At least 5 people died, 8 people were buried under the rubble or then missing a residential building will collapse In the Brazilian city of Paulista (northeast), firefighters reported this Friday.
The Paulista Fire Department in the metropolitan area of Pernambuco’s capital, Recife, confirmed that among the victims were a 43-year-old woman, 3 men, 2 of the 21 people, and another 45-year-old and one younger than 12. . The 18-year-old boy, who was rescued alive from the wreckage, died in the hospital he was taken to. Five of the eight people still missing are minors, according to authorities.
Rescue efforts continue at night with the support of trained dogs and debris removal teams. Two women who were rescued alive were transferred to the municipal hospital with fractures, while four other people who were not included in the list of 19 occupants of the building and lived in the adjacent land were slightly injured.
The collapse occurred amid heavy rains that have alarmed the Recife metropolitan area for two weeks and caused other landslides, flooding, fallen trees and poles and numerous traffic accidents this Friday.
The building in the popular Beira-Mar residential complex was closed in 2010 due to the dangers, but Two years later it was reoccupied by its owners without permission.. An inspection by the Fire Department in 2018 suggested there was a new vacancy, and on Thursday, the day before the tragedy, an insurer of the state bank that finances the apartments published a similar account about the dangers to the property.
Last April, six people died in the rubble after another residential building collapsed in the neighboring city of Olinda, also in the Recife metropolitan area. The collapse occurred in the three-story Leme building, which is located in the humble neighborhood of Jardim Atlântico and has had an evacuation order for its residents since 2000 due to the risk of collapse.