Questions continue to mount following the shocking collapse of a residential building in Athens’ Petralona district. Investigations are now piecing together responsibility for what could have been a fatal disaster — but wasn’t, thanks to a timely intervention.
A Timely Warning
A new, revealing testimony from the daughter of a tenant — who spoke exclusively to Live News — suggests the fact that no one was inside the building at the time of collapse was no coincidence. Initial fears of at least five people trapped were quickly dispelled: all residents had already evacuated.
According to the daughter’s account, her mother noticed a visible crack in the wall of their apartment early that morning. She also heard unusual cracking sounds around 9–10 a.m. Alarmed, she immediately contacted a freelance civil engineer she knew. The engineer arrived on-site promptly, assessed the situation, and agreed with the tenant that the building needed urgent evacuation.
The decision came after they learned from workers on the adjacent construction site that the building had tilted 5% earlier that morning — and within an hour, the tilt had worsened to 15%.
Evacuation and Aftermath
Residents were alerted and evacuated without incident. No one required rescue — though a pet belonging to the woman who lived on the mezzanine floor remains unaccounted for among the rubble.
The daughter also recounted a disturbing anecdote: earlier that day, someone reportedly asked one of the engineers overseeing the nearby construction, “Is the building leaning?” To which the engineer allegedly replied, “Yes — but like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, it leans and doesn’t fall.”
Structural Concerns and Missed Warnings
The collapsed building dated back to 1970. As civil engineer Vasilis Labropoulos explained to Live News, structures of that era in Petralona typically lacked basements and relied on shallow foundations — about 1 to 1.3 meters deep — anchored into what geotechnical experts describe as relatively weak, gravelly soil. A proper geotechnical study — costing €4,000–€5,000 — would have been essential, yet many owners skip it due to cost.
In contrast, the new building under construction next door featured much deeper foundations (5–6 meters), excavated to accommodate storage spaces. That excavation undermined a shared load-bearing wall — the very wall supporting the older building’s foundations.
Live News has uncovered reports that technical experts were called in approximately 15 days before the collapse to assess instability. They reportedly recommended spraying shotcrete (a type of fast-setting concrete) to stabilize the soil beneath the old building — a warning that went unheeded. The ground failure that followed ultimately triggered the collapse.