A bad-hearted boss caused the most tragic disaster in Korean history. 502 innocent lives fell from heaven to the abyss of hell in less than 20 seconds. More than 20 years after the accident, looking back on this tragic disaster, we not only see the glory of human nature, but also the ugly faces of some shameless people.
So what happened that day? Next, we will turn our attention to the Sanfeng Department Store in Seocho District, Seocho District, the capital of South Korea. Our story today will start from here.
. The afternoon that I couldn't look back
On June 29, 1995, in the Sanfeng Department Store on 1685-3, 4-hole, Seoul (now Seoul), Seoul, there were many consumers gathered, most of them were preparing to buy some apps and take them home. For a moment, from the first floor to the fifth floor, from the ground to the ground, there were endless crowds everywhere. Everyone was enjoying leisurely shopping, but they didn't feel the danger approaching step by step.
Before the accident, the Sanfeng Department Store
Time came at 17:52. Choi Mingxi (최명석), a college student who was eating in a restaurant on the fifth floor, suddenly heard a strange sound. Then all the people on the fifth floor heard a very obvious crack. Some pillars responsible for bearing loads began to appear in huge cracks, and the building began to shake constantly. Realizing that the situation was wrong, Cui Mingxi quickly got up and was about to run out. At this moment, there was a loud noise, and the originally majestic building collapsed instantly. The alert Cui Mingxi quickly lay down, and then it was pitch black....
17:55, the fire departments of all districts of the capital received the same notice: "The Sanfeng Department Store in Ruicao District collapsed, and many people were buried. Please hurry to the scene quickly, it's over!" After , dozens of fire trucks and rescuers The car, hundreds of rescuers quickly arrived at the scene. As soon as they arrived, all the rescuers saw the most tragic scene in their lives -
Originally, Sanfeng Department Store, which was originally five floors on the upper and fourth floors of the underground, had become a ruin, with only two lonely exterior walls of buildings; hundreds of tons of steel and cement scattered everywhere, and rubble piles up to dozens of meters. Except for the rescuers, there was no sign of life at the scene. Even though this tragic scene in has passed for more than twenty years, it still shocked the witnesses at that time. The rescue work began immediately. Everyone cleaned up many wreckage or rubble with bare hands or using construction machinery, and then began to look for survivors.
But at such a tragic scene, it is difficult to find the survivors, only a cold corpse. It was not until the third day that the first survivor was discovered, which gave everyone hope. Later, the bodies of the survivors and the victims were gradually discovered. On the afternoon of July 8, people found Cui Mingxi in a ruin. He survived the disaster by drinking the rainwater seeping from the rubble and ate the paper shell around him. At this time, 9 days have passed since the accident happened.
Cui Mingxi, who escaped from death, was trapped under rubble at the time of the accident and encouraged each other in order to survive. But the salesperson was severely injured in his abdomen and lost his breath the next day. With his strong willpower, Choi Mingxi finally got the chance to see the light of day again. Two days later, Yoo Ji-hwan (유지원), a salesperson who sells ceramic products, was rescued; on the 16th day of the accident, Park Seung-hyun (박승현), a 19-year-old children's clothing salesperson, was discovered by rescuers. At that time, she was trapped in an inverted V-shaped space on the second floor of the underground.
The moment Park Seung Hyun was rescued
According to her afterwards, when she was trapped under the rubble, she had never eaten anything and barely maintained her life by relying on the seeping water. , and except for a little scratch on the left knee, was almost unscathed, which can be said to be a miracle. The three people who survived the disaster after the accident became good friends who could talk about everything. Ten years after the accident, they also recalled the tragic disaster that changed their lives together.
Three people who survived the disaster, Park Seung-hyun, Choi Myung-seok, and Yoo Ji-hwan, but this situation is still a minority. Many families who rushed to the news finally got the news that their relatives were unfortunately killed. For a moment, the scene was crying, and many people fainted on the spot due to excessive sadness... After more than ten days of cleaning and verification, a total of 502 people were killed in the accident and 937 were injured to varying degrees, with the loss reaching 270 billion won (about 216 million US dollars). This accident was the worst casualty accident that South Korea suffered after the war, and it was also the world's worst self-collapse accident before 2013.
The news came. While sad, people couldn't help but ask: What is the reason for that killed so many people? Why did the originally sturdy department store become ruins in an instant? Behind the accident, are there any human-made reasons and undiscovered hidden dangers... South Korean police and inspection agencies quickly launched an investigation, and the news that was fed back later made everyone very upset and all Korean citizens.
2. The masterpiece of the black-hearted boss
80s, South Korea has become the fastest-growing country in Asia with the support of the "Han River Miracle" and is one of the famous "Four Asian Little Dragons". The developed economy of has also given birth to the injection of private capital. Many department stores and business CBDs have been born like mushrooms after a rain, especially Jiangnan District and Ruicao District, which are the most well-known. A large number of consumer institutions are stationed here, which has increased the local land and house prices.
Night view of Seocho District, Seoul
1987, Li Yu, chairman of Sanfeng Business Group, selected a prime location in Seocho District and decided to build a four-storey office building here. However, in the actual design drawings, President Li Li changed his mind temporarily and turned the original office building into a commercial building. In order to fulfill this requirement, the original load-bearing column of the building was changed to an escalator, but this action would threaten the safety of the building, so the original design company rejected the request of Li Liu and others.
black hearted businessman Li Yu, the initiator of the accident,
, but in the strict hierarchy of South Korea, such a move is absolutely "disrespectful". The angry Li Yu finally fired these construction workers and decided to use his own construction team to take over the task. After some "careful design", the building was officially completed at the end of 1989 and officially opened to the public in July of the following year. This is the origin of Sanfeng Department Store.
In order to satisfy his own personal interests, Li Liu made many modifications to the original building drawings during construction, causing the safety level of the building to drop sharply. For example, add floors to the original four-story building, convert the extra fifth floor into a catering area, and install geothermal heat (the picture below). The additional equipment increases the weight of the floor of the fifth floor, putting a lot of pressure on the structure of the building that originally had only four floors.
In addition, the building's air-conditioning equipment is installed on the top floor. When the huge air-conditioning machine is running at full capacity, the weight reaches an astonishing 87 tons, nearly 4 times the safety standard. Later, due to noise problems, Li Yu ordered people to change the position of the air conditioner, but did not use a crane during operation, but directly dragged it with pulleys, which suddenly caused cracks on the top floor and pressurized the load-bearing column, causing irreversible damage to the structure of the building. As soon as the air conditioner is turned on, the cracks will expand.
When the air conditioner is running, the huge cracks generated
In addition, in the design, the positions of the steel bars in each concrete floor all occurred incorrectly, from 5cm away from the surface to 10cm away from the surface. Because Sanfeng Department Store adopts a beamless floor structure, that is, no beams are installed under the floor slab and are directly supported by columns. This method requires extremely high requirements for construction personnel, but Li Liu's team did not have such qualifications at all. Therefore, this mistake reduced the strength of the building's floor slab by 20%. Therefore, in an accident, each floor would collapse in turn like a domino.
A series of dark-hearted projects have made the load capacity of Sanfeng Department Store heavier and heavier. On the morning of the accident, the opening of the air conditioner made the cracks bigger and bigger, and the floor on the top was deformed. After the air conditioner was turned off, the workers in charge of emergency repairs discovered the cracks on the roof, and small collapses occurred in some places. should have been closed for renovation, but this requirement was rejected by Li Liu and other leadership because the management was unwilling to lose the considerable turnover of the day. It is such a selfish move that has led to everything that happened before.
On the morning of the accident, a small collapse occurred on the top floor
When the load-bearing column of the restaurant could not withstand the full weight, the floor slab on the top floor began to fall, and then the collapse quickly spread to the entire floor. The upper floor slab fell to the lower floor and caused the lower floor to collapse. Sanfeng Department Store was razed to the ground, eventually causing the tragedy of 502 people.
3. Deep reflection and review
After follow-up investigation, local government officials were also suspected of committing illegal crimes and concealing the quality of the building; and there are also widespread corruption and fraud within Sanfeng Group. On December 27, 1995, Li Yu, chairman of Sanfeng Group, was sentenced to 10 and a half years in prison for negligent death. In April of the following year, Li Yu was reduced to 7 years in prison. He died of illness shortly after he was released from prison, and he ended his disgraceful life. Other criminal suspects, including his son, were also prosecuted, and a total of 21 people were eventually found guilty.
Lee Yu and his son
Afterwards, the South Korean government conducted strict inspections on all commercial buildings across the country, and the results were shocking: 14% of commercial buildings in the country need to be rebuilt immediately, and 80% need to be repaired immediately. There is no problem at all, only 2% of all buildings. This result shocked the entire Korean society.
In order to commemorate this tragic accident, the South Korean government and the people will hold different forms of commemoration activities to mourn 502 living lives that were unfortunately killed in the accident. In many film and television works, this accident is often arranged in the plot, such as " Please answer 1994" (picture below), "Flowers in the Mood for Life - Life is Like Summer Flower", "Just a Love Relationship", etc.; " Return to the Crisis Scene " of the Discovery Channel also includes this accident, which serves as a warning to beware of danger in times of peace. After the
accident, the original Sanfeng Department Store was renovated and a new comprehensive residential building, Acro Vista, Ruicaodong, Dalin, was built on the original site. People who live and work again, I wonder if they will recall that bloody afternoon, that miserable day, and the 502 lost lives.
Conclusion
The collapse of Sanfeng Department Store was a milestone accident in South Korea's history. After the incident, the construction safety situation in South Korea improved significantly, and major accidents were reduced a lot. An accident finally changed the hearts of some unscrupulous people and gradually emerged from the abyss blinded by money.
Reference
1. "Modern History of Korea: Society"
2. "The World Disasters of the 20th Century"
3. "A Bloody Day: Recalling the Collapse Accident of Sanfeng Department Store"
4. "Sixteen Days Like Hell: The Sanfeng Department Store Accident I Experience"
