The Technical Inspection of Buildings (ITE) that passed in January the building at Carrer Canigó, 9, which collapsed on Tuesday and caused three fatalities, detected serious deficiencies that had to be studied in more detail . The ITE are mandatory visual reviews that certify whether the property has complied with the renovations and conservation of the building. In most cases, serious pathologies cannot be located with the naked eye because they are hidden under false ceilings.
The mayor of Badalona, ??Xavier García Albiol, in the first instance referred to possible serious pathologies in the roof slab as the probable cause of the internal collapse of the block in the Raval neighborhood. This is a first approach that was already detected by the ITE and that left a more in-depth investigation in the hands of the property. From here it is mandatory for the technicians to establish a schedule of priority actions in the building, the costs of which must be borne by the owners or the communities. The inspection they carried out in the building, according to some tenants, was limited to “sealing some small cracks and cleaning damp”. They recognize that for structural deficiencies with the ITE it is not enough nor can it detect everything”.
If the building suffered from a more serious pathology, it was not detected in time with the visual inspection. That is why the case is under judicial investigation, in which the experts will analyze all these technical aspects.
The building was built in 1959 and was part of a development of two more equal blocks. Now, at the request of the same neighbors of the adjacent buildings, a thorough inspection of the structures is required to detect if they could have pathologies that would advise their eviction. “The fact is that we live with the anguish of knowing that our block is the same as the one that fell and no one is telling us anything”, cried a neighbor yesterday. Others remember with terror the moments of the collapse. “We heard a crash similar to a big storm and an earth movement,” explained another resident.
For the time being, Badalona City Council will help by providing municipal technical services to clarify the causes of the collapse. In addition, it has created a personal assistance office for victims “so that they can help negotiate with insurance and the owners”.
On Wednesday, the residents, accompanied by firefighters and the Urban Guard, were able to enter the building, one by one, to try to recover some of their belongings, which were left in the building once the firefighters remove up to 90 cubic meters of debris.
