Collapse on the terrace caused the deadly collapse of a building in Madrid

The collapse of a building in the historic center of Madrid in which four people died, including a worker from Ecuador, began with the collapse of the terrace on the fifth floor, which caused the floors of the rest of the floors to collapse down to the basement. In the building that collapsed on Tuesday, which was being renovated to become a four-star hotel, a manager named Laura (initially reported to be the project architect) died, along with three workers identified as Dambéle, Alfa, and Jorge, originally from Mali, Guinea, and Ecuador, aged between 30 and 50 years old. They were all employees of the construction company ANKA, in charge of converting this central building into a hotel, located very close to the famous Puerta del Sol in Madrid. In statements to the media, the head of the Madrid Fire Department Guard, Miguel Seguí, confirmed this Wednesday that on the fifth floor, where the collapse began, no workers were working at the time of the incident. In total, seven forges with a height of 50 meters were ceded, which caused an amount of debris that in some places reached three meters in height. Seguí pointed to a “sum of factors” as the cause of the collapse, which are already being investigated, although he preferred not to point out any specific cause, because that will be the work of the investigators. Yes, he spoke of possible hypotheses, although specifying that they are “assumptions” and that it is the Police who will have to elucidate it. Thus, the head of the fire department explained that the collapse could be related to some practice typical of this type of work, such as load reduction, the removal of partition walls, or the removal of some sloping area on the floor to eliminate weight. He also commented that in the center of Madrid it is “very difficult” to stockpile construction material, so it is common to do so on the roof and it may be that in this case it has touched a sensitive area. The Madrid Municipal Police is in charge of investigating what happened and inside the building, agents of the Judicial Police are working, including personnel specialized in the investigation of labor accidents and agents specializing in conducting ocular and technical police inspections.

Fourteen hours of laborious rescue

Regarding the place where the fatalities were located, Seguí explained that those responsible for the work had reported that a worker was on the upper floors; a woman, in the technical office, who had gone to the restroom at that moment, and two other workers on the basement floor, which coincided with the sequence in which the bodies have been found. Rescue work began at one o’clock on Tuesday afternoon and the last victim was rescued at three o’clock in the morning and it was “very laborious”, as the area had to be secured first because there was a lot of debris with risks of falling and these were very matted and compacted, so it was necessary to work “by hand”. By “luck”, the interior space of the basement floors was quite large and it was a “totally clean” space of partitions and obstacles, so they were able to clear the debris directly towards the back of that structure. Now, the firefighters are checking how the building has been left with the Scientific Police so that they can make a report and continue with the investigation.