The internal collapse of a five-storey building at number 9 Canigó Street, in the Raval neighborhood of Badalona, led yesterday to the intervention of up to 18 units of the Generalitat Fire Department, which certified that the property was collapse from the roof to the ground floor. At the moment there are three missing neighbors who have not been able to be located by family members or by the emergency services.
The first warning came to the emergency services at 10.35 a.m. and the security teams were immediately activated and when they arrived at the building they evacuated the residents of 20 floors who had started to leave on their own. Firefighters also evacuated residents of 40 adjacent floors.
Later, they proceeded to clean up and remove the debris from the interior space to prevent further collapses and allow access to the GRAE specialists, who descended inside from a self-escalator. Once on the roof, they descended using climbing techniques through the large slope that had caused the collapse.
About 60 m3 of debris had accumulated on the ground floor. In a first inspection, the canine unit of the Fire Department did not detect any human presence under the stones, but, as reported by José Manuel Escudero, ap of the Fire Department of the North Metropolitan Area, "the dogs will try when there is less debris and if they detect human scent they will mark the point for us".
The mayor of Badalona, Xavier Garcia Albiol, who declared himself "shocked by the tragedy" detailed that the City Council has activated support services for those affected, to guarantee accommodation "until a solution is reached" . Those who could not find their relatives are treated by doctors and psychologists at the Raval nursing home, located 200 meters from the damaged building. For the rest, the Olympic pavilion has been enabled. The majority will be accommodated at the Social Emergency and Emergency Center of Barcelona (Cuesb).
The five-storey building was built in 1959 and, as neighbors have confirmed to the mayor, it had passed the technical building inspection last month. This is a property for which the municipal planning services did not have any open file and which, according to the neighbors themselves, "had some moisture problems, but nothing important".
The three missing, according to Albiol, "are two young people and one elderly", he assured without giving further details. There was speculation among the neighbors that one of the missing could be a young man who was teleworking at home and who a few days ago became the father of a child.
One of the residents of the block explained that they were able to leave the building quickly after hearing a loud crash preceded by a large plume of smoke. "We couldn't collect anything, we lost everything" they lamented.
