New evidence about what preceded the collapse of the apartment building in Petralona has emerged through the testimony of a building resident, who claims that several days before the incident, serious warning signs had already appeared — including a noticeable tilt in the building, cracks, and warped window and door frames. As she describes, the home security camera recorded a series of consecutive alerts at the moment of collapse, capturing the chaos that unfolded. Ria Tsapa, a tenant on the ground floor of the apartment building, spoke exclusively to Star and described how the first signs had been noticed several days before the collapse.
Read also: Petralona tenant warned about the building’s tilt 15 days before collapse — was told it was caused by the Euboea earthquake (Video)
Petralona: Cracks and warped frames days before the collapse
According to her account, approximately three days before the collapse, her father noticed that the building had developed a visible lean. “The aluminum frame on the main access door had warped. Three days before, my father realized the building had tilted by 1 to 2 centimeters. The door frame and the door itself were no longer aligned. On the last night, my father saw cracks throughout the entire basement level,” she stated. She also revealed that shortly before the collapse, her father received a phone call from individuals who wanted to enter the storage room to inspect the drainage system. “They called him and said they wanted to come into the storage room to check the drainage. They were probably the workers from next door,” she said.
Security camera captured the final moments
Particularly striking are her descriptions of the rapid succession of alerts she received on her mobile phone from the home security system at the exact moment of the collapse. As she explained, her phone began receiving a continuous stream of notifications about doors opening, windows triggering, and glass breakage — all of which documented the building’s progressive structural failure.
“At the moment it collapsed, I got one notification after another: window opening, door closing, back door opening, front entrance closing, front entrance, glass breakage detected, cover broken. At 11:58 I had all these notifications piling up, and at 11:59 the last alert came in,” she said. Meanwhile, efforts to support the residents who lost their homes are continuing.
The Mayor of Athens, Haris Doukas, announced that the municipality is already in contact with Airbnb to secure temporary accommodation for those affected. “We have already been in touch with Airbnb, which will immediately make spaces available for people in need,” he stated.
At the same time, a team from the Urban Planning Authority and the Regional Administration, acting under a prosecutor’s order, carried out an inspection of the adjacent apartment building, where damage to the masonry was identified. The regional secondary evaluation committee is also expected to convene to assess the structural condition of all neighboring buildings and determine whether they are safe or whether additional protective measures are required, while residents are now spending a third consecutive day displaced from their homes.
