Two elderly individuals lost their lives this Sunday when the entrance of their home collapsed at the corner of 8va y San Francisco, in the neighborhood of Lawton, municipality of Diez de Octubre, Havana.
Both victims were sitting in that space at the time of the collapse, according to communicator Geovanys F. García Vistorte's report on Facebook, who documented the tragedy with images and details of the site.
Units from the fire department identified as "Command 4" and ambulances from the emergency service arrived at the scene, although the rescue efforts proved particularly challenging. "The process was complex due to the mass of concrete and metal that collapsed," described García Vistorte in his post.
The building, an old structure with beam and slab construction, had a ceiling over five meters high, which exacerbated the impact of the collapse. At the time of the fall, the structure was already showing severe deterioration: a single column was supporting the remainder of the portico, and the front wall had tilted against the adjacent house, which was of a more recent build and apparently did not suffer visible damage.
After the collapse, the neighbors expressed dismay and concern for another resident of the building, allegedly the son of the deceased elderly couple, who remained inside the structure even though it had already been declared uninhabitable.
García Vistorte pointed out that "the condition of the houses and the recent rains adversely affect this type of accident." The tragedy was also reported by the activist Tania Tasé from Berlin, who shared a message sent to her by a source in Havana: "A collapse just occurred on 8th Street and San Francisco, Lawton. Two people died who were inside the house."
The event occurs in the context of a severe housing crisis in Havana, where approximately 1,000 building collapses are reported each year. By the end of 2025, the capital had 185,348 buildings in poor condition, of which 46,158 required major renovations, and the national housing deficit exceeds 900,000 units.
It is not the first time that the Lawton neighborhood has made the news due to the deterioration of its infrastructure. In July, two electrical poles fell during a blackout in the area, and the neighborhood has been a recurring site of protests against urban neglect throughout 2026.
The tragedy of this Sunday recalls the one that occurred in November 2025, when a mother and her son died after the collapse of a building in Old Havana, in a country where 35% of the housing stock is in poor or regular condition and repairs are virtually unattainable for most of the population.
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