From today, Tuesday 7 May, a class located on the 2nd floor in the secondary pavilion of the “Barsanti e Matteucci” scientific high school in Viareggio will be closed until further notice due to the failure of a roof beam which occurred around 9.30 am. The failure caused a portion of the roof to fall onto the attic/ceiling below, on which debris and broken tiles were deposited. By virtue of this, teachers and students heard the loud noise of the collapse, without the internal spaces of the classrooms being affected by any visible signs of danger. The debris is remained between the roof and the attic which performed its safety function.
Shortly after the incident, the firefighters and technicians from the Province of Lucca arrived on site; subsequently the president of the Province also carried out an inspection Luca Menesini together with the provincial director of the heritage and school building service arch. Fabrizio Mechini.
At the moment the technicians do not comment on the causes of the collapse – which affected a portion of the branch building on the Via Mazzini side where the municipal pharmacy is also located – and declare themselves quite incredulous because the checks carried out did not reveal any signs of water infiltration. water or humidity, nor have other critical elements emerged that can be linked to the failure of the wooden beam, nor have any reports been received from the school by the Province. The technical checks covered the entire property affected by the event.
In the branch building, structural interventions were carried out on both the ground floor and the upper floor, before 2000, to adapt the internal spaces to the needs of environments suitable for a school building, with the installation of beam hoops and iron pillars. In these days the companies appointed by the Province will intervene to temporarily secure the portion of the building affected by the collapse and cover the “hole” created to prevent rainwater infiltration. Subsequently, the Palazzo Ducale body will develop a definitive restoration and safety project with relative allocation of the necessary economic resources. The “Barsanti e Matteucci” scientific high school in Viareggio is owned by the Municipality but handed over for free use with an agreement in 1998 to the Province (owner of the high school buildings) based on Law 23 of 1996.
