In the early hours of May 1, 2018, a fire broke out at the Wilton Paes de Almeida building, located in Largo do Paissandú in downtown São Paulo. Less than two hours after the fire began, the building collapsed.
A symbol of one of the country's greatest periods of development and an icon of modern architecture, the building—inaugurated in the late 1960s—had been occupied since 2015 by people with nowhere else to live. Living conditions for the approximately 100 families sheltered in the building were precarious; however, according to the occupants themselves, it was "better than living on the street."
