People Evacuated From High-Rise Apartment House In Minsk

(Updated) The residents are reporting about the threat of a house collapse.

All tenants of a new building (3 Shyrokaya Street in Minsk), which was commissioned in 2014, have been evacuated. As it turned out, the tenants have been writing appeals to various authorities for a year and a half asking them to resolve the issue of the carrier column in the second entrance. A week ago, experts started the repair. Presumably, as a result of these works, the column started to destroy, which led to the threat of a house collapse, tut.by writes.

– We were told to take the passports and go outside. The house was cordoned off, nobody was allowed inside. Cracks are visible on the facade, – local resident Aliaksandr says.

“On April 26, 2019, works to strengthen the monolithic column of the second entrance will be carried out in the residential house, 3 Shyrokaya Street. In order to ensure the safety of tenants and additional precautions during the repair work, the tenants will be removed. The repair work will last from 4 to 6 hours. The approximate completion time is 20.00,” – the Minsk City Executive Committee comments on the situation.

The Savietski district administration apologized for the inconvenience and asked the tenants to be understanding of the temporary changes.

At present, the community utilities specialists are notifying the tenants apartment-by-apartment.

The temporary residence for tenants is organized in secondary school No. 178, located at the address: 68 Uskhodniaya street.

The house was built by the Capital Construction Department of Savietski District Administration of Minsk, and its construction was long-delayed.

Experts have explained to journalists that builders will now strengthen the column. For this, an I-beam (steel beam), which should take the load, will be installed next to it. And then sensors to oversee that the situation has stabilized – on it.

The Emergency Situations Ministry clarifies that they received information about the change in the integrity of the monolithic column at about 14.00.

It turned out that in March 2018, the operating organization identified “the formation of horizontal and vertical cracks with peeling (tearing) of plaster.” The city services carried out a number of necessary measures, and a project was developed to strengthen the building structures of the house by installing a metal I-beam.

Now workers of Stroytrest No. 1 are working at the site. In addition to them, there is an operational group from the emergency commission under the Savietski district administration of Minsk, the management of the Housing and Communal Services of the Savietski District of Minsk unitary enterprise and the developer company.

As the correspondent reports from the scene, the tenants left only the second entrance, and it’s allowed to stay in the other two.

– On Monday, the builders came and installed the column supports. The entrance doors no longer close in two-room apartments. There are cracks on the walls in the apartments, plaster begins to crumble, – local resident Natallia says.

According to her, the commission had already gathered yesterday evening, and today the deputy head of the district administration arrived.

– We went there, anticipating that something would happen, asked what the matter was. And the people from the commission told us that there would be an evacuation. Then we started to share information with everyone via our vibe chat, – Natallia adds.

Now, Alla Sankouskaya, deputy head of the Savietski district administration, Yury Trushchanka, head of the district, and Aliaksandr Darakhovich, deputy chairman of the Minsk City Executive Committee, are staying at the problem house.

Darakhovich says that there is no emergency, the planned work on strengthening the structures will try to carry out as soon as possible.

The repair work has already begun. They promise to finish, we remind, by 20.00.