The pitfalls of outfitting armies of untrained volunteers with rudimentary construction tools and unleashing them on semi-destroyed buildings without proper oversight became instantly obvious around 1 p.m. Tuesday, when the dust-covered and near-lifeless body of 24-year-old Jean Jules was being carried out of a collapsed, three-storey former medical laboratory. A portion of it that survived the earthquake caved under the weight of about one dozen volunteers for the German NGO Welthungerhilfe working to strip rebar out of the structure.
Mr. Jules, who was well known in town as a hard worker, was hit in the head with a piece of concrete. He succumbed to his injuries en route to hospital. A second man, 28-year-old Maybob Antoine, suffered a broken leg.
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