The collapses occurred in buildings on Muralla and Teniente Rey streets, one during the night of Monday and another on the morning of this Tuesday.
MADRID, Spain.- Two partial collapses recorded in less than 24 hours in the Habana Vieja municipality once again showed the critical deterioration of the housing stock in that area of Havana.
The first occurred on Monday night in a building located in Aguiar, on the corner of Muralla, where part of the bathroom in one of the homes collapsed. According to local residents, a young woman who lives there with her daughter had decided to spend the night at a friend’s house due to the rains and fear of a possible structural collapse, which prevented both of them from being inside the building at the time of the collapse.
The Aguiar y Muralla building already had been pointed out in 2018 in a report by CubaNet as a construction in critical condition. At that time, eight years ago, residents of the property reported deep cracks, leaks, partial detachments of ceilings and walls, as well as improvised shoring, in addition to the lack of an effective response from the Housing authorities despite repeated complaints. The families then warned that the structure represented a permanent danger, especially during the rains, due to the risk of collapse of several of its areas.
The second incident took place this Tuesday, around six in the morning, on Teniente Rey Street, between Aguacate and Villegas, also in Old Havana. In this case, the eaves of the roof of a building completely collapsed, putting at least six homes in the building at direct risk.
According to the testimony of a neighbor CubaNetAfter the event, members of the Fire Department went to the scene, but no local government authorities or housing officials showed up. “The firefighters came but no officials came. Thank God there was no harm to anyone,” he said.
Both events add up to a series of structural collapses that in recent years have hit Havana, marked by the deterioration of buildings, the shortage of construction materials and the lack of interest of the Cuban regime in providing systematic maintenance; which contrasts with the unstoppable construction of hotels.
