Apartment block adjacent to collapsed Badalona building evacuated due to appearance of a crack

Catalonia's fire department has evacuated 20 apartments from the building adjacent to the one that collapsed last week resulting in the death of three people, after a crack appeared.

The fire department's collapsed structures unit accessed the building located at 7, Carrer Canigó in Badalona this morning together with the municipal architect to carry out a preventive inspection during which they detected the crack on the fourth floor.

The inspection coincided with the residents of the collapsed building being given the opportunity to enter the building to collect their belongings, accompanied by a police officer and a firefighter.

A neighbor on the 4th floor detected a horizontal crack in their home which the fire department has found to affect the structure.

According to the mayor of Badalona, Xavier Garcia Albiol, the crack "could have been caused by last week's collapse."

"The appearance of these cracks was worrying," Albiol said, "and the decision taken by the fire service and Badalona Council was that the residents must not enter the building."

The apartments closest to the collapsed building are numbers 3 and 4 on each floor, and these homes were immediately evacuated until further notice with no possibility for neighbors to collect any belongings.

The mayor said that the evacuation of the building is for an indefinite period of time, and justified the move "as a matter of prudence and so that the firefighters can work to ensure sufficient security for the residents' return."

"It's a completely unexpected situation," Albiol lamented, who has called the residents of the 20 properties to a meeting this evening to bring them up to speed with the situation.

The municipal government has guaranteed that "absolutely all emergency services" have been activated to attend to the needs of the residents.

Albiol also explained on Wednesday that the council and the Catalan government will create a coordination body to deal with the emergency.

"We want to jointly take the necessary actions to inspect the entire development," the mayor said, recalling that there are several adjacent buildings built in the same way as the collapsed property.

It's forecast that this working group will hold its first meeting on Friday.