htmlOn the evening of December 7, the Quanzhou Xinjia Hotel collapsed, and this incident occurred in the whole country to fight the epidemic, which was particularly eye-catching. The building was renovated into a hotel in 2018. Whether there are any violations is subject to investigation by relevant departments. Some major building safety accidents tell us that renovation is something that requires extra caution, and willfulness will lead to tragedy. On the evening of June 29, 1995, in the prime location of the deputy capital of Seoul, South Korea, Sanfeng Department Store suddenly collapsed as a whole, killing 502 people and injuring 937 people. What causes this accident with the worst casualties in peacetime in South Korea? The root of the disaster has been laid since its inception.
1987, South Korea's Sanfeng Group began to build a four-story office building. Shortly after the foundation was filled, Li Liu, chairman of Sanfeng Group, asked to convert it into a department store. In other words, the entire building will be converted into a flat structure and many load-bearing columns will be eliminated. The construction contractor thought it was dangerous and refused to construct, so Li Liu simply asked his construction company to take over the project. What followed was various corners. According to safety standards, the cross-sectional diameter of the building column should be 80 cm, while the actual number was only 60 cm; the construction drawing marked that the steel bars in the column should be 16, and the actual number was 8. The building's load-bearing capacity has been reduced by nearly half.
The willfulness of Sanfeng Group did not end there. During the construction, Sanfeng Group added another floor to the building, preparing to use the fifth floor as an ice skating rink. Later, I felt that the food restaurant was more profitable, so I changed the ice rink to a traditional Korean restaurant, adding hot water pipes, heating equipment, and large kitchen equipment. Air conditioning equipment for the entire building is also installed on the roof. Three large air conditioners weigh 29 tons and the total weight after filling with water is as high as 87 tons.
In the second half of 1989, the beautiful and high-end Sanfeng Department Store was completed. The following year officially started business on July 7, receiving an average of 40,000 customers per day and a daily turnover of more than 500,000 US dollars. Li Liu was proud of his "masterpiece", but the devil of disaster let out a silent sneer in the dark. In 1993, due to the complaints from surrounding residents about the noise of air conditioners, Sanfeng Group moved all the air conditioners at the rear of the building to the front.
In April 11995, cracks appeared on the ceiling of the fifth floor, and Sanfeng Group only moved the goods on the top floor to the basement. On the morning of June 29, 1995, the crack on the top floor became larger, and Sanfeng Group only shut down the top floor and air-conditioning equipment. Although civil engineering experts believed that the entire building was in danger of collapse, Sanfeng Group refused to close the building when it saw that the passenger flow on that day was very large and did not want to lose huge profits. At 14:00, Li Li convened a meeting to discuss the cracks and inexplicable news. Structural engineer Li Hezhu ignored the cracks on the roof that had already spanned the entire building, saying that the building was still safe and would be repaired after closing. At 17:30, a loud noise suddenly came from the fifth floor. 17 minutes later, a loud noise came again, and the alarm suddenly became loud. The lights went out, the air conditioning equipment fell to the fifth floor, and the load-bearing columns fell one by one. In an instant, most of the entire building collapsed into the basement, and the cries of help and howlings were loud. The scene was terrible.
On December 27, 1995, the Seoul District Court sentenced Li Li to 10 years and 6 months in prison and his son Li Hanxiang to 7 years in prison for the crime of causing death by negligence in business. Twelve corrupt officials were also sentenced, with Sanfeng Department Store, the South Korean government and Seoul jointly paying 375.8 billion won. Now a stone tablet is erected next to large buildings in South Korea, with the names of designers and builders engraved on them, in order to warn them: quality and safety are lifelong responsibility.
However, some people did not learn from the Sanfeng Department Store accident and were willful in renovating buildings one after another.
On August 13, 1993, the Royal Plaza Hotel in Korat Province, Thailand fell to the ground in less than 10 seconds, killing 137 people and injuring 227 people. The cause of the accident was that the owner built three floors without conducting an assessment three years ago. In order to cope with the shortage of water, the hotel stored a large amount of water on the roof, causing the building to seriously exceed the load-bearing standard.
Indian capital New Delhi There are about one million migrant workers in the country who are struggling to make a living, hoping that the cheaper the rent, the better. Many unscrupulous developers have built a batch of shoddy and cut corners "economic and affordable apartments" for this purpose.Although the New Delhi government has continuously issued notices banning illegal buildings and carried out large-scale demolition operations, illegal buildings are still emerging one after another. On November 15, 2010, the rain fell in New Delhi, and construction workers braved the rain to build the fifth floor on a four-story residential building that had been built for 15 years, while the foundation downstairs had been soaked in the water for two months. The first and second floors of this building are a textile factory, and the third and fourth floors are dormitories for more than 200 workers. The monthly rent of $50 per month attracted more residents, so the owner decided to build a floor. Suddenly the building shook, and then in just a few seconds, it collapsed like sand, and for a moment, shouts, crying, and life-saving sounds mixed in the rain. The accident caused 67 deaths and 150 injuries. Later, it was found that the building did not have a decent column, which was mainly supported by the wall, while the load-bearing wall was only one side, and the building materials were amazingly inferior. After the accident, Indian officials said as usual that a major inspection of the quality of the building was carried out. The
sports-style inspection has never had little effect. On the evening of April 4, 2013, a 7-storey building under construction in the suburbs of Mumbai, India tilted, and collapsed like a stack of cards in less than four seconds. Although the building has not obtained a use permit, some residents, companies and stores have entered the building. The accident killed 72 people, including 25 children, and injured 62.
The dust in the Mumbai accident has not yet dissipated. 20 days later, on April 24, 2013, an even more tragic collapse occurred in an eight-story building in the suburbs of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, replacing the collapse of Sanfeng Department Store and becoming the disaster event with the largest number of deaths in the world. The cause of the accident is also arbitrarily changing the load bearing of the building.
This building was built in 2006 and was designed to be used as a shopping mall. At that time, only 4 floors were allowed to be built. Later, the building was converted into a garment factory, and five companies successively moved in, and various heavy equipment was moved into the factory one after another, with the load bearing of the company long exceeding the design standards. Compared with Sanfeng Group's first floor, Bangladesh owners are more greedy and more scruples. From 2008 to 2012, they have illegally stamped four floors, and there are no load-bearing walls. On the evening of March 23, 2013, officials in Saval Town discovered cracks in the building and asked the operator to close the garment factory. But the owner told five garment factories that the gaps would not cause danger. On April 24, workers were busy back and forth, and the building suddenly collapsed, killing 1,127 people and injuring more than 2,500 people. On April 25, Bangladesh's national flag was lowered at half-mast to mourn the victims for one day. On that day, hundreds of thousands of workers in garment factories across Bangladesh held a strike to protest the harsh and unsafe working environment.
Life has unbearable weight, and architecture also has unbearable weight. Brian McDonald, an expert in construction engineering and mechanics, once said: "Any time if a design is brought closer and closer to the limit coefficient of the material, any time if you let the safety factor shrink, then you will get closer and closer to the cliff, and you must be very careful every step you take." Only by respecting life and building safety can people be safe. Ignore safety, change the design at will, cut corners, and the disaster will come. Editor-in-chief of
column: Wang Duo Title image source: Xinhua News Agency Photo editor: Shao Jing
Source: Zhao Wenbin
