At 5:52 pm on June 29, 1995, the most well-known Sanfeng Department Store in South Korea suddenly broke out loud. The 5-story building collapsed in just 20 seconds, collapsed into four underground floors, causing 502 deaths and 937 injuries. The property losses reached 270 billion won (about 1.65 billion yuan), making it the second worst building collapse accident in the world so far. But in fact, this is a building that is "destined to collapse", and the building itself released several omens before it collapsed, but was ignored by the senior management, resulting in the final missing of the golden moment of emergency evacuation of the crowd.
South Korea's Sanfeng Department Store incident was the worst collapse accident in the world. It was not until the collapse accident in Bangladesh in 2013 that it became the second one
All of this starts on the day the building collapsed. Back then, the night guard left an unusual note with the words "A strange sound came from the roof of the building, which was very strange." But this record did not take the manager who came to work early in the morning to take it seriously, because the large roof air conditioner had moved a few years ago, and the strange sounds might be caused by cracks.
to 10 o'clock business hours, the staff on the restaurant on the 5th floor suddenly heard a huge crack near the pillars and the floor was obviously sunken. The manager immediately closed the restaurant, hung up a construction warning, and issued a closure order to avoid gossip. Not long after, guests began to hear strange sounds, employees also felt the building vibrating, and even saw the floor tiles cracked, but the department store's top management still did not issue a closure or evacuation order.
Sanfeng Department Store reached 40,000 per day, and was located in the bustling Seocho District, Seoul.
At noon, the manager determined that the vibration of the building might be related to the large air conditioner on the top floor, and then turned off the air conditioner and lied that the air conditioner was malfunctioning. After the cracks on the 5th floor expanded, the manager informed the situation upwards, but the senior management only focused on the loss of turnover and regarded the engineer's evacuation and comprehensive inspection as suggestions, and continued to operate.
Around 5 pm, the ceiling on the 4th floor began to sink, and the floor was closed and controlled; 50 minutes later, the building was cracked and broke, and then the customers and staff began to be evacuated. At the most critical 5:52, the rooftop began to collapse, and the load-bearing columns became unbearable, one after another, and the building also collapsed downward within 20 seconds. The first floor and the first floor collapsed downward. The north wing of the entire building instantly collapsed into the basement, and thousands of people failed to escape immediately. The scene of
made pedestrians on the roadside stunned at that time. The South Korean authorities then ordered a comprehensive investigation into this unprecedented tragedy. The statement that it was originally thought that the soft foundation caused the disaster was overturned. The subsequent inside information made the Korean people even more angry.
South Korea's Sanfeng Department Store collapsed, after the authorities intervened in the investigation, they found that this was a man-made accident.
The picture shows the scene where the families of missing people came to the scene to find their family traces and items.
, professor of Civil Structural Engineering, Tanguo University, , who was ordered to investigate, said that this was a man-made accident because the structure in the department store was completely different from the original design.
In fact, the original design of this building was a 4-storey office building, but the group chairman Li Zun asked for a redesign in the project and converted it into a 5-storey department store. After the construction party refused on the grounds of safety, the senior management ordered the removal of the construction party and finally continued the construction on the basis of the group's own construction company.
However, this change has caused many key factors, including the diameter of the load-bearing column is smaller than the original one, and the steel bars in each load-bearing column have been reduced from 16 to 8. In addition, the 5th floor of the building was originally planned to be equipped with an ice rink, but it was later changed to 8 restaurants. The floor was thickened due to heating, which increased the load-bearing structure burden.
In addition, the air conditioning equipment in the entire building is installed on the roof. Due to the complaints of the surrounding residents about the noise of air conditioning, the department store decided to move the equipment. However, in order to save costs, the equipment used on the high-rise buildings is not a crane, but is directly dragged by pulleys, causing cracks on the roof, which greatly damages the entire structure. After that, every time the air conditioner is activated, the vibration will spread outward to the unstable roof, causing the cracks of the load-bearing columns on the 5th floor to continue to expand.
President Li Zun was eventually convicted.
According to the authorities' investigation, Sanfeng Department Store's process of changing the architectural design also found that many local officials accepted bribes, and more than 20 people were convicted by the government. On December 27, 1995, the Seoul District Court of South Korea sentenced Li Zun to 710 and a half years in prison for fixed-term imprisonment in accordance with the "Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes" and the crime of criminal negligence, and sentenced Li Zun's son Li Hanxiang to 7 years in prison for corruption and manslaughter; in April of the following year, Li Zun was reduced to 7 years after appealing.
This unexpected triggered the anger of the Korean people, and also made many Korean dramas and movies remake stories with this background, alluding to the collusion between officials and businessmen, and also made the Korean people reflect on whether they ignore their lives while pursuing modernization in today's society.
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