A crowd gathers at the site of a building collapse in Tripoli. (Credit: Photo sent to our correspondent Michel Hallak)
BEIRUT — The Minister of Interior and Municipalities, Bassam Mawlawi, accused Tripoli’s municipality, in a released statement on Wednesday, of not warning the residents of the building that collapsed in the Qibbeh neighborhood of evacuating it, “even though it is old and includes a building violation in terms of adding an upper floor.”
Here’s what we know:
• According to the statement, the Tripoli municipality sent a letter on January 18, 2022 to the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities, “in which it attached a table of real estate numbers of cracked buildings and archaeological buildings in the city, which pose a threat to public safety.” The ministry added that; however, “the mentioned letter did not include the building located on the property No. 306” — the building that collapsed on Sunday killing one and injuring several residents.
• Mawlawi also said that upon reaching out to the Finance Ministry “about the possibility of securing the necessary funding to strengthen the cracked buildings in Tripoli,” to which the ministry responded that “it is not the responsibility of the state to secure funding for the reinforcement and restoration of cracked buildings, as the issue falls on the owners first and then on the municipality, in accordance with the provisions of the Building Law and the Municipalities Law.”
• As for the collapse incident, the Interior Ministry explained in its statement that “according to the investigation, the residents of the building vacated it after cracks appeared in it following heavy rains last week, but Lina Kammoun, of Syrian nationality, returned with her daughter the next day to pack some belongings from her apartment located on the top floor.”
• About an hour after the collapse, a little girl was pulled out of the rubble. She was pronounced dead on arrival to the hospital.
• Tripoli Mayor Riad Yamak had denied "any responsibility" for Sunday's collapse of the three-story building. The elected municipal official accused the heritage department at the Ministry of Culture of “refusing any request for the renovation of dilapidated buildings, even when the necessary amount was available.”