People screamed in fear, reports resident of evacuated building on the coast of SP

“We were watching a movie. At the first noise, I got scared, got out of bed and went to see what was happening. I asked my father and he had heard it too. I thought it was the neighbor and went back to bed. At the second noise, we looked outside and the residents screamed in fear. We ran downstairs with just the clothes on our back,” he told CNN Francisco Stancati, who lives in the building evacuated this Tuesday (13), in Praia Grande.

Francisco is a glazier and lives at Avenida Jorge Hagge, number 80, on the coast of São Paulo. The address is Condominium Giovannina Sarane Galavoti, a building evacuated last Tuesday (13) after Civil Defense technicians identified a structural collapse in three columns of the building.

“It's scary, especially the part of the stairs with the elderly, the residents coming down, it was all very scary”, recalls Francisco of the moment of evacuation.

So far, residents have no plans to return to their apartments and the building is being supported by iron piles, which go from the floor to the ceiling of the garage.

“Yesterday I had to call a friend so we could temporarily stay in a house. Until then, neither the construction company nor the property manager had provided housing or financial support. We don’t have plans to enter the building”, says Francisco.

Francisco reports that a neighbor said he has no place to stay. “It was an unexpected situation, no one was expecting the building to have this problem.”

JR Construtora, responsible for the work, told CNN, by telephone, which sent engineers and technicians to the site. “As soon as we have the reports, they will all be communicated”, says the company.

See images of the damaged columns: