Three people, including two firefighters, died when a building in Havana where around fifty people lived collapsed, authorities said on Wednesday.
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The two firefighters, a 40-year-old woman and a 23-year-old man, died as they went to the scene to secure the scene after an initial partial collapse, according to a press release from the Interior Ministry.
Rescue workers were dispatched to the Old Havana district where the two-story building is located at around 11pm on Tuesday (3am GMT Wednesday).
AFP
As they entered the building, the two firefighters died when another part of the building collapsed. According to the ministry, their bodies were recovered from the rubble during the search.
AFP
The latter also confirmed in the evening, as quoted by Cuban television, a third death, a 79-year-old resident who had been missing since the tragedy.
According to the same source, two people were injured and taken to hospital, but their lives were not in danger.
AFP
Five trucks and a crane were sent to the scene to support rescue efforts, an AFP journalist reported.
According to Arnelis de la Candelaria Hernandez, an official of the Old Havana Housing Authority, a total of 55 people lived in the building, which is of old construction and of which only the facade remains.
AFP
Due to a lack of maintenance, buildings in certain old neighborhoods of the Cuban capital regularly collapse. Such collapses occur more frequently during the rain and hurricane season from June to November.
The Cuban capital has experienced heavy rain in recent days.
According to the latest official figures available, 37% of Cuba’s 3.9 million housing units were in poor or very poor condition at the end of 2020.
This year, the collapse of a balcony from a building in the Old City caused the deaths of three little girls and sparked widespread outrage in the country.