Residents of buildings near Obarrio explosion awaiting return 

The neighboring buildings on 54 Obarrio Street – which were evacuated Tuesday after the explosion that occurred at the PH Urbana– will not be able to be inhabited until at least the weekend as the infrastructure reviews are still ongoing, including electrical tests.

Ángel Delgado, director of Related Calamities of the Panama Fire Department, stressed that evidently in the PH Urbana there is “severe” and “quite considerable” damage on floors 11, 12, and 13, so “at this time it is not possible to live”.

However, Delgado indicated that the Sophia, Diana, and Victoria buildings – which are located in front of the PH Urbana – are structures that are completing the technical and electrical inspections, so soon these buildings “may be, according to the specialists, livable”.

The exact date for occupation depends on what the authorities say between today’s afternoon and the next few days, (tomorrow Friday, and Saturday), based on the evaluations carried out. “It’s likely that after that they can be 100 percent occupied,” he said.

Wing two of the Millenium building, which is located next to the PH Urbana, cannot be inhabited.

Meanwhile, Abdiel Solís, general director of the Fire Department, pointed out that they have no problem with the technical board requesting an independent body to review the PH.

The explosion at the PH Urbana was recorded on Tuesday. In the tragedy, 22 people were injured and three remain hospitalized: a twenty-year-old who is confined in the Punta Pacifica hospital, another is an older adult with burns on 80% of her body who is in the Santo Tomás Hospital; and another woman, whose age was not specified, who is in the Arnulfo Arias Madrid Hospital Complex.