The four-story building in Choueifat that collapsed on Feb. 19, 2024. (Credit: João Sousa/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — With the sound of Israeli drones heard overhead, neighbors of a building that collapsed Monday night, killing four, packed their belongings the next morning and evacuated their homes, finding themselves, for the moment, with nowhere to live.
Standing in front of a building adjacent to the one that collapsed, Randa Bou Mjehed stared, teary-eyed while her neighbors packed what they could into suitcases and left Choueifat, just south of Beirut.
“I was sitting with some of the other neighbors in the building last night when we heard what sounded like a large explosion. We looked up towards the sky thinking it was an Israeli strike, but we couldn’t see anything, but when we looked to our side we saw that our neighbor’s building had collapsed,” said Bou Mjehed, a resident in her 40's who spoke to L'Orient Today, her face wet with tears.
Rescue workers on the site said that civil defense teams had worked throughout the night to make sure that there was no one left trapped under the debris of the building.
A local police officer, who wished to remain anonymous because he is not authorized to talk to the press, told L’Orient Today that most of the locals in the area had been under the impression the incident was due to an Israeli attack.
“Since Oct. 7, [when the war between Israel and Hamas broke out] Israeli planes have been flying over the area daily, so it’s only natural that people thought it was an Israeli attack,” the police officer explained.
The remains of the collapsed apartment building Choueifat, Feb. 19, 2024. (Credit: João Sousa/L'Orient Today)
‘We fled death in Syria only to be killed here’
Although up to 30 people lived in the building, not all of them were present at the time it collapsed. Mohammad, a Syrian from Idlib living in Lebanon, said his son lived in the building, but had left 10 minutes before it collapsed. He had gone with his wife and son to have dinner at his parent's place, in the building next door.
“A new life has been written for him by God,” Mohammed said, standing in front of the slabs of concrete, jumbled wire, cracked tiles and piles of debris that are all that's left of his son's home.
Mohammad insisted that they had repeatedly complained to the owner of the building that the structure was “fragile and can collapse any second but the owner had always replied that we are free to leave."
The building's owner was not available for comment.
“I am financially unable to rent another place and going back to Syria is not an option,” Mohammed said, explaining that his hometown is still at war.
He and his family will remain with relatives for a few days, until they find a safer place to live.
“I came to Lebanon with my family after one of my sons was killed in an airstrike in Syria, I came here so my family can live,” he said.
Several families and residents were inconsolable. “We had been neighbors for the past two years, we are basically family at this point. No matter what any official says it can’t bring our loved ones back to life,” said Suha Touki, who said one of her best friends had been killed by the building's collapse.
A child's toy found in the rubble of the collapsed apartment building Choueifat, Feb. 19, 2024. (Credit: João Sousa/L'Orient Today)
Failure to inform authorities about collapse risk
Said Souki, a lawyer for the Choueifat municipality, told L’Orient Today that the municipality had not been informed that the buildings were at risk of collapse.
"Residents have told me that they have informed the owner of the building, who himself had failed to inform us, and I assure you that we will take all the necessary decisions to find out what happened.”
Choueifat at risk
On Feb. 11, nine days ago, a five-story building collapsed, also in Choueifat. Fortunately, there were also no casualties, as residents observed the windows and tiles cracking as the building started to shift, giving them ten minutes to evacuate before the whole thing collapsed.
That building was part of estate number 157, which comprises multiple buildings, all of which Camille Hashem, a representative from the Order of Engineers and Architects (OEA), suspects may share the same structural vulnerabilities as the one that fell on Feb. 11, including weak foundations and safety issues.
Just a few days ago, Hashem told L'Orient Today that he speculated all buildings within estate 157 could be classified as at-risk structures and “might share the same fate as the collapsed building if no immediate action is taken.”
“It seems that it was built in the period between 1975 to 1995 when construction became chaotic,” Hashem said, referring to the tumultuous period of the Lebanese Civil War.
L'Orient Today was unable to confirm whether the building that collapsed Monday evening was part of estate number 157.
Illustration of buildings that have collapsed in Lebanon over the last 6 months. (Illustration by Jaimee Haddad/L'Orient Today)
Lebanon 'failing' its people, Amnesty report
The problem is also apparent in other areas in of the country. A report by Amnesty International published on Tuesday has found that thousands of people are living in "unsafe buildings" in Tripoli, a year after several earthquakes — nearly level 8 magnitude — destroyed large parts of southeastern Turkey and northern Syria, and damaged some buildings in Lebanon.
The international human rights group has accused the Lebanese government of "failing people living in buildings at risk of collapse in Tripoli."
Rescue teams at the site of the collapse in Choueifat. (Credit: João Sousa/L'Orient Today)
The organization found that even before the earthquakes in February 2023, residents in Tripoli had raised concerns about poor living conditions, which they say is caused by "decades of neglect and contractors’ lack of compliance with safety regulations."
The issue has been made worse by the country's grave economic crisis, ongoing from 2019, which the group says has made it difficult for people to afford repairs or find different accommodations.