1 killed, 6 injured as building crumbles
Print Edition
A WOMAN died in hospital yesterday after being pulled from the rubble of an apartment building that collapsed in Fenghua City in east China’s Zhejiang Province.
Firefighters, soldiers and a medical team were called to the scene soon after the five-story building crumbled shortly before 9am, trapping seven people. The six survivors are being cared for in hospital.
The woman who died was one of a group of five people pulled from the rubble about 12:30pm, Xinhua news agency reported.
A man surnamed Chen who lives close to the building told China Central Television he heard crunching noises as early as 7am.
“There was dust coming off the building,” he said. “I started to think it wasn’t safe so I shouted to people to get out.”
Other witnesses said they heard glass breaking shortly before the collapse. Thankfully, most of the residents of the building’s 15 apartments had already left for work or school, CCTV said.
Some people who were in the block at the time said they heard cracking sounds about 8:45am and decided to get out. Unfortunately, several others remained in their homes, which collapsed a few minutes later.
The brick-and-concrete structure was built in 1994 and was part of a community housing 40 families. The building should have had a lifespan of about 80 years, but it was damaged by Typhoon Fitow last October, officials told a press conference yesterday afternoon.
During a citywide safety inspection late last year, the building was identified as dangerous, said Zhuo Houjia, a deputy mayor of Fenghua. The building was reinforced, but the situation was not considered serious enough to merit an evacuation, he said.
A woman living in a nearby building said residents were worried that the building wasn’t safe and had been telling housing authorities about it since last year.
“One resident even called the local television station yesterday morning to ask them to report on the situation and put some pressure on the government,” she said.
Rescuers spent hours trying to rescue people, the last of whom was a 21-year-old woman who was pulled free at 5:48pm after being buried for almost nine hours.
Rescuers had earlier made contact with the woman and she was able to cooperate with them. Her hand appeared through the rubble about 5pm, and a firefighter held on to it as a crane was brought in to remove a concrete slab that was pinning her down.
Earlier in the day, workers had been forced to use their bare hands to remove debris as heavy machinery was banned from the site for fear it might cause further collapses. The crane was used once it had established the woman was the only person still trapped.
Rescuers were, however, using radar to ensure there was no one left under the rubble.
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