In June 1995, Park Seung Hyun woke up from a coma, with a severe pain in his head, trying to move his hands and feet in a small space to prove that he is still alive. What exactly happened? I seem to be pressed under the collapsed concrete slab. Is it the Korean trend vane that I work for? Sanfeng Department Store collapsed? From time to time, faint moans, cry for help, and even screams of despair came around
from time to time. Those voices came from colleagues and regular guests, who were once so familiar, but are now buried under the ruins together, waiting for death in despair.
Park Seung Hyun was 19 years old. She didn't want to leave the world like this, so she forced herself not to fall into a sleep. But when the moans and screams around him gradually weakened and finally silently, Park Seung-hyun couldn't help but fall into a desperate fear.
Time became blurred in the darkness. Park Seung-hyun didn’t know how many days had passed, and suddenly felt a drop of water falling on his face. Whether it was rain or some dirty water, she tried to open her mouth to catch it because she tried desperately to survive.
Time passed little by little, Park Seung Hyun always adhered to the belief that he would wake up no matter how tired or sleepy he was. After a few days in his drowsiness, he felt that there was finally a light above his head, and a long-lost voice came from "Is there anyone alive?"
Park Seung Hyun responded with his last bit of strength: "Someone!"
She knew she was saved, but she didn't know that 17 days had passed since the day when Sanfeng Department Store collapsed and more than 1,500 people were buried under the ruins together.
Fortunately, the sloping concrete slabs support Park Seung-hyun's life space. And while she had not eaten for 377 hours, she relied on firefighters alone to prevent a sudden fire at the accident site, and the sprayed water droplets maintained her life, which really created a miracle.
Park Seung Hyun brought hope to all relatives of the victims, but the miracle did not continue. She became the last survivor in tragedy .
Before all this happened, Sanfeng Department Store, located in the downtown area of Seoul (Seoul), the capital of South Korea, was like a synonym for luxury goods, and was a place for rich people to consume and entertain.
Sanfeng Department Store started business in 1989, with more than a thousand staff members, and can receive 40,000 customers every day. The turnover in just one week can reach US$4 million, which is a money-sucking machine.
But who would have thought that this business area of 74,000 square meters, and the wall decoration of reinforced concrete building with pink marble, would collapse in just 6 years, and 501 live lives would be borne.
What happened on the day of the incident? What black secret is hidden behind the sudden collapse of Sanfeng Department Store?
The disaster that could have been avoided was
June 29, 1995 at 8:05 am, Sanfeng Department Store seemed to be normal, but in fact there were already obvious signs before the disaster came.
Li Yongzhou, the property department manager of Sanfeng Department Store, just arrived at the office and saw the duty record left by the night guard. It turned out that at two or three o'clock in the morning, the guard suddenly heard the sound of shattering the walls, and hurried to the roof to find out what was going on, and found a large crack on the ground on the roof.
Li Yongzhou immediately went to the roof to check. The crack mentioned by the guard did exist, and it looked very scary. But Li Yongzhou didn't care too much because the crack had existed two years ago.
It turns out that Sanfeng Department Store has two side buildings, and the middle is connected by a glass corridor. The north side building is an entertainment venue, while the south side building is a shopping center. The one that completely collapsed this time was the south side building, with nine floors above and five floors above and four floors below.
Among them, the first floor of Sanfeng Department Store is children's clothing and food counters, the second and third floors are parking lots, the fourth floors are equipment departments, and the first to fourth floors are clothing and home counters, and the fifth floor of the top floor is restaurants. At the same time, air conditioning equipment controlling the entire building is installed on the west side of the roof of Sanfeng Department Store.
The air conditioning equipment was originally placed on the east side of the building. Because residents complained that the noise was too loud two years ago, Sanfeng Department Store moved all the equipment to the west side, and the crack on the roof appeared at that time.
Li Yongzhou looked at the crack with his naked eyes, as if there was no sign of enlargement. At most, it would cause rain leakage on the roof of the fifth floor. Hurry up and arrange for people to move the expensive goods on the fifth floor to the underground warehouse, and nothing should be done.
Li Yongzhou thought about it and arranged staff. At 10:02, Li Yongzhou received a complaint from Chunyuan Restaurant on the north side of the fifth floor that there were cracks in the floor in the restaurant, and cracks also appeared on the support column marked 5E.
Li Yongzhou realized something was wrong after passing the on-site inspection, and seemed to be moving in an uncontrollable direction. So Li Yongzhou immediately contacted Li Liu, the chairman of Sanfeng Group, to report all the situation.
Who would have thought that the final result of Li Yu's discussion with Sanfeng management was basically the same as Li Yongzhou's idea, and they moved the goods to the basement first, but there was more to close the Chunyuan Restaurant, and other floors were open as usual.
At the same time, Li Li also strictly ordered all management teams not to leak news of cracks on the roof, so as not to cause panic among employees and customers.
Park Seung-hyun is an employee of the children's clothing department on the first floor of the underground floor. In the morning, he heard that his colleagues said that the floor tiles of Chunyuan Restaurant were broken, and even the floor slabs were a little out of shape, and the glassware in the tableware department was rustling due to vibrations inside the building. But she thought it should be fine, but instead advised her colleagues not to worry too much and just continue to work.
Time has reached 12:30, and employees of other restaurants on the fifth floor also heard the sound of shattering from above the ceiling, and even employees in the basement feel the building shaking. At this time, someone came to tell Park Seung-hyun that there might be problems on the fifth floor and it should be closed. Park Seung-hyun thought he might get off work early, but he did not expect that the disaster was approaching.
14:00, Li Liu once again convened the supervisors of each department to discuss how to deal with cracks and inexplicable countermeasures. They discussed for a long time and agreed that it was a shock caused by the operation of the air conditioner unit on the roof, so they decided to turn off the air conditioner of the entire building and then ask experts to come to identify and evaluate the risks.
Soon Sanfeng Department Store broadcast room began to report that the building's air conditioner had a malfunction and was being repaired.
16:00, Li Hezhu, a structural engineer of Sanfeng Construction Company, rushed to the mall to investigate on the spot. He took photos of the ceiling cracks on the fourth and fifth floors, as well as the large bulges on the floors in the restaurant.
In fact, at this time the cracks on the roof had already spanned the entire building, and even some areas had collapsed. However, Li Hezhu told Li Li that although various evidences prove that the building does have risks, it should be safe for the time being. After the mall is closed, it can help fill the cracks and repair the structure.
Li Hezhu said that temporary safety does not mean absolute safety. The most correct way to do this is to evacuate the crowd and then close the entire building.
But at that time it was the critical time for people to shop after get off work and the traffic surged. If the building was fine, wouldn’t it be a waste of sacrificing huge benefits? Besides, the building has been here for 6 years, so how can it be said that it collapses?
The primary goal pursued by businessmen is always profit. Li Liu ordered Sanfeng Department Store to open as usual and employees continue to work.
at 17:00 in the evening, it was the peak business period, and even the aisles were crowded. But at this moment, the ceiling on the fourth floor of the mall began to settle, and the employees had to quickly seal the entrance and exit of the fourth floor and prohibit customers from entering the fourth floor to shop.
If the building is closed at this time, it may be too late, but Li Liu is still indifferent for the sake of interests. time reached 17:30, and a loud noise suddenly appeared on the fifth floor, and a huge crack appeared on a pillar from the ceiling.
17:47 pm, the indoor temperature has risen to 32℃ due to the lack of air conditioning. Another loud noise came from the ceiling on the fifth floor, and concrete blocks fell, hitting escalator and the floor. In an instant, the automatic sirens in the store were touched and made a sharp whistle.
Sanfeng Department Store finally started to evacuate the crowd, but it was too late. Suddenly, the sound of a subway entering the station came from the mall, and then the building swayed, the dust flew, and the lights went out.Park Seung-hyun wanted to stay calm at first, but when she realized that she couldn't run, it was too late. A piece of concrete was hitting her head and she fainted.
On the bustling streets, pedestrians and vehicles shuttle back and forth. Suddenly, a loud "boom" sound accompanied by a strong ground vibration, causing chaos in the crowd. earthquake? Or explosion? People looked at each other in shock, but when they looked at the source of sound, they only saw a piece of ruins after the collapse of Sanfeng Department Store.
People can't believe what's happening in front of them. The fifth floor of Sanfeng Department Store continues to collapse, and the fourth floor of the underground was pressed down below. The scene was silent at the moment. When injured people emerged from the rubble one after another, the stunned passers-by woke up and rushed up to try their best to excavate the survivors.
This is all the happenings on the day of the collapse of Sanfeng Department Store. If we acted in advance, the disaster that could have been avoided turned into a catastrophe.
Life and Death Rescue
A few minutes later, the rescuers rushed to the scene with the sirens all the way. South Korea's emergency response was fast enough, but they did not have the ability to rescue a large scale at that time, so the rescue operation quickly fell into trouble.
First of all, the accident scene was in chaos, and no one could figure out how many people were buried under the ruins, so they could only look for the living without a goal. Moreover, those standing exterior walls are at risk of secondary collapse at any time, and many professional rescue equipment cannot be used for the time being.
Later, although South Korea borrowed a STOLS sonic rescue device from the US military, it said it could be used to search for survivor information, but the noise on the scene was too high, and this device was basically useless.
In this way, the rescuers were unable to confirm the location of the survivors, and were afraid that the concrete blocks would be collapsed by using large cranes to lift concrete blocks, so they could only use hands and small instruments to cut and transfer the concrete blocks.
Then in the underground parking lot, the car was smashed and leaked motor oil and gasoline caused a fire. The firefighters wanted to put out the fire, but they found that the water pipe of fire hydrant had been accidentally cut off at some point. It can be said that the rescue operation, which has been seriously hindered by many adverse factors.
Next rescue order is chaotic. Various rescue teams flocked to the scene, and local residents or private participants were involved. They did not have unified command and lack of coordinated communication, which could only make the rescue site even more chaotic.
What is even more hateful is that someone actually entered the unlands building in the name of a volunteer at a critical moment, robbed the supermarket cashier, or dug out the items on the victims.
According to statistics from South Korean authorities, more than 400 citizens were arrested for theft at that time, and dozens of people were sent to the local Sakura Police Station every night.
was in chaos, and it was not until 52 hours after the incident that 24 cleaners were rescued. These people survived by hiding in the underground changing rooms, but during their trap, they were extremely short of food, water and air, and some had to drink their own urine to maintain their lives.
So a week after the rescue operation, the Seoul authorities believed that the victims should have no chance of surviving. After all, it is difficult for humans to survive in high temperatures and lack of water. In addition, the north side of the mall that had not collapsed before has also begun to tilt, and rescue personnel are in danger at any time.
So the Seoul City Mayor announced the suspension of rescue operations after considering various considerations in the actual situation. Unexpectedly, the statement of stopping rescue was released, and the anger of the victim's relatives instantly ignited. They spontaneously organized a march and had a fierce conflict with the police. In the end, the Seoul authorities had to compromise. After discussions from multiple parties, they decided to use brackets and cables to stabilize the north wing of the building and continue to rescue them.
On the 9th day of the incident, 21-year-old college student Choi Mingxi was rescued. On the 13th day of the incident, 18-year-old ceramic cabinet employee Liu Zhiyuan was rescued. On the 17th day of the incident, when the forklift workers were cleaning the ruins, they accidentally discovered Park Seung-hyun in the hollows built up by concrete blocks.
They are the last three people rescued by the rescue team. They brought expectations to the families of the victims, but the miracle did not happen again. At the same time, South Korea's reports and investigations on the collapse of Sanfeng Department Store are also continuing.
The crime behind the accident
After the collapse of Sanfeng Department Store, South Korea's YTN TV station reported it as soon as possible, and even gave up all news reports and TV programs within the first week after the incident, and followed up the rescue process 24 hours a day.
Then more news media followed up on the matter, and even reporters went deep into the ruins to report. Kim Eun-hye, the former Korean news anchor and the current spokesperson for Blue House, once confessed that she had pretended to be a 911 firefighter and entered the accident scene and found a document in a broken cabinet.
may be due to the sensitivity of journalists. Jin Eun-hye’s first instinct is that there is something wrong with this document. It is very likely that the entire building of Sanfeng Department Store has long had hidden dangers.
In fact, Kim Eun-hye's discovery coincides with Zhong Lan, a professor of civil engineering and structural science at Tanguo University, who investigated the case.
Zhong Lan, as the person in charge of the Sanfeng accident investigation, rushed to the accident site to conduct on-site investigation, and successively investigated whether Sanfeng Department Store collapsed due to earthquakes, gas explosions, or terrorist attacks. There was neither the gas explosion caused a fire at the scene of the accident, nor the trauma of explosion fragments exploded from the surface of the building to both sides. Instead, it collapsed directly downward, which shows that the collapse of Sanfeng Department Store has nothing to do with earthquakes, gas and terrorists. The biggest possibility is its own problem.
Zhong Lan found the original design drawings of Sanfeng Department Store after many twists and turns, but did not find any problems. However, when he compared Sanfeng's design drawings with construction drawings, he found a horrifying truth.
Sanfeng Department Store occupied a landfill originally. Li Liu once served in a military service and had a strong military background. In 1987, after Li Yu took over the land with his connections, he initially wanted to build a four-story apartment building. The construction company that won the bid was designed for Sanfeng Group according to the "flat plate" structure. But when the construction company had just laid the foundation and grouted, Li Liu suddenly asked to significantly change the design drawings. Although the "flat plate" structure has advantages during construction, it also has one of the biggest flaws, which is that the planning must be accurate and there must be no negligence at all. In other words, the "flat plate" structure has low fault tolerance.
So the designer warned Li Liu that the foundation has been built, and it would be very dangerous if the design drawings are modified again. But when Li Li saw that the territory became the economic center of Seoul and the business opportunities were right in front of him, he wanted to convert the four-story apartment into a shopping mall with eight-story upper and lower floors.
The construction team had to urgently change the drawings when they heard this. But when the project was over, Li Liu started to make trouble again and asked the construction team to add another layer on the fourth floor, hoping to build an skating rink .
The person in charge of the construction team was anxious when he heard this. The original foundation and structure of Sanfeng Department Store were designed according to the upper and fourth floors and could not bear the weight of the fifth floor. If it was stamped, it would be very likely that there would be a major accident.
But Li Liu insisted on his own initiative for the sake of interests and directly fired the disobedient partner, replaced it with a construction company under Sanfeng, and continued construction according to the significantly modified design drawings.
If Sanfeng Group follows this plan, it will build an roller skating rink with a lighter load on the floor on the fifth floor that is illegally built, and it may not have capsized so quickly.
However, Li Li believed that the roller skating rink was inconsistent with the positioning of high-end department stores. After the building was completed, he revised the decision again and called for the decoration of the roller skating rink to be changed into nine restaurants.
As we all know, Korean food Traditional culture is to sit on the ground and eat, so the restaurant will attach a large number of warm kangs, heating facilities, and a large number of hot water pipes laid on the floor. These facilities will invisibly add the load on the fifth floor. Overall, the roller skating rink has increased the load by 50%.
However, the senior management of Sanfeng Group was immersed in the excitement and joy of opening a shopping mall. No one noticed the violation of building regulations, which had quietly planted the root of disaster.
Zhong Lan found out that a series of illegal construction behaviors of Sanfeng Department Store was the fundamental reason for the collapse of the building, but it felt that the building collapsed in just 6 years and lacked the decisive factors and opportunities to detonate the root cause.
So Zhong Lan began to review all the information and soon discovered a large crack on the roof from a group of photos. The first intuition was that this crack was probably the key factor in the collapse of the building.
Then Zhong Lan began to investigate the crack formation process, but found a result that was both angry and helpless.
It turns out that there are three air-conditioning condensation towers on the roof of Sanfeng Department Store, and the net weight of these condensation towers reaches 36 tons. If water is added, it will reach a terrifying 87 tons. In fact, when Sanfeng Department Store was first opened, the rooftop was slight vibration and water leakage due to the excessive load of these condensation towers.
Later, someone complained that the air conditioner was too noisy, and Sanfeng Group was unwilling to make trouble and just wanted to change the situation. But in order to save the cost of mobile equipment, they did not rent a crane, but directly used pulley devices to shift the air conditioner unit on the roof.
You can imagine how much damage will be caused to the already hidden dangers of an air conditioner unit weighing 87 tons on the roof. Since then, the load-bearing columns of Sanfeng Department Store have been damaged and cracks have appeared on the roof. In addition, when the air conditioner is running, the vibration frequency will further deepen the spread of the cracks, causing the building to become more fragile.
The senior management of Sanfeng Group is well aware of this, but not only did they collectively choose to remain silent, but they also did not implement any remedial measures to strengthen support.
After testing the building skeleton, Zhong Lan found that there were no pallets between some floor slabs and columns. pallets are a requirement for flat slab structures and can disperse the load of concrete floor slabs. However, when building Sanfeng Department Store, either the pallet size used is too small or the column heads have no pallets.
Then Zhong Lan discovered another bigger secret, the diameter of the columns supporting the fourth and fifth floors actually shrunk significantly. It is obvious that the structural support of has been greatly reduced, while the load on the top floor has increased significantly. These two factors are already quite fatal, but Sanfeng Group has made another wrong move and ignited the fuse.
It turns out that in order to prevent fire houses, Seoul stipulates that department stores must install firewalls next to the escalator to automatically close when there is a fire alarm to prevent the fire from spreading to other floors.
In order to make room for installation of firewalls, Sanfeng Department Store actually cut the concrete column next to the escalator, which correspondingly reduced the building's load-bearing capacity by more than 25%.
Many fatal factors have been mixed together, forming the "penetration shear force" of the collapse of Sanfeng Department Store. Simply put, it is that when a column that is too thin bears too heavy, it will penetrate the ceiling above. The situation on the day of Sanfeng Department Store collapsed was that the fourth floor pillars penetrated the ceiling, crushing the fragile building structure.
There is no doubt that Sanfeng Group illegally constructed and cut corners, but how did they obtain the construction license ? According to South Korean police, in order to apply to expand the business area, Sanfeng Group has provided bribes ranging from 500,000 to 3 million won to 8 officials in the competent department. In addition, during the building completion inspection, the person in charge of acceptance and delivery was also unrelated.
A man-made disaster tore off the fig leaf of collusion between the South Korean government and chaebol officials and businessmen, corruption and wealth. Especially on the day of the incident, Sanfeng Group refused to evacuate people for only half a day of turnover, and even used other people's lives to pay for their greed.
Conclusion
Sanfeng Department Store caused a collapse and tragic disaster due to illegal operations, cutting corners, and poor management. This is not a natural disaster, but a man-made disaster. The deeper reason for this man-made disaster is the consequences of South Korea's "military politics" and "chaebol economy".
The South Korean government deliberately supports chaebols. In order to strive for construction projects, chaebols will definitely give officials huge political donations. The huge amount of money lost by the chaebol for this can only be compensated by cutting corners, which will leave major hidden dangers to the project.
Korean people fell into anger and grief for this, but Li Liu was well protected because of his chaebol background. Countless people took to the streets to march, and coupled with the media's repeated reports, the South Korean government was under pressure and finally arrested 21 people related to the collapse of Sanfeng Department Store, 12 of whom were government officials.
In December 1995, the Seoul District Court of South Korea sentenced Lee to 10 years in prison for dereliction of duty for . At the same time, Sanfeng Department Store manager Li Hanxiang (Li Li's second son) was sentenced to seven years in prison for corruption and negligence to death.
This case seems to have settled, but the impact it has continued to ferment.
The collapse of Sanfeng Department Store caused a total of 502 deaths, 937 seriously injured, and 6 others were missing. Such heavy casualties, even if all Li Li's property is taken out, it is not enough to compensate, and the Seoul Municipal Department can only make up the compensation. The initiator of this case, Li Liu, actually passed the appeal and was released from prison with a commutation of sentence in 2003.
Can a bloody lesson obtained at the cost of 502 lives really arouse people's awareness of building safety? It is said that four years after the collapse of Sanfeng Department Store, a man who lost his wife and children at the same time in the accident hangs himself next to the Sanfeng Department Store Memorial Tower.
Now the original site of Sanfeng Department Store has been rebuilt, but there are always some pains that cannot be forgotten.
