According to witnesses, fortunately there were four people in the pavilion at the time (two sellers and two passer-bys) who managed to escape the pavilion. If they had not been able to escape, then they would have died due to the fact that the roof and columns of the pavilion are from metal. At first sight, it seems as though the thick layer of snow on the roof is the reason for the collapse. Who is to blame? Who would be responsible for the collapse if it happened a couple of hours later?
According to the deputy head of the Arabkir community Mikael Mardumyan, that market is a private enterprise and does not belong to the community. They are not responsible for cleaning the roofs of private enterprises. The thing is that the abovementioned enterprise (1930 square meters), according to the 793A resolution made by the mayor of Yerevan on April 19, 2005, it has been given to the “Artsakh 91” cooperative production in order to sell agricultural goods and nutritional products. This company was the one responsible for cleaning the snow on the roof. However, snow wasn’t the only reason. According to a woman who sells herbs at the market, the columns of the pavilion are not strong enough and that is why the heavy snow made the pavilion collapse. Right after the collapse of the pavilion, the cooperative workers have started to clean the roof of the second pavilion-something which they could have done before the collapse. But as we saw, that pavilion was not in such a good situation either.
More than 20 people were working in the collapsed pavilion. They are all currently unemployed and they don’t know until when. They don’t know when the pavilion will be reconstructed because nothing remains from that metal pavilion. Three days after the collapse, nothing has been done. According to one of the market sellers, each “counter” pays the cooperative group 1000-1500 drams a day and that amount grows in the summer. Besides getting their profit, the owners of the pavilions must take care of the pavilion and the sanitary/hygienic situation near the market.
The sellers in the other pavilions near the market work regular hours and say that there is no longer any danger. So, what we have is yet another case which is a result of carelessness. Fortunately, there were no deaths but many families lost the chance to earn money to keep food on the table.