A third Sydney apartment block is under scrutiny over safety issues after it was revealed residents were evacuated last year.
This follows the evacuation of a 38-storey apartment block in Sydney Olympic Park’s Opal Tower on Christmas Eve, and Mascot Towers on Bourke Street just last month.
The latest apartment block under watchful eye is the apartment complex on 19 Gadigal Avenue in Zetland.
It has been revealed that late last year, this complex had its residents completely evacuated from its 30 loft-style apartments.
A city spokesman had reported that the building had “extensive and severe water damage,” and was thus abandoned.
“The water damage caused the failure of the internal fire-rated construction throughout several apartments,
“The fire-rated construction is required to separate individual apartments and common areas during a fire,” he said.
News of this evacuation has only recently come into focus, as the New South Wales government already faces scrutiny over the years previous evacuations.
Residents of the 132 units at Mascot Towers still remain unable to return to their homes.
The building was evacuated in mid-June due to cracking in its primary support structure.
Meanwhile, the only recently-built Opal Tower in Sydney Olympic Park was evacuated after cracks on its 10th floor emerged.
Police managed to safely remove all residents, as the building had shifted between one and two millimetres.
While Mascot Towers may not be so lucky, around 63 apartments of Opal Tower will be ready for re-occupation around mid-July.
The minister responsible for building regulations Kevin Anderson is looking at reforms on the industry, with the government releasing a discussion paper in June.
