Building evacuated in Tripoli after alarming cracks

Residents of a four-story building in the Dahr al-Moghr neighborhood of Tripoli were evacuated from their apartments across from the structure that collapsed in the same area on Jan. 7, our North Lebanon correspondent reported Friday night.

The evacuation was carried out as a precaution after cracking sounds were heard in the first-floor foundations. Warning shots were fired into the air to alert neighbors and urge them to keep away from the building, which was deemed unsafe.

At the end of January, two other buildings in the area were evacuated and another was inspected. These structures had already been emptied of residents, as several buildings have collapsed since the beginning of winter, mainly in the disadvantaged Kobbé neighborhood, largely due to a lack of maintenance. Last month alone, two people, a father and his daughter, died when their building gave way.

Repeated warnings have been issued about the risk of collapses in the city, Lebanon’s poorest, where infrastructure has sharply deteriorated amid chronic funding shortages. According to the latest municipal census in 2024, about 105 still-occupied buildings are at immediate risk of collapse and require evacuation. However, Andira Zouhaïri, head of the Lebanese Building League, estimates that nearly 4,000 buildings across Tripoli are under threat.

The municipality has rolled out an emergency plan that includes operating a 24/7 control room to receive complaints about cracked structures, updating the database of the 103 buildings identified as damaged, and classifying them according to danger levels. Plots of land in several municipalities are also to be used for prefabricated housing supplied by the Higher Relief Committee, providing temporary shelter in the event of urgent evacuations.