The Dubek factory building in Bnei Brak, which is undergoing demolition these days, collapsed today (Sunday) on a main road in the city. This is about a demolition that was supposedly supposed to be controlled, but it apparently got out of control, and miraculously the damage caused is only to property.
The building of the Dovek cigarette company, located in the heart of Bnei Brak, is one of five buildings of the company that sit on an area of approximately 5.5 dunams on Ahiezer, Ben Petahia and Rabbi Akiva streets, called the Dovek Complex, which are currently undergoing demolition in favor of residences and public buildings.
Bnei Brak, a floor collapse in a building in the city pic.twitter.com/Oy9jUGk1KJ
– kitzz (@kitzz_rotter) October 30, 2022
A preliminary assessment by the Ministry of Safety and Legal Affairs shows that the demolition of part of one of the buildings was carried out without evacuating the area as required, and the building collapsed in front of passers-by, with its roof landing directly on a nearby bus stop, causing its demolition. In light of the reports and documentation that appeared on social media, the police detained the foreman at the construction site for investigation, and a closure order was issued for the site.
Poor risk assessment that led to the planning of the demolition work
The director general of the Safety and Legal Institute, Dr. Mickey Winkler, said: “Serious safety violation by the managers on the site, poor risk assessment that led to poor planning of the demolition work, failure to install protective measures against injury to workers and the general public that would prevent debris from the demolition from spilling out of the site. The contractor On the website to provide answers to the risk assessment failure and its management, and preferably one hour earlier.”
Winkler analyzed the case and explained that “demolition work requires risk assessment and management in light of the risk of injury to workers and those around them. This work requires a different approach than normal construction work, in terms of the necessary preparations, training for workers, fencing, public announcements, signage and other actions to minimize the risk. The demolition contractor He is responsible for the proper execution of the demolition works.
“The foreman on the site is required to ensure that all risks in the demolition work have been addressed and minimized to prevent injury to workers and passers-by in the site environment. An inseparable part of the demolition planning is the risk assessment phase, performing an engineering inspection of the condition of the parts of the building intended for demolition and those located near them, in order to prevent premature collapse and unplanned, and should include infrastructures intended for demolition or those that are nearby and may be damaged.”
Winkler also expanded on the responsibility of the local authority in the hazard and said that “the local authority’s role is to make sure before approving the demolition work that all the measures required for the protection of the public have indeed been implemented and fulfilled in accordance with the risk assessment, and only after that give permission to start work to the contractor to carry out the work, many authorities skip this step and give The contractor was given a work permit without videoing that all the safety measures were taken in accordance with the risk assessment. The above video shows us a serious safety violation by the contractor, the work manager and the authority, which miraculously avoided a major disaster for the general public.”
The Municipality of Bnei Brak: “The works are carried out by and under the responsibility of the City Top Company”
Yigal Gubrin, chairman of the Association of Construction and Infrastructure Engineers, also commented on the incident and said that “this incident was close to a disaster, and it happened because things did not proceed as they were supposed to proceed in a demolition incident, where there is a chain of processes that must be carried out in a meticulous and regulated manner. We define a demolition project as a project with a very high level of risk – rather, the building there is a boundary between two buildings, and this even raises its level of risk.”
Gubrin added: “Someone should have kept an eye on this without a doubt. Fortunately for everyone, there were no casualties, but it is still an incident that was not handled properly. In general, in such incidents the street should be closed, and without any connection a planner is required to determine the process, And also a safety person to say what needs to be done around it. The fact that it fell on a bus stop in the street indicates that there was no safety rail, and the chain of alleged processes was not carried out.”
According to Gubrin, this case is not unusual, and “such cases happen wherever the guidelines are not followed”.
The municipality of Bnei Brak responded: “It is about the demolition work of the mythical Dubek complex that has been used in recent years since the plant stopped its activity as a commercial center. The work is being carried out by and under the responsibility of the city’s top company, which received a permit for this purpose. Apparently the work is not being carried out in accordance with safety procedures and with a risk to peace The public and the passers-by. Therefore, the city engineer and architect Eran Wexler together with the team of the construction supervision department went to the site on behalf of the mayor and stopped the execution of the works until the incident is clarified. The works will only be resumed after the peace of the public is guaranteed.”
No response was received from the top company.