Aug. 7 (UPI) — Cuban authorities have concluded rescue operations after the collapse of an abandoned school in Villa Clara province that left two people dead and one injured. Investigators said the building had been declared unsafe year ago.
More than 100 rescuers worked for more than 16 hours to locate the victims beneath the rubble of the former La Uno Basic Secondary School in the Countryside, the Cuban News Agency reported.
The operation involved members of the Fire Department, the Interior Ministry, the Red Cross and the Revolutionary Armed Forces.
The collapse occurred Wednesday at the former La Uno Basic Secondary School in the Countryside in the municipality of Remedios.
The victims were identified as Luis Alberto Rojas Julién, 24, and Francisco González Navarro, 77, both residents of the municipality of Caibarién, the state news agency reported.
A third person, Jorge Luis Pardo Águila, 29, was rescued with multiple injuries and remains hospitalized in the neurology ward at Arnaldo Milián Castro Provincial Hospital in Santa Clara. His condition was not life-threatening, official said..
Lt. Col. Ernesto Lima Guevara, chief of operations for the Fire Department in central Cuba, confirmed that all three people involved in the collapse were from Caibarién.
During the operation, rescue teams used cranes, heavy machinery and a generator to provide lighting and continue working through the night.
The Cuban News Agency said the structure had been legally closed for years because it did not meet the safety conditions required to house people.
Authorities continue to investigate the cause of the collapse and reiterated their call for the public to avoid entering condemned buildings because of the risk of further collapses.
Although authorities have not said what the victims were doing inside the building at the time of the accident, the news outlet CiberCuba cited unconfirmed local sources that said they were allegedly removing steel reinforcing bars and other construction materials before it collapsed. That account has not been officially confirmed.
The collapse has also renewed attention on the deterioration of numerous abandoned buildings across Cuba.
According to Martí Noticias, residents and independent journalists have warned that many of these structures remain accessible despite being in a state of disrepair, posing a risk to people who enter them.
The outlet also reported that people often enter abandoned buildings to steal construction materials, although authorities have not confirmed that was the case in the Remedios collapse.
