Eight people have been killed when their apartment building collapsed in the western Ukrainian city of Drohobych on the night of Aug. 28.
The collapse occurred at around 3 a.m., catching most residents as they slept in bed and bringing down one of four-story sections of the building.
Seven adults and one child were killed, according to the State Emergency Service. Twelve people were rescued from the rubble.
The oldest person killed was an 80-year-old woman. The youngest was a five-year-old boy.
In the wake of the disaster in Drohobych, a city of 76,000 people located 585 kilometers to the west of Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for urgent action to ensure the safety of housing across the country.
What caused it?
While gas explosions are a serious concern in apartment buildings, that likely wasn’t the reason for the 58-year-old building’s collapse, according to the emergency services.
However, Drohobych Mayor Taras Kuchma told the local media he personally had not received any complaints about the condition of the building, but other state services had, including the gas service.
Iryna Pylypets, a woman who lived in one of the ruined apartments, heard strange sounds that night — as if something was cracking. Her first thought was that there was a fire. She took her phone and ran to the door.
“I opened the door (of my apartment) and just fell down,” Pylypets said, lying on a hospital bed, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
Pylypets believes that she is probably the only one who can say for sure that it wasn’t a gas explosion since she was awake and preparing to go to work at the time. She says she clearly heard the building gradually collapsing.
The collapse was allegedly caused by mistakes made during the illegal renovation of the ground floor, where just two days earlier a hair salon had been located, according to other residents of the building. The residents have been temporarily moved to a shelter and provided with psychological support.
The police have opened criminal proceedings into the intentional destruction of the house and launched an investigation.
General audit
On the same day the building collapsed, Zelensky responded, calling for a mass audit of residential buildings in Ukraine.
“Unfortunately, the housing facilities, especially in small towns, are mostly in poor condition. They have not been repaired since the Soviet era,” he wrote.
Zelensky said that he will order the new government to audit all residential buildings across the country as soon as possible and to create a program that will bring old and new buildings up to proper condition.
“It is impossible to build a new country without building or at least restoring the homes of Ukrainians,” Zelensky said.
