Vienna building safety work will take at least six more weeks

Safety work on a building in central Vienna that partially collapsed is expected to take at least six more weeks, leaving residents unsure when they can return, ORF reports.

Three floors of the 1807 Biedermeier building at Färbergasse 6 gave way on the evening of September 20. After a days-long search, rescuers found an 85-year-old resident dead; two other residents were injured. Prosecutors are investigating four people.

The building remains at risk of further collapse. Vienna’s building inspection authority said the work was highly complex and had to be carried out with great care. The ground floor is filled with rubble and cannot be entered. The full safety plan is expected to take at least six weeks to implement. The Ledererhof passage remains closed.

Resident Christine Eberhardt, who lived on the first floor with her husband, said she heard a rumbling on the night of the collapse and initially thought there had been an earthquake. When she opened her apartment door, dense dust came in, she told ORF’s Wien heute. She woke her husband and ran downstairs in her nightgown to the fire station at Am Hof. Their apartment was largely spared, but the couple has been living in a hotel since the collapse. Eberhardt said many residents wanted to return, but their own situation remained uncertain, partly because of the cost.

The collapse has also forced the traditional Brezlgwölb restaurant in the Ledererhof passage to close. Owner Nicole Eccli, who runs the business as the third generation of her family, said there was no indication when it could reopen, even partially. She described the closure as a financial disaster and said the restaurant might have to shut permanently if it continued for much longer.

Construction work was under way in the building before the collapse, with a roof renovation listed in the application. Eberhardt said the building had been extensively surveyed by structural engineers and civil engineers over the past three or four years. The construction company said it was deeply shaken and expressed sympathy to the victims and their families. It said court-appointed experts were investigating the cause and that it was cooperating fully with authorities, but declined to discuss technical details. The building’s owner said, through a lawyer, that an expert she had commissioned had produced initial findings, but she would not release them while the investigation was under way.

Replacement apartments have been found for most tenants, and further safety work has been commissioned. Apartment doors are also being reinforced after unknown perpetrators recently broke into several units.