The inspections commissioned by the Badalona City Council to review the development of 420 homes that are part of the same building that collapsed in Badalona on February 6 have forced the shoring up of more than 300 homes to be ordered.
This was explained in a press conference this afternoon at the El Viver municipal building in Badalona by the third and fourth deputy mayors, Daniel Gracia and Rosa del Amo, who detailed that 75% of the homes reviewed, all of them in the development of the one that collapsed, have had or are pending being shored up.
On February 6, the building at 9 Canigó Street suffered a partial collapse, where three people died buried under the rubble, and in the following weeks 5 more buildings in the same development, on Canigó Streets, had to be evacuated. Llefià and Ausiàs Marc, faced with the risk of collapse.
Given the serious situation, which has forced more than 100 families to abandon their homes, the Badalona City Council urgently hired a specialized company, which has reviewed the entire development over three weeks, except for the collapsed building. .
Gracia has highlighted that the inspections, which have been carried out in all the buildings -except 9 Canigó- and in almost all the homes that make up them, have been carried out in “record time”, which has made it possible to provide security to the neighbors and allow “the anguish to disappear.
Furthermore, he highlighted that the municipal government is convinced that “lives have been saved”, since in some of the buildings the risk of imminent collapse was a real threat, which is why he added that the hiring of the company was ” a right decision.”
“The risk of a situation similar to number 9 being repeated was very high,” said the councillor, who also added that, in one of the cases, one of the workers who worked on the inspections of the properties could move even the forging of a building by hand.
The third deputy mayor has indicated that the work will be accelerated to replace the shoring made by the Firefighters in properties 5 and 7 on Canigó Street with other wooden ones installed by the specialized company, with the aim that the neighbors can return to their houses.
Gracia has indicated that the shoring up of the affected buildings is being carried out by the municipal budget, and has celebrated that the city is “living up to what is expected” in the face of a crisis of this magnitude.
Regarding possible causes of all the damage to the evacuated and propped up buildings, the councilor has indicated that in all of them there is a “common denominator”, which is the use of ceramic material with little iron, which over the years “is giving way and generating cracks “.
Although once the buildings have been analyzed, the work is now in the “diagnosis” phase, regarding other possible causes beyond the deterioration of materials, it has been referred to what has been communicated in recent weeks, in reference to walls that have removed or constructions in attics that generate overload.
Furthermore, they have indicated that this Friday they will be able to access building number 9 of Canigó after being authorized by the court investigating the collapse, together with the Mossos d’Esquadra and the Generalitat Fire Department, to carefully analyze the situation.
For her part, the fourth deputy mayor of Badalona has indicated that a total of 16 evicted families have needed temporary housing emergency, of which 6 are still under this service.
Regarding the five apartments offered by the Generalitat for those evicted from number 9 Canigó – four of which were previously committed -, Del Amo has indicated that only one family has accepted them, while another is considering it, and the rest have decided to continue in their current situation.
In addition, he has indicated that the Generalitat has committed to the city council to provide a total of nine apartments for those affected, the five that are already available and another four that are becoming suitable.
