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ASK (Dagbladet): – I woke up to a creaking sound throughout the building. My roommate yelled at me “what’s up, Magnus.” I jumped out of bed and asked to go out into the living room, says Ekkjestøl.
Dagbladet meets him in Gjerdrum on Friday afternoon. The apartment in which he and his partner Ronja Monsen (34) have lived since the summer of 2018, is on the verge of a landslide. Parts of the ground below the block have already collapsed, and Ekkjestøl is primed for the building to collapse.
Fled for life
When he and his partner abruptly woke up Wednesday night, he had collapsed just outside the living room window.
– We actually have a hedge outside our terrace, but now I didn’t see anything there. The house that is actually across from our block was gone, says Ekkjestøl.
He ran to the room of the eldest daughter, Emma (soon to be 2 years old) and took her with him, while the partner brought with him the youngest daughter, Emilie (7 months). In just the boxer, Magnus fled with his family, outside the apartment. He with the eldest daughter by the arm and Ronja with the youngest.
Woke up the neighbors
– I’m going to put my shoes on, but I feel like the whole building is shaking and I realize I don’t have time. My roommate manages to snatch some jackets. I thought “now we disappear”.
When they left, they woke up one of the neighbors.
– I screamed “get out, get out.”
Together they ran for their lives, up the hill to the roundabout outside of the Ask center. There they met a courier driver, who put them in the car and took them to safety.
“You have to get away, he’s furious,” I yelled at him. I was so scared, it was dark and I felt it rumble. I felt that now all Ash would disappear.
– you have to escape
They took them to the brother of the partner and allowed them to call the family, the rest of the neighbors on the block and a friend who lives in the same residential area.
– I yelled, “you have to go.”
Everyone he called managed to escape in time.
– I was happy everyone got out. We are happy with everyone, I was born and raised here and I know an incredible number of people here. I am so fond of that town here and I couldn’t have lived in a better place.
– I’m so lucky
Together with Dagbladet, he meets on Friday afternoon at one of the town’s viewpoints. Here you see that the block is almost standing still and leaning on the edge of the landslide.
– I think I am very lucky to have my family with me and that we made it out alive. I think of those who lie here, I sincerely hope they find them. Everything else is irrelevant, he says.
Magnus and his family now live with their parents. He has no idea what happens next, but tries to focus on the fact that they are alive and that things are going well.
– We just have to take care of each other and be together.
Enter the landslide zone
Unknown landslide hazard
For the past two years, Magnus has been chairman of the board of the condo they have lived in.
– Did you know that the area is prone to landslides?
– We have never heard anything about the site exposed to landslides. I didn’t even think about it, this is the last scenario I had imagined, he says.
Now he hopes that everything possible will be done to clarify what happened before the landslide.