2012 collapse of Rio de Janeiro buildings

The January 25, 2012 Vieira Fazenda office block collapse involved the progressive collapse of 3 commercial office buildings, split by R. Vieira Fazenda street in the municipality of Praça Floriano, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The three buildings involved were (from west to east): Building 1 (a 22-story building located at Av. Alm. Barroso, 6 - Centro, Rio de Janeiro, 20031-000, Brazil), Building 2 (a 23-story building located at Av. Alm. Barroso, 22 - Centro, Rio de Janeiro, 20031-000, Brazil) and Building 3 (a 6-story building located at Av. Rio Branco, 180 - Centro, Rio de Janeiro, 20040-003, Brazil).

At 8:33 PM, the 23-story Building 2, began collapsing in the eastward direction towards the 6-story Building 3, which was located on the opposite side of R. Vieira Fazenda street. Building 2 was structurally connected to the adjoining 22-story Building 1, which caused it to pull Building 1 laterally eastward during its collapse. This extreme lateral shift caused the failure of enough support columns to result in the collapse of Building 1. As Building 2 continued its collapse in the eastward direction, its debris crashed through the roof and western load bearing wall of the 6-story Building 3, causing it to collapse as well.

A total of 17 people were killed in the disaster. The initial collapse of the 23-story Building 2, was due to structural failure. Regulators said that any construction done violated local building codes as there were no construction permits on file for the building.

Aftermath
By January 31, 2012, Rio officials proposed the creation of new regulations, including periodic reports on building's structural conditions, and more rigorous enforcement of the current regulations.