After Monday's shock, the residents of the city are looking for the latest news, they want to know everything. They are trying to comprehend the unexpected tragedy, which is only made more difficult by the fact that there is another young person fighting for his life.
One can only hope for the best. The only good news is that the condition of the two girls who were rescued first is improving, they are being treated at the city hospital and are receiving psychological help.
As is usually the case, on Tuesday morning the mother city of Székely tried to continue its own life, bearing the still bleeding wounds of the previous day's tragedy. Székelyudvarhely made it to the front of the news against his will, and unfortunately there is no thanks for that. In the meantime, heads of state spoke, public figures from here and beyond the border. Institutions, companies, individuals, relatives and outsiders all started their social media activities with a candle placed on a black background. To a greater or lesser extent, everyone is involved in this atrocity.
There are too many unanswered questions: how could such a tragedy have happened, could it have been prevented, and if so, how? Has there been human error, is there some ominous carelessness surrounding this terrible incident?
The High School publishes a statement, the resident of its dormitory was Dávid-Gábor Sipos, who died tragically young, barely 18 years old. The Farkaslaki student's school, Dr. Palló Imre Művézzeti Liceum, also tries to put into words what cannot be said with words. It is mentioned that on Tuesday, from 6 p.m., in the exhibition hall of the Cultural Center, during the opening of the Christmas exhibition, we can remember the deceased student of the educational institution, paying our respects with a flower.
The town hall of Székelyudvarhely will announce on Tuesday morning that the performances and concerts planned for the stage of the Christmas fair have been cancelled. The city's New Year's Eve will also be quiet, without disc jockeys and fireworks. This has no place here.
On social media, the initial shock is replaced by anger, accountability, the whip also cracks on the city manager Árpád Gálfi for keeping silent, while everyone wishes for comfort and expresses condolences to the relatives. The press is already reacting to this. Sometime around noon, the ice is broken, a picture with a mourning ribbon and a burning candle is uploaded to the city manager's social media page.
According to the investigators, the company manager directly coordinated the earthworks and did not comply with the quotas specified in the project. He asked the workers to dig to a depth of more than 2 meters to the bottom of the foundation, even though the maximum depth specified in the plans was 1.10 meters, calculated from the actual ground level before the work began.
The owner of the company said on Tuesday that he gave an order to carry out the earthworks on Monday, and they worked with an excavator. The worker who dug the hole testified that he saw a piece of plaster fall from above and then in a few seconds the entire wall collapsed. He also said he didn't know there were students in the building. The sewer connection works were carried out on the basis of a permit issued by the town hall of Székelyudvarhely in October.
Something has changed. The least important change is that this time the traffic in the city center is exceptionally controlled not by the local but by the state police.
Near the scene of the tragedy, at the entrance to the boarding house, candle holders are gathering, students are coming in groups, flames are burning in memory of their deceased fellow student where the paramedics fought for the life of the young boy from Farkaslak for nearly an hour on Monday evening. As we know, unsuccessfully. There is a strange, oppressive, confused silence in the Horseshoe. The place is full of police cars, but there are no lights flashing or sirens blaring. The scene of the tragedy was cordoned off with yellow tape. Passers-by look at the abandoned works, the multi-meter ditch next to the building, and ask the most important question: with such a volume of work, how could they allow life to go on inside the apartment as if nothing was happening outside?
There is no answer, only to know that a life could no longer go on. Maybe because of the works?
They are also waiting for an answer in front of the main entrance of the high school building. An army of cameras is ready, dozens of photographers and reporters are waiting for the "heads" to come out and try to explain the inexplicable. Rumor has it that the Minister of Education is also here. "When they went in, they didn't say anything, they promised that when they came out, they would make a statement. At a certain moment, they messaged that they would be here in ten minutes, but it has been more than an hour," says one of them.
Life goes on. Just not in the way we imagined. The city was preparing for a celebration and now it was in mourning.
Early on Tuesday afternoon, our constantly clicking thoughts about what happened are split in two by a sentence on social media, which testifies to a pain that only a mother who has lost a child can know:
"My sweet child, our pain cannot be described in words!" It is. No matter how hard we try.
We're trying. A divided and fragmented community, constantly finding fault with each other, forever debating and quarreling, shares the same grief and wants to take over - if only a little bit - of the burden that is literally cruel to carry on as a person, as a family, as a relative.
You can be more or less an outsider, but if you live here in this city, you cannot escape the impact of this terrible tragedy.
Something has changed. Forever.
Condolences to the family! Everything else is indescribable. I was just trying too.
