The side of an historic building on Rua 18 de Junho, off the Avenida da República, in Olhão, collapsed into the street early on Thursday morning due to heavy rainfall further destabilising an already weak structure.
The collapse at around 01:00 on Thursday December 1st, caused no casualties but the resulting rubble blocked a side road and badly damaged a neighbouring Art Deco building.
The area has been cordoned off on Wednesday night with police and emergency services aware that further collapse was possible due to the state of the abandoned building’s structure.
The once-proud building of ground floor retail space with middle-class accommodation above is owned by a man in Loulé but has been uninhabited for years, as have the other historic buildings in the block.
During last night’s storm that saw torrential rain across the Algarve, plus thunder and lightning, the authorities in Olhão had been alerted that the building was close to collapse as a large crack from the top of the structure had appeared during the evening and some rubble had fallen into the street.
The area was closed off to traffic and pedestrians, with EDP sensibly cutting off the electricity supply to the immediate area.
When the building collapsed early on Thursday morning, nobody was nearby and collateral damage was confined to the building the other side of the side road.
The property had been a hardware and appliance store but, like many buildings in the city, had stood empty for decades with part of its roof collapsing and being patched up years ago.
At the end of the block on the Avenida da República is the Café Mourão which lost a stone lintel in 2016, damaged by an arson attack in 2015. This historic block is crowded by apartments of zero historic or architectural merit and the old buildings shone out as an example of how this once-elegant city presented itself.Whether the block now will be demolished, or just the collapsed section, remains in the council's hands.
Olhão Mayor, António Pina, recently has been signing hundreds of official letters sent to owners of obviously derelict properties advising them that unless they can show the properties are lived in and connected to mains water and electricity, these will be considered derelict and a rates (IMI) increase of 300% will apply as from 2017.
One local estate agent commented that this action by the council should release many such old and potentially valuable buildings onto the market as there is a waiting list of foreign buyers willing to buy and restore those old properties in Olhão that owners fail to maintain or care about.
Properties where the owner cannot be contacted are liable to be demolished, an example being one in Rua Dr João Lúcio that has been bricked up for 50 years or more and, according to the council, is a danger to the public.
Meanwhile, important buildings that offer insight to Olhão’s wealthy past are allowed to deteriorate and, as was witnessed last night, collapse into the street.
Whether owners suspect that they will get more for a collapsed property, than for one for restoration, may be an equation that no longer applies as such is the foreign demand for genuine historic buildings, prices now exceed €1,000 per m2 in the historic zone.
The council seems to be doing its best to identify and contact owners and by raising taxes may provoke restoration or sale but there remain many properties at risk with no classification or legal path open to insist that the buildings that trace and explain the city’s past are at the very least prevented from collapse.
Moment of collapse captured on video by Carlos Almeida, see this link for the full clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj8paczdaAk
