A two-story residential building, located on Refugio street, between Prado and Morro, collapsed at noon this Thursday in Old Havana. Local residents notified 14ymedio that at least three people had been extracted from the rubble and sent to the hospital, but the exact number of victims or if there were any deceased is not yet known.
Several fire trucks and a Special Troops vehicle went to the scene of the incident, where a large number of people gathered. “An older lady was the first to be taken out. Later, another man. And lastly, they took a girl,” a neighbor told this newspaper.
“There are people there,” he suspected, pointing to the dogs barking and sniffing at the rubble. “It was a very busy place that everyone passed by. The shadow sidewalk.” The neighborhood was also known because there were some offices of the Ministry of Education and the Intermezzo bar, converted into a soup kitchen and finally closed.
Another of the inhabitants of the neighborhood pointed out that it was “a very inhabited building”, in which there were children. “Everyone sits there to queue for the warehouse. I even park my motor in that area, so it doesn’t catch the sun,” he said.
Neighbors speculate that the collapse was caused by the serious deterioration of the columns and the structure. “The central column had been giving way for days,” they indicated, “if they passed their hands, dust would come out: that’s humidity.” When the columns broke, the entire framework fell.
At the end of the manual review, the firefighters began to remove the debris with a backhoe, which led the neighbors to believe that no one else was left under the ruins. “The most alarming thing,” they said, “is that the building did not look in such a bad state. A few days ago they noticed the pillars cracking and then everything collapsed. You can still see the seats, the beds, everything in the houses… .”
Passers-by are cautious when taking photos and videos of the event, as they suspect that the vehicle with Special Troops – and several Police patrols that arrived later – are there to neutralize any protest arising from the incident and to arrest those who intend to use the images of the accident as a complaint.
At the end of the manual inspection, the firefighters began to remove the debris with a backhoe, which led the neighbors to believe that there was no one else left under the ruins.
Last August, the roof of a building on Habana street, between Aguiar and Muralla, in the oldest area of the capital, it also collapsed. Not knowing what to do, the neighbors gathered their belongings and took to the streets in protest. Several days later, when they did not receive a response from the authorities for their relocation, they went out again to demonstrate and closed the street.
Events like this have become more and more frequent in the capital, while Havanans watch the government build luxury hotels at great speed.
In the area where most accidents occur, very close to the coast, several five-star accommodations have been built in recent years, such as the Iberostar Grand Packard and the Paseo del Prado hotel. The area also abounds in tenement houses and houses over a century old that have barely received maintenance in the last six decades.
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