The mall collapsed under the weight, crashing down in a storm

This post was last edited by ylb913 on 2016-10-11 at 20:33. I saw it in a newspaper; it’s quite classic. I must have come across it accidentally in the China Work Safety News, and I have clippings of it in my collection.

A lesson learned through blood – hoping that nothing similar will happen

It’s terrifying, but every safety accident has its inevitable causes.

The executives of Sanfeng Department Store requested that the entire building be converted into a flat-plate structure. Building engineers had warned that doing so would be dangerous, but the executives at Mitsumoto Department Store simply fired them and had Mitsumoto Construction Company, part of their own group, take over to continue construction according to the significantly altered blueprints. It is most fatal when managers do not pay attention to safety or lack an adequate understanding of it.

Illegal additions. Xinhua Net, Dhaka, April 25 (Reporter: Zheng Jianghua) Ruins and dust filled the air, presenting a scene akin to that after an earthquake. The eight-story Rana Shopping Center in the suburb of Savar, Dhaka, has been \"compressed\" to just two stories; the exposed, twisted rebar and scattered debris everywhere serve as a reminder of the tragedy that occurred when the building collapsed. The Lana Shopping Center collapsed on the morning of the 24th, and two adjacent buildings were also affected as a result. A large hole, two meters square, was created in the exterior wall of a three-story building at the back, while the glass curtain walls of a six-story office building to the right were completely shattered by the shock. At the accident scene, in addition to rescue workers, thousands of onlookers gathered as well. Although the rescue authorities have restricted access to the area for vehicles other than those used for rescue and media purposes, the situation at the scene remains chaotic. To facilitate the entry and exit of ambulances, many local villagers had to use sticks to create a passage. Many volunteers wearing white cloth stood in rows on top of the rubble, holding signs that read “Oxygen needed,” “Bottled water needed,” “White cloth needed,” and “Masks needed.” Not far behind them, rescuers and volunteers were either using oxygen tanks to supply oxygen into the cracks in the collapsed walls, spraying air fresheners, or wrapping the injured or deceased with white sheets. Due to concerns about triggering further collapses, heavy machinery could not be used at the scene; rescuers had to remove the walls or concrete blocks pressing on the victims in traditional methods, which slowed down the rescue efforts and posed many difficulties. The Lana Shopping Center had eight floors before it collapsed; one of those floors was a market with hundreds of shops ； The second floor is the bank ； Floors 3 to 8 are all garment factories. It is reported that the building was initially constructed in 2006, with the authorities approving only four floors at that time; however, the owner built floors 5 through 8 illegally starting in 2008, and none of these floors have load-bearing walls. Brigadier General Alam Sikder of the Bangladesh Army, who was in charge of coordinating the rescue efforts on site, told Xinhua reporters that at around 9 a.m. on the 24th, the floor on the fourth floor of the building broke first, after which the entire building collapsed vertically; only the lowest two floors remained intact.

There are also many shoddy construction projects in South Korea; in this regard, China and South Korea are more or less on par with each other.

The accident at Samfong Department Store in South Korea is a typical man-made disaster: First, the building structure was altered arbitrarily; structural design requires thorough load calculations. By changing the design and construction methods without conducting new load assessments, Samfong Department Store created a serious risk that led to the disaster； II. During the construction process, many load-bearing columns were removed in order to create more space, which caused Sanfeng Department Store to become a dangerous building from the day it was built ； III. The equipment added after the functional changes was not included in the original load calculations, causing the structure to exceed its critical state ； IV. Sankyo Department Store altered the intended use of the structure without conducting further calculations regarding dynamic loads ； V. Complaints were raised due to the noise generated by the air conditioners in use. To avoid these complaints, the installation location was changed; however, during the reinstallation process, no proper design review of the installation plan was carried out, resulting in further damage to the structure as a result of the way in which the installation was carried out ； VI. There is a significant amount of cutting corners during the construction process. . .

This has been changed too much; making a few minor adjustments would be acceptable