The outbreak of fire that occurred yesterday in the courtyard of the Iders building was one more chapter of an “unsustainable situation” that has the residents of the neighboring buildings in suspense and that “they can no longer take it.”
Although the flames were put out in just fifteen minutes thanks to the rapid intervention of the firefighters and there was no regrettable damage, for the inhabitants of this area near the Martiánez beach it was a great scare that could have ended in a tragedy. they targeted this newspaper.
The fire was caused by the accumulation of garbage in the basement and in the patio on the first floor and it is not known whether it was intentional or not.
It is not the first time that they have experienced a situation of this type since the owners were ordered to evict them, both from the houses and the commercial premises, due to an alleged case of aluminosis and danger of collapse, which was finally shown not to affect to the structure of the property. Since then, the building, located in the central Betancourt y Molina Avenue, has been left to its own devices and has become a headquarters for squatters and homeless people, many of them with drug addiction problems that cause all kinds of scandals and problems of unsanitary conditions and coexistence with the residents of the area who demand an urgent solution in addition to cleaning the nearby containers where, they say, “garbage bags, rodents and insects of all kinds accumulate daily.”
The mayor, Marco González, is aware of the situation and worries him, but assures that the City Council, as an administration, “is tied hand and foot. If it were a municipal issue, we would even act to resolve objections and other legal-administrative issues ”. However, it promises that the steps will continue to be taken to find a solution to the abandonment of the property.
González explains that this is done in three aspects: the first is the social field, which is developed together with the Mobile Unit for Street Attention (UMAC) trying to make people who are inside aware that the property is going to be evicted .
The second is urban planning and is pending the approval of the second Modernization and Improvement Plan (PMM) that will respond to the owners, with whom the City Council has a “moral debt”. And finally, the possible actions that can be taken from the local Administration in a property that is private but for which, for the general interest and to solve the problems in the neighboring buildings, a solution must be found.
In this sense, confirms González, steps have been taken such as the request for unhealthiness by the health authorities, which was sufficient to confirm that action had to be taken. Thus, a hiring process began inviting different cleaning companies but they require the City Council a current technical report on the state of the property that is already being prepared to guarantee the safety of their workers.
“Most likely, this report will culminate in a declaration of ruin by the state of the property and in that case, it will allow to request judicial authorization to act,” says the municipal councilor, who trusts that the latter will be resolved in the next days and that it does not delay any longer “because the situation is getting worse and we are all concerned.”
