The Valencian Minister of Education, Culture, Universities and Employment, José Antonio Rovira, has assured that the collapse at the Luis Vives school in Massanassa (Valencia) – in which one worker died and another was injured – has been “unpredictable” and it happened when employees were performing on a porch outside the building. In this sense, he pointed out that “at no time was there a report that said that the building was at risk of collapsing.”
“The technical reports indicate that the center suffered significant damage but that it did not pose an imminent risk to the structure,” but yes “your occupation is a risk”, The councilor specified, who recalled that the incident occurred “outside, on a porch that connects one building to another.”
The Tragsa Group stated this afternoon that the collapse of the porch, according to the first investigations, was due to the “collapse of a metal structure exterior that protected the passage between buildings from the elements”.
For his part, in response to the media after the “emergency meeting” held this Sunday at the Palau de la Generalitat, Rovira commented that The educational center is “already 50 years old” and, after the serious damage caused by the damage, “everything indicated that it was more worth making it new than repairing it.”
He described the events as a “work accident” and explained that at the time of the event four Tragsa workers and UME workers were in the premises. “cleaning up sludge and abandoned belongings” who have been “surprised by an unpredictable collapse.
In this sense, he highlighted that the professionals were carrying out cleaning “on the outside” of the center “at the request of the town council” of the town, which, due to “the proximity of some homes”, had asked the Department to clean the school, for reasons, Rovira pointed out, “of health”.
The minister, who has conveyed his “condolences” to the family and friends of the deceased and has wished a “speedy recovery” to the injured worker, has indicated that The school was considered a “red” center, so “in the short term the students would not be able to enter” because “the damage” caused after the damage on October 29 at the CEIP Luis Vives “is super important”, and affects “doors, windows, enclosures, exterior carpentry and interiors and finishes”. “Everything is devastated,” he assessed, and pointed out that the water reached 2.10 meters.
“The priority with these centers was to seek relocation in other places,” He stressed, something that, he added, happened with the CEIP Luis Vives, where “it was known that the students would not be able to re-enter” and the structure would have to be reviewed. In fact, he stressed that this Monday the students of this school It is going to be relocated to the old Valencia Teaching School.
This transfer, he clarified, is “a provisional solution”, since the option of “set up that school in prefabricated classrooms.” In fact, Rovira added that this week the general director of Infrastructure met with the mayor of Massanassa and the municipal architect “to look for free space to move that school.” “We know that the works that have to be done, be it replacement of the center or renovation, are not going to be done in two months or three or four; they are going to be works that are going to last a long time,” he predicted.
Classification of centers in four colors
Rovira has pointed out that the event “is being investigated at this time” and the Valencian Institute for Safety and Health at Work (Invassat) “is in contact with the Labor Inspection.” “Tomorrow (Monday) the Invassat technicians will visit the center, as we do with each and every one of the work accidents that occur in this community,” he said.
The Minister stressed that the Education area carried out “a series of prioritizations” of centers and established a “four color” classification: “The green ones were those that could be entered the next day, so to speak; the yellow ones were those that needed cleaning and, in addition, we have added, at the request of many parents, the company had to issue a sanitation certificate.”
“In orange we put those centers that needed some repair, for example, boilers and these issues,” that is, he clarified, “they needed minor works.” “And in red were those centers that we knew could not be re-entered in the short term” and “they needed major works.”
According to him, among the centers affected by the floods there are a total of 12 schools classified “in red”, as is the case of the CEIP Luis Vives de Massanasa. “For these centers the priority was to look for relocation elsewhere” and, once the premises had been cleaned, “the structure would be seen and analyzed by the Ministry’s architects.”
“We didn’t do anything there”
Asked why the ‘president’ of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, and himself have not gone to the town after the event, he maintained that for the head of the Consell the “priority” at that moment has been “to find out what had happened.” and the first vice president of the Consell, Susana Camarero, “and other senior officials of the Generalitat.” “We didn’t do anything there,” he stated, referring to his presence and that of the ‘president’ of the Generalitat.
“The president has decided to come to the Palau,” he added, and noted that he called him so that he would also come. “I was already on my way,” He added, while highlighting that technicians from the Department and workers from Tragsa also attended the meeting.
At this point, questioned about whether The head of the Consell and he were in Alicantehas assured that this was the case and has stated that “in the situation we are in” they work “the maximum number of hours.” “We also have our family in Alicante and I believe that we have the right to spend a few hours with our family. And that does not mean that we are not doing a job, not only this councilor, but the majority of positions and officials of this Department, of many hours,” he claimed.
During the meeting this Sunday afternoon, he explained, “a review” of the state of the educational centers was done. In this regard, he explained that “most of them are already open or will open in the coming days”, and he insisted that in schools and institutes where it is considered that “the damage will take a long time to repair” they are “looking for alternativestrying to always be within the municipality”, as this is what the City Councils demand.
68 centers
“The priority after the tragedy of the flood has always been to guarantee the public health of the population, in the case of educational centers, for the students, for the teachers and for all the neighbors, since many centers are close to homes” , has highlighted, while asserting that, for this reason, the “priority” of the Consell It is “the removal of sludge from the streets, sewers and educational centers, especially those that are next to homes”, a task in which “both the public company Tragsa and the UME” work.
Regarding this issue, he detailed that Tragsa is acting in 19 locations affected by the floods, where it carries out work in a total of 68 educational centers. Among them, he specified, “44 are CEIP from Early Childhood and Primary, and 24 from Secondary.” “Of the 68 centers in charge, 23 have already been completed by Tragsa, clean and with their sanitation certificates.”
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