“The rear section of a presumably uninhabited building collapsed, leading debris to break windows and enter a residential building,” stated Commander of Coimbra’s Sapadores Firefighters.
According to Paulo Palrilha, for security reasons, 14 people needed to be relocated “until municipal services could inspect the safety conditions of the inhabited building.”
The commander clarified that no injuries were reported.
The municipal Civil Protection Office reported being contacted by the Coimbra Sapadores Firefighters “to evaluate a multi-family residence on Rua das Padeiras n.º 6, affected by the collapse” of an abandoned building on Rua da Fornalhinha n.º 9, in Coimbra’s downtown area.
Specifying that “the building which collapsed was adjacent, causing damage to the [inhabited] building that was otherwise intact,” the office noted, “after a thorough evaluation, the building was deemed unsafe, necessitating accommodation for 14 people, including three children, seven men, and four women,” aged between 7 and 45 years old.
The office utilized “emergency accommodation arrangements in the municipality, offering lodging in six rooms across two city hotels.”
The municipal Civil Protection Office emphasized that “despite the collapse and damages to the building,” there was “no increased risk to the adjacent streets, thus they were not closed off.”
However, “since the displacement of the building was inward, there will be a new assessment” by the Municipal Civil Protection Services, accompanied by the Coimbra Sapadores Firefighters to “conduct a further evaluation with better visibility.”
According to this source, the “owner of the [inhabited] building, present at the scene, provided all necessary information and assistance, with the municipality’s Social Action Division also monitoring the situation.”
Currently, “services are carrying out a reevaluation of the buildings’ condition,” it was added.
A source from the Coimbra Regional Command for Emergency and Civil Protection stated that the alert for the collapse reached authorities at 22:08, with the public security police joining firefighters and the municipal Civil Protection at the scene.
