HRC Acting Chief Inspects Cracked Tripoli Building, Families Provided with Temporary Housing

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Higher Relief Council acting chief General Mohammed Kheir inspected on Saturday a residential building feared that it would collapse in the northern city of Tripoli.

Kheir held a meeting with the residents of the building which is located in Abi Samra district and was evacuated on Friday after cracks began appearing in its walls and foundations.

Kheir, the general secretary of the Higher Relief Council, stressed that the HRC will provide the families of the seven-storey building with temporary accommodation.

“I was tasked by (caretaker) Prime Minister Najib Miqati to inspect the building and to stress that the HRC will not leave the families on the street until those who are responsible are held accountable,” Kheir pointed out.

The official said that the municipality of Tripoli, the owner of the building and the engineers will be held responsible for the incident if investigations showed that the building was inhabitable.

Tripoli's Municipal chief Nader Ghazal said on Friday that the municipality had on several occasions warned the owner that the building cannot sustain an addition of two more stories.

But he didn't react positively to the warning and went ahead with the construction, prompting Ghazal to order the evacuation “to save the lives of seven families.”

Lebanon and mainly Tripoli are rife with building violations and locals often clash with security forces seeking to terminate illegal construction.

Several buildings have collapsed in different parts of Lebanon in the past few years, the worst of which was in January 2012 when a six-story residential building came crushing down in Beirut's Ashrafiyeh district, leaving scores of casualties.

A few weeks later, the authorities decided to remove the Jal el-Dib bridge that links Beirut with the North after warnings the structure could collapse.

Comments 1
Thumb benzona 14 December 2013, 16:18

kil chi kheir ;-)