Housing ministry probes Vittoriosa collapse as it denies PN claims
Ministry says abandoned building fell despite being propped up pending restoration
The Social Housing Ministry is investigating what caused a Vittoriosa building to collapse despite interventions intended to prop it up while it was restored.
In a statement, it denied Opposition claims that it ignored years of warnings about the building.
The ministry said that it was aware the building was structurally unsound and had set up scaffolding on its façade and installed various jacks to prop up its interior, pending restoration of the building.
Those structures proved “crucial” in avoiding a bigger collapse, the ministry said.
Part of the façade of the abandoned building in Triq l-Antika collapsed early on Wednesday morning. Nobody was injured in the incident.
On Friday, the Nationalist Party said Housing Minister Roderick Galdes and Vittoriosa Mayor John Boxall had ignored years’ worth of warnings about the dangerous building.
The ministry said that was false, noting the structural interventions to stabilise the dangerous building.
It said it was now investigating the collapse to better understand what caused the partial collapse. The site has now been cleared of any dangerous material and cleaning of the area will continue in the coming days, it added.
“This building has been deteriorating and uninhabitable for several years,” the ministry said, adding it was now doing something about it.