Astrakhan residents were surprised by the version about the “fatal repairs” in the apartment of a collapsed building

It all started with a crack. Yesterday evening the rescue service received a signal that the wall of the house at number 1 on Vokzalnaya Street had cracked. Operational groups of police and the Ministry of Emergency Situations were sent to the scene.

Half an hour later, part of the house collapsed. Now people are expressing gratitude to the rescuers who worked quickly and helped the residents get out when the minutes were ticking. There were many children in the house.

Unfortunately, there were some casualties. An elderly woman born in 1939 named Lyudmila, who lived on the fifth floor, died. “Apparently, my mother heard some kind of crash, went to look, and at that moment the collapse happened – she didn’t even have time to understand anything,” the daughter of the deceased shared with reporters. She learned about the tragedy from the Internet.

According to one version, the house could have collapsed due to renovations in the apartment. The man on the first floor decided to carry out an illegal redevelopment; the workers damaged the load-bearing structures. At the entrance to the house they found bags of construction waste – bricks and fragments of a plaster wall.

The same version was voiced by the Investigative Committee, which opened two criminal cases (“Causing death by negligence” and “Destruction of property by negligence”). But she did not convince the Astrakhan residents themselves, who flooded social networks with angry comments. Many believe that the tragedy occurred because the foundation was washed away by sewage in the basement. The dilapidated state of the building also had an effect – the house, according to residents, was sagging ten years ago. Constant vibration from the proximity to the railway could have played a role. The house is about 60 years old, and major renovations have never been carried out on it. Now Astrakhan residents are afraid that the same fate will befall other houses.

“Even if this is a redevelopment, is it really impossible to prevent such cases? – Astrakhan resident Vladimir told MK, “We need to check all requests for illegal redevelopment in this area, and I know that there are a lot of these redevelopments in every house, as well as requests to housing supervision. It’s just that no one reacts, because supposedly there is a moratorium on inspections of management companies from Zhilnadzor.”

“I was shocked by the news about the collapse of part of the house and the death of a woman,” Astrakhan resident Elena shares on social networks. – I live on Ryleeva Street, we also have a five-story building with 6 entrances. The basement is flooded with sewage. The smell is terrible, I can’t breathe.

Everywhere they wrote, there were only replies. Neither the management company nor Astrvodokanal want to understand this issue. They are probably also waiting for our house built in 1981 to collapse. The irresponsibility and indifference to our problem is striking. It’s scary to live.”

“Nearby on Stepan Zdorovtsev Street, water is also constantly flowing from under the asphalt, as if nothing like this would happen again,” local resident Anton joins her. And there are a huge number of complaints about this problem.

Local authorities provided temporary housing to all those affected by the collapse of the entrances and should also provide monetary compensation. Now people from destroyed apartments are worried about how soon they will be able to get new apartments and whether there will be compensation for lost property. After all, during the rapid evacuation, the residents did not have time to take out virtually anything.

Victoria, a resident of a house on Lyakhova Street, located not far from Vokzalnaya Square, told Moskovsky Komsomolets about what happened in the house on that ill-fated evening and how things are going with the improvement of the city.

“The rescuers are real men,” says Victoria. “We hope that after this they will be given gratitude and a cash bonus. It all happened when people came home from work and were relaxing. Someone had dinner, someone had already gone to bed. The alarm was raised and rescuers began making their rounds. People ran out in a hurry, all wearing what, grabbing their children and hastily some documents. We tried to make it before the collapse.

Those who could not walk on their own were carried in their arms. All valuables, furniture, household appliances remained in the apartments. One very old grandmother was unlucky; apparently she was alone at home and simply did not hear the knock on the door or was afraid to open it.”

— What do people think about the version with the collapse of the house due to redevelopment?

— Of course, those who do illegal redevelopment need to be punished, but in this case everything is very strange. How hard should you try to tear down a load-bearing wall? Usually in our five-story buildings they follow the contours of the apartments, so they can’t be broken even if you wanted to. Unless the man, of course, wanted to break through to the neighbors. Perhaps he wanted to make a large hall there or, say, a warehouse.

But people are surprised that this version appeared so quickly. Much earlier than all the rubble was cleared. I think that it appeared based on the testimony of neighbors. Perhaps all the reasons came together – redevelopment, dilapidated walls, and problems with flooding. So the house couldn’t stand it.

— What other problems do city residents face?

— Swamps form in basements, especially when it’s rainy season on the streets. Astrakhan residents call them “fecal lakes.” One can understand that there are not enough teams in the water utility to drain water, as well as the fact that billions of rubles need to be invested in the water utility so that they work better. But in the city as a whole, many houses are in terrible condition. There are also wooden ones, the wear of which is visible, as they say, to the naked eye. Some are about to collapse, and in some apartments the floors are collapsing and residents are at risk of falling down to their neighbors.

In general, there are a huge number of problems in the city and we really want the authorities to finally pay attention to us. For example, garbage removal. With trash cans overflowing, residents are forced to hang bags of trash on fences and posts, leaving them hanging like grapes. Filled garbage dumps with garbage spilling over the edge attract stray dogs. And packs of stray dogs here are a special problem, apparently unsolvable, just like potholes on our dirty roads.