Madrid Building Collapse: Company Behind Fatal Accident Had History of Worker Deaths
Madrid, Spain – The tragic building collapse at 4 Hileras Street on October 6, which claimed the lives of site manager Laura Rodríguez (30, Spanish) and workers Moussa Dembele (40, Malian), Diallo Mamadún (Guinean), and Jorge Velasquez (55, Ecuadorian), has brought to light a disturbing pattern of workplace fatalities linked to the responsible company’s owners. Rehbilita, the firm undertaking the luxury hotel conversion, is a successor to Demoliciones Técnicas S.A. (Detecsa), both owned by the Prudencio Díaz brothers, Óscar and Justo.
Detecsa, during its four decades as a leader in demolition and rehabilitation, accumulated two other fatal accidents: one in 2006 and another in 2014. Despite these incidents, the financial director, Óscar Prudencio Díaz, asserts that the judiciary cleared them of responsibility in those earlier cases. He also points out that the Hileras Street site was returned to them after the collapse, suggesting no irregularities were found by firefighters in the initial execution of the work.
A History of Accidents and Corporate Restructuring
Detecsa, once a market leader, declared bankruptcy in September 2015 following the 2008 real estate crisis. However, the Prudencio Díaz brothers swiftly re-entered the business with Rehbilita, maintaining much of the family’s involvement in the real estate sector. Detecsa was known for major projects like the demolition of the Canalejas block and the rehabilitation of the iconic España building.
However, its record also includes the death of Javier Jaraíz Casero (43) in 2014, who was struck by debris from the sixth floor of a building being rehabilitated on Columela Street. Óscar Prudencio dismissed this incident, stating the worker ‘went into a patio where he shouldn’t have been’. A complaint filed by the then head of Occupational Health at Comisiones Obreras (CC.OO), Felix Carrión, highlighted ‘deficiencies that are among the causes that produce the accident,’ citing a lack of adequate collective protection to prevent falling objects. The labor inspectorate’s report in February 2015 assigned joint responsibility to both the main contractor and the subcontractor.
Another fatal accident occurred in 2006 at a site in La Mina de Sant Adrià de Besòs (Barcelona), where a site manager died after falling from the top floor while inspecting roofs. Detecsa was initially condemned for insufficient safety measures, but this ruling was later overturned on appeal by the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid in 2010.
Subcontracting and Pressure Tactics
In both previous fatal accidents, the victims were employees of subcontractors. Similarly, the workers who died on Hileras Street were employed by Anka Demoliciones, a subcontractor to Rehbilita, with only the site manager, Laura Rodríguez, being a direct employee of Rehbilita.
Sources close to the company, who wish to remain anonymous, claim that the same errors and patterns from Detecsa are being repeated at Rehbilita. They describe intense pressure to meet deadlines, and even finish work ahead of schedule, which is also passed down to subcontractors. These pressures, according to the source, intensified when there were delays in payment certifications.
The Ongoing Investigation and Unanswered Questions
The investigation into the Hileras Street collapse is ongoing in Madrid’s Court No. 43. Initial speculation by Madrid’s mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, suggested a ‘possible overload on the upper floor.’ However, Rehbilita’s representatives, including Óscar Prudencio Díaz and construction director Rafael Mateos (a former site manager at Detecsa), vehemently deny this. They state that work was focused on the basement and that the building, dating back to 1965, had been in a state of significant abandonment.
The recurring nature of fatal accidents linked to the same ownership, coupled with the shifting corporate identities and the alleged pressure on workers, raises critical questions about accountability and safety standards within Madrid’s construction industry. The judicial investigation will ultimately determine the responsibilities in this latest tragic incident that has shaken Madrid.
