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On April 29, a resident’s self-built house collapsed in Changsha, Hunan, China, trapping 23 people.
On April 29, a resident self-built house collapsed in Changsha, Hunan, China, trapping 23 people. Seven people have been rescued, and 39 people have lost contact near the accident site. The accident sparked nationwide attention to the hidden dangers of self-built houses.
The hidden dangers of self-built houses
According to the current official information, the collapsed house is a self-built house with a total of 8 floors, of which the 1st floor is the facade, the 2nd floor is a restaurant, the 3rd floor is a screening cafe, the 4th, 5th, and 6th floors are family hotels, and the 7th and 8th floors are. for own housing.
It is said that when the house was built in 2012, it had a 6-story structure, and it was added to 8 floors in 2018. The tenants made structural changes to the house to varying degrees. The exact cause of the collapse is still under investigation.
Han Wendong, deputy captain of the Chinese rescue team, told the media on Monday (May 2) that although the “golden 72 hours” have passed, the rescue has not stopped for a moment.
After the accident, Chinese President Xi Jinping immediately gave instructions to search and rescue the trapped people at all costs, do all they can to treat the injured, and properly do a good job of reassuring and relocating.
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The accident scene dispatch and disposal headquarters held a press conference on April 30. The relevant person in charge said that more than 700 fire rescue personnel, armed police officers and soldiers and social emergency forces had been dispatched urgently, and various types of fire trucks, large cranes, power generators, life detectors, etc. had been mobilized. More than 120 sets of rescue equipment and search and rescue dogs are used to carry out on-site search and rescue.
“China News Weekly” reported that the house where the accident occurred is located on the back street of Changsha Medical College in Jinping Community, Wangcheng District, Changsha, only 100 meters away from Changsha Medical College, which is a commercial street. Usually there is a lot of traffic, and some students will go shopping and eat nearby, but the time of the incident is more than 12 noon, which is lunch time.
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Zhang An, a family member of the owner of Mala Tang on the first floor, said that in addition to the additional floors, an elevator was also installed in the building. His younger brother and sister-in-law were buried in the store, which was home to two other employees at the time.
9 people have been detained
China’s state-run China Youth Daily quoted a local people’s congress representative in Changsha as saying it was not uncommon for local buildings to add floors at will. Before the Spring Festival in 2021, he went to the local area to investigate, using drone aerial photography, and found that the illegal buildings outside the campus of Changsha Medical College were randomly added and dirty. He said that the self-built house that collapsed was on the north side of Changsha Medical College.
Changsha police reported on Sunday (May 1) that nine people suspected of the accident had been detained.
According to the report, the owner Wu and the design and construction leaders Long, Ren, Xue and other four people were suspected of major liability accidents in the collapse of the self-built house.
Changsha police said that on April 13 this year, Hunan Xiangda Engineering Inspection Co., Ltd. issued a false house safety appraisal report following conducting a house safety appraisal on the self-built family hotel (4th, 5th, and 6th floors). Five technicians, including Ning Mou, Tang Mou, Liu Mou, and Gong Mou, were suspected of providing false certification documents.
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The accident has drawn China’s attention to the safety hazards of self-built houses.
On Sunday followingnoon, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of China held a video conference, asking all localities to carefully learn the lessons of the collapse of self-built houses built by residents in Changsha, Hunan, and to supervise and implement the safety production work of housing and municipal engineering, so as to effectively prevent and curb major accidents in safety production. occur.
On the evening of April 30, Changsha held a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Municipal Party Committee (expanded), emphasizing that it will carry out a special inspection and rectification of building safety: a comprehensive inspection of the current situation of residents’ self-built houses, the number of illegally built houses, and the spatial distribution, and the construction of buildings without approval. Violations of laws and regulations, such as building more buildings with fewer approvals, and adding floors without permission, shall be resolutely investigated and punished according to law; if there are potential safety hazards for self-built housing and housing reformers, the hidden dangers shall be thoroughly investigated and rectified quickly.