At first I was thinking that perhaps the collapse could have been triggered by an earthquake or tremor, but looking at the maps below and noting that Vitoria, Brazil is on the East coast of the country, it's about as far from a fault line as you can get in South Amereica:
Owner: "Hey, what's with this wasted space above the ramp?"
Architect: "Umm...a roof?"
Owner: "People like pools, let's add a pool."
Architect" "Ok. I'll call the engineer."
Structural Engineer: "A pool!? Now? The building's almost finished! Ok...something kind of like this? If you like it I'll detail it tomorrow." (Sketch is just a blob with no dimensions, rebar, etc.)
Architect: "Contractor, how much will this cost?"
Contractor: "A zillion dollars."
Architect: "Ok, we'll do it. What else do you need?"
Contractor: "We got this..."
Structural Engineer: "I guess they decided not to put in the pool..."
Fast forward 4 years -
Process Server: "Mr. Engineer, you're being sued for the structural failure of the pool you designed."
At first I was thinking that perhaps the collapse could have been triggered by an earthquake or tremor, but looking at the maps below and noting that Vitoria, Brazil is on the East coast of the country, it's about as far from a fault line as you can get in South Amereica:
I'd expect that this is stating the obvious but it does need to be pointed out. While higher seismic activity is found around fault lines in the continental plates, seismic activity isn't only restricted to these areas.
Yes, I understand that, but when one lives on a fault (actually several) this is always something that you're thinking about when you hear of something collapsing.
