The collapse of a bridge in northern Brazil killed eight people and nine people remained missing on Thursday, according to a new report from the authorities, who provided reassuring news about the risks of pollution of the adjoining river.
A fire department spokesperson told AFP that truck tanks containing sulfuric acid were “intact” after their fall into the Tocantins River.
At the time of the disaster, Sunday, eight vehicles were crossing the Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira bridge, the main connecting route between the states of Maranhao (north-east) and Tocantins (north). The bridge, built in the 1960s, was approximately 500 meters long.
Among the vehicles that fell into the river, three heavy goods vehicles “carried 22,000 liters of pesticides and 76 tonnes of sulfuric acid, a corrosive chemical”according to the National Water Agency (ANA).
“The tanks are intact, we are now developing strategies to remove these materials”explained the spokesperson for the Tocantins firefighters.
The priority remains the search for missing people, which has been taking place since Wednesday with divers.
This was not possible at first, until the risk of high exposure to sulfuric acid was ruled out.
Two bodies were brought to the surface on Wednesday, and two others located Thursday morning, inside the passenger compartment of a van which sank in the river.
“Access to these bodies is complicated, it will be difficult to recover them, but we are analyzing the images to find a way”explained Lieutenant Colonel Rafael Menezes, one of the divers, in a video sent to AFP by the firefighters.
Caco Graça, supervisor of the Environment Secretariat of the State of Maranhao, affirmed Thursday in an interview with TV Globo that “the risk of pollution and impact on the environment” was ” weak “.
“The worst scenario would have been for the cargo (of sulfuric acid) to spill (into the river) during the fall. But that didn’t happen. The tanks are intact »he assured, specifying that the analyzes of the acidity of the water were « stables » et “under control”.
The causes of this disaster are still unknown. The first elements available to the National Department of Transport Infrastructure show that the central beam of the bridge has collapsed.