Bucharest block evacuated after a crack opens across three floors in Drumul Taberei
Firefighters have evacuated a stairwell of a seismic-risk apartment block at Drumul Taberei no. 30, in Bucharest's Sector 6, after a resident reported a crack between two stairwells running from the 5th to the 8th floor. No injuries have been reported, and it is not yet clear whether Monday's earthquake caused it.
Residents of an apartment block on Drumul Taberei boulevard in Bucharest were led out of their homes on Saturday morning, 24 October, after a crack appeared between two stairwells of the building. The Bucharest-Ilfov emergency inspectorate (ISU B-IF) said the alarm was raised through a call to the 112 emergency number: a resident reported that, overnight, a crack had opened between two stairwells from the level of the 5th floor up to the 8th.
The block, at Drumul Taberei no. 30 in Sector 6, has a ground floor and eight storeys and is officially marked as a seismic-risk building. According to preliminary information from ISU, the affected stairwell has 36 flats with around 65 residents. Firefighters decided on a preventive evacuation. A special rescue detachment, a fire engine, a SMURD crew and a multiple-victim transport vehicle were sent to the scene; the latter is being used as a temporary shelter so evacuated residents are protected from the cold. No injuries have been reported.
"At the moment it is not certain whether the crack was caused by the earthquake of 19.10.2026," ISU said. On Monday a magnitude 4.8 quake struck the Vrancea area and was lightly felt in Bucharest. Inspectors from the State Construction Inspectorate (ISC) have been called in to carry out a technical assessment, which will establish the cause of the crack and whether the structure has been affected.
Raed Arafat, head of the Department for Emergency Situations (DSU), said shortly after 13:00 that close to 35 people had been evacuated so far and that the operation was still under way. He stressed that the evacuation is preventive: residents who refuse to leave are asked to sign that they are staying on their own responsibility. If experts find the cracks do not affect the structure, people will be able to return; if the block is found to pose a major risk and can no longer be lived in, the evacuation will become mandatory and the Bucharest prefect will convene a meeting to find solutions for the residents.