FEZ, MOROCCO – A devastating tragedy struck Fez, one of Morocco’s oldest and most historically significant cities, late on Tuesday after two adjacent four-storey residential buildings collapsed, killing at least 22 people. The disaster, which occurred in the densely populated Al-Mustaqbal neighborhood, has raised serious questions about building safety and structural integrity in the kingdom.
Local authorities in the Fez prefecture confirmed that the buildings, which were home to eight families, crumbled overnight. State-owned broadcaster SNRT reported a disturbing detail, citing eyewitnesses who said the structures had been showing signs of cracking for some time but that no effective preventive measures had been taken.
Overnight Rescue Efforts Amidst Rubble
The scene quickly turned into a site of frantic rescue operations. SNRT showed footage of rescue workers and residents digging through the vast piles of rubble throughout the night, desperately searching for survivors.
“My son who lives upstairs told me the building is coming down. When we went out, we saw the building collapsing,” an elderly woman, wrapped in a blanket, recounted to SNRT, illustrating the speed and terror of the incident.
The profound personal cost of the collapse was highlighted by another survivor who spoke to local Medi1 TV early Wednesday. Having lost his wife and three children, he described the harrowing wait: “Rescuers were able to retrieve one body, but he was still waiting for the others.“
Safety Concerns in the Spotlight
This disaster immediately shines a harsh light on Morocco’s ongoing challenge with at-risk housing.
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In January, Adib Ben Ibrahim, the housing secretary of state, disclosed a staggering statistic: approximately 38,800 buildings across the country have been classified as being at risk of collapse.
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Fez, a former capital dating back to the eighth century and the country’s third-most-populous city, was recently the center of civil unrest. Just two months ago, the city saw a wave of protests against the government, sparked by deteriorating living conditions and poor public services.
Wednesday’s collapse is now considered one of the worst building disasters in Morocco in recent history, comparable to the fall of a minaret in the historic northern city of Meknes in 2010, which tragically killed 41 people.
The focus now shifts to the investigation into the exact cause of the collapse and what actions, if any, could have been taken to prevent this devastating loss of life.
