House Collapses In Puebla After Heavy Rains, One Child Dead As Family Buried Under Rubble

Puebla, Mexico— A 9-year-old girl was killed early Saturday when her family’s single-story house collapsed on top of them after two days of heavy rain saturated the hillside in the northern outskirts of Puebla city, trapping four people under adobe and concrete. The collapse occurred around 4:30 a.m.

The house, located in the Colonia Barranca Honda, was built of adobe blocks with a tin roof and no foundation. The ground behind it had been cut to create a flat lot. Water had been seeping through the rear wall since Thursday. Neighbors said they heard a crack, then a thud. “It was like the hill pushed the house down,” said a neighbor who helped dig. “We heard the mother screaming. We could not see the child.”

Civil Protection said the girl was sleeping near the back wall. Her mother and two siblings were in the front room. The mother suffered a fractured arm. The siblings, ages 6 and 12, had cuts and bruises. Firefighters arrived with hand tools. No heavy equipment could enter the narrow alley. It took 40 minutes to pull the girl out. She was declared dead at the scene.

Puebla has seen 48 hours of steady rain from a low-pressure system parked over the Gulf. Official rainfall in the capital reached 95 millimeters since Thursday. Dozens of homes in informal settlements are at risk. They sit on slopes, built without permits, without drainage. The city’s risk atlas marks Barranca Honda as high-risk. Families stay because rent elsewhere is impossible.

An engineer from the municipality inspected the site at 8 a.m. He said the wall failed because the adobe absorbed water and lost strength. No retaining wall existed. “These houses cannot handle this rain. The soil becomes liquid. The structure is already weak,” he said. He noted three other houses on the same street show cracks.

The family had lived there five years. The father works as a bricklayer in Puebla center. He was not home at the time, working a night shift. He arrived to find his house gone. A social worker said the family will be taken to a shelter, but the shelter has no space for long-term housing.

The city announced it will inspect 30 homes in the area. It has made similar promises after previous collapses.

The girl’s body was taken to the state forensic service.

The lot remains cordoned. The rain continues.