Brazil: Sao Paulo Building Collapse Kills Six in Penha
BRAZIL · SAO PAULO
Key Facts
- —What happened A building under construction fell onto a house in Penha, eastern Sao Paulo, on 12 September 2026.
- —How big Firefighters recovered six bodies and pulled two people out alive before ending the search on 13 September.
- —Who it hits The people in the house that was struck, and neighbours in a working-class part of the city.
- —Why it matters The case has put the way Sao Paulo inspects and licenses building sites under scrutiny.
- —The catch Nobody has been charged, and investigators have named no cause. The defence calls the custody orders premature.
- —What comes next A forensic report, a police inquiry and a city audit will decide whether anyone is charged.
A Sao Paulo building collapse in the district of Penha killed six people. A court has ordered three people held while investigators look for a cause.
Neighbours on Rua Tequici heard a loud bang at about 2am on Saturday, 12 September 2026. The Sao Paulo building collapse that followed killed six people in the district of Penha.
Two in the morning on Rua Tequici
The building was not finished. It came down on the house standing below it.
Rua Tequici sits in Penha, in the east zone of Sao Paulo. Fire crews sent 58 firefighters and 21 vehicles that morning.
State civil defence, the public body that handles emergencies, measured the building at 12 floors. Early accounts had put it at nine to eleven.
The count of the dead rose through the weekend as crews dug. The fire service ended its search on the afternoon of Sunday, 13 September.
Six people had died. Two were pulled out alive, and nobody was left on the missing list.
One man held, two not found
A court ordered the temporary custody of three people linked to the work, the news site G1 reported. Police carried out one of those orders on Sunday, 13 September.
Temporary custody in Brazil, prisao temporaria, lets police hold someone for a fixed period. It is not a charge and not a conviction.
Police say the man they took in, Ronaldo Vivacqua, was a hidden partner in one of the firms behind the site. A hidden partner helps run a company without appearing in its records.
In his first police interview he denied any link to the building firm, G1 reported. The lawyer for the companies said he held no management role and was no hidden partner.
The defence calls the custody orders premature and will ask a judge to lift them. The two other people named in the orders have not been found.
Nobody has named a cause
The police have not settled on one. Any conclusion waits on an engineering report from the state forensic police.
Civil defence said the overnight rain alone could not explain the fall at this stage. It inspected the area and closed off a neighbouring property.
New Home Construtora, the builder, opened an internal review. Nothing so far showed the cause lay only with the company, it said.
The firm pointed instead at earth-moving work on a neighbouring plot. No authority has assessed that claim.
Neighbours told investigators that the house which was hit had cracks. Police are checking whether those in charge knew of problems before the fall.
What the paperwork says
The plot has a history. City hall went to court in 2021 to have an irregular building there demolished, and a judge ordered the work stopped.
A new project was filed in 2022, and an execution permit followed in 2023. That permit required the earlier building to come down first.
A city inspection in February 2024 confirmed the demolition, and the court case closed. City hall says a permit from August 2023 is still on file.
Some Brazilian broadcasters said the work was under an embargo, and the company rejected that. Our earlier report set out the enforcement record.
The rain that fell the same weekend
Heavy rain crossed Sao Paulo and its metropolitan area from Thursday, 10 September, to Saturday, 12 September. Streets flooded, trees fell and homes were damaged.
The news site Poder360 counted at least eight deaths across Greater Sao Paulo in those days, and one person missing. Whether the six in Penha sit inside that figure, nobody has said.
Civil defence has not tied the Penha site to the storms. CNN Brasil reported that no deaths there had been officially linked to the rain.
Flooding returns to the city whenever heavy rain arrives. The Rio Times has covered past storm damage in the city.
City hall investigates itself
The city has opened a review of its own inspection work at the site. Its municipal comptroller, the Controladoria-Geral do Municipio, is running it.
The review asks how inspectors handled the project before it fell. City hall has not said whether any official will face action.
A separate argument runs alongside it. A city law passed in December 2025 lets builders self-declare permits for works up to 1,500 square metres.
The Penha project was far larger than that. Supporters of the law say it cuts paperwork for small builders.
Municipal engineers and architects complained about the way the law passed. State prosecutors opened a procedure to examine it.
What comes next
The forensic report on the debris should show what brought the building down. That work can take weeks.
The police inquiry and the city review run on separate tracks. Either could end in charges or in disciplinary steps.
Nobody has been charged so far. Temporary custody runs for a fixed period unless a judge extends it.
The Rio Times will update this story when investigators publish their findings. Until then, Rua Tequici lives beside a fenced plot and an open question.
More: Brazil news in English, every day from The Rio Times.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many people died in the Sao Paulo building collapse?
Six people died, the fire service said. Two others were pulled out alive, and the search ended on 13 September 2026.
What caused the building to collapse in Penha?
Police have not settled on a cause. Civil defence said the overnight rain alone could not explain the fall at this stage.
Who was arrested after the Penha building collapse?
A court ordered temporary custody for three people linked to the work. Police held one of them on 13 September 2026.
Where is Penha in Sao Paulo?
Penha is a working-class district in the east zone of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The building fell on Rua Tequici.
Sources: Reporting from G1, Folha de S.Paulo, InfoMoney, CNN Brasil and Poder360. Full articles: https://g1.globo.com/sp/sao-paulo/noticia/2026/09/13/policia-prende-homem-apontado-como-socio-oculto-de-empresa-responsavel-por-predio-que-desabou-e-matou-6-em-sp.ghtml , https://g1.globo.com/sp/sao-paulo/noticia/2026/09/12/obra-que-desabou-na-zona-leste-de-sp-ja-foi-alvo-de-acao-judicial-da-prefeitura.ghtml , https://g1.globo.com/sp/sao-paulo/noticia/2026/09/13/prefeitura-abre-apuracao-sobre-fiscalizacao-de-obra-que-desabou-e-deixou-vitimas-na-zona-leste-de-sp.ghtml , https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/cotidiano/2026/09/justica-determina-prisao-temporaria-de-donos-do-predio-que-desabou-na-zona-leste-de-sp.shtml , https://www.infomoney.com.br/brasil/sp-mortos-em-desabamento-e-chuva-12-setembro-2026/ , https://www.poder360.com.br/poder-brasil/chuvas-deixam-ao-menos-8-mortos-na-grande-sao-paulo/ , https://www.cnnbrasil.com.br/nacional/sudeste/sp/desabamento-de-predio-deixa-ao-menos-uma-pessoa-morta-na-zona-leste-de-sp/ , https://g1.globo.com/sp/sao-paulo/noticia/2025/12/10/camara-aprova-projeto-de-nunes-que-permite-licenciamento-para-obras-de-ate-1500-m-sem-analise-da-prefeitura.ghtml
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