions of the ceiling, but they looked at each other dumbfounded. The total incompetence from the Ayala Staff and emergency services made it clear there were no evacuation or disaster procedures in place.

Kung ang isang premyadong kumpanya tulad ng Ayala Mall eh walang evacuation / disaster plan, alam na natin ano mangyayari kung tamaan ang Metro Manila ng 7.5 magnitude earthquake.