Investigation into the accident at Jiangxi Power Plant: No \"safety inspection records\" from the previous day”

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The rescue command center for the \"11·24\" accident at the Fengcheng Power Plant in Jiangxi revealed that by around 11:30 on the 25th, the cleanup and search operations at the accident site had been completed, and the focus of efforts related to the accident had shifted entirely to dealing with the aftermath and investigating its causes. On the 25th, the Supreme Procuratorate revealed that it had sent personnel to the scene on the day of the accident, and together with procuratorial agencies at three levels in Jiangxi Province, got involved in the investigation of the incident. 　　Police detained 13 people associated with the project. At around 1 p.m. on the 25th, reporters at the accident site saw that inside the cooling tower under construction, with an inner diameter of 125 meters and a height of over 70 meters, the construction crane had collapsed to the ground; rebar was twisted and scattered everywhere, along with safety helmets and clothes belonging to workers, creating a complete mess at the scene. 　　The reporter learned from the accident rescue command center that on the morning of that day, **firefighters conducted another thorough search of the accident site at Phase 3 of the Fengcheng Power Plant in Jiangxi. By 11:05 a.m., the cleanup and search operations at the scene were completed, with no additional victims’ bodies found at the accident site. The focus of accident handling has fully shifted to aftermath management and investigation into the cause of the accident. 　　The construction company involved, Hebei Yieneng Smoke Stack Engineering Co., Ltd., has been ordered to suspend all ongoing projects immediately for rectification. 　　It is understood that the public security authorities have detained 13 individuals associated with the cooling tower project of Phase 3 of the Fengcheng Power Plant, and the investigation team into the cause of the accident is set to be officially established on the 26th. 　　To date, nearly 200 people, including family members of more than 30 victims, have arrived in Fengcheng City one after another. Fengcheng City, along with the neighboring cities of Ga’an City and Zhangshu City, have cleared a number of hotels to accommodate family members; these hotels have assigned staff for medical assistance, psychological counseling, and other services. The accident rescue command center has established a clear coordination plan: for each relative of a victim who comes to the area to handle matters related to the incident, at least 4 staff members will be assigned to assist them with identifying the body, handling insurance claims, as well as providing support in daily life and psychological counseling. Locally, the bodies of the victims kept in the funeral home were cosmetically altered. 　　Drone aerial footage of the debris was used for investigation and evidence collection. At 3:30 p.m. yesterday, officials from the Work Safety Administration arrived at the scene of the serious accident in Fengcheng. 　　Inside the project command post located in the northeast corner of the construction site for the expansion of Unit 3 at the Jiangxi Fengcheng Power Plant, several people wearing red emergency response uniforms and safety helmets were operating multiple drones to take aerial photos of Tower No. 7, where the incident occurred. A power construction technician on site said that the aerial photography being carried out at present is mainly aimed at determining the distribution of debris on and at the bottom of the cooling tower under construction; it also allows for a view of the interior walls of the tower from more angles, thereby collecting on-site data to support subsequent investigations into the cause of the accident. 　　On site, staff from the project contractor briefed the relevant officials, stating that some of the debris that had fallen had been removed as part of the rescue efforts, while the remaining debris remained in their original state from the time of the collapse. 　　**Relevant officials from the Work Safety Administration believe that, on the condition that safety hazards are eliminated, the original state of the scene should be preserved as much as possible; the debris that has not yet been removed should not be cleared or moved at this stage, in order to retain first-hand evidence for subsequent accident investigations. 　　Before the incident, concrete debris fell. Relevant personnel from the project contractor provided an account of what was known about the circumstances surrounding the accident at the time it occurred. A staff member stated in their report that no video footage of the inside of Cooling Tower No. 7 at the time of the incident has been found. There is a camera on the building to the northeast of the cooling tower that can capture its exterior, but it is not possible to see what is inside. 　　Describing the footage captured by the camera, the staff member said that at around 7 a.m. on the 24th, concrete debris fell from a certain location on the northeast edge of the construction area at the top of Cooling Tower No. 7. Subsequently, the construction scaffolds on both sides of the point where the concrete fell collapsed one after another; “that’s when the collapses started, one after another from each side.” ”　　The staff member also said that under normal circumstances, the crane used for construction is located inside the cooling tower, and it cannot be seen by cameras. However, after the scaffolding surrounding the top of the tower collapsed, a part of the crane’s arm briefly appeared above the edge of the cooling tower and was visible in the video footage; it then dropped back to the bottom of the tower. \"Based on what we see now, it seems that the scaffolding around the top of the tower collapsed first, which caused the crane to lift slightly before it fell back down.\" At present, this result still needs further confirmation. 　　Videos taken by rescue workers at noon on the day of the accident also show that after the incident, almost the entire internal structure of the cooling tower collapsed to the bottom of the tower, with no residues remaining on the inner walls of the tower. A staff member from the engineering command center said in a conversation that the thickness of the tower’s exterior facade at the construction site is only about 24 centimeters, meaning workers working at heights rely almost entirely on scaffolding to support their weight. 　　There was no “safety inspection record” from the previous day. On the afternoon of the 25th, at the command center for the third phase of the Jiangxi Ganneng Fengcheng Power Plant project, departments responsible for safety supervision and public security were carrying out their tasks in an orderly manner, collecting relevant information and evidence. 　　According to the \"Safety Inspection Log\" kept at the entrance on the first floor, the head of Team 4 of the safety inspection team was Wang Jinyuan. Entry No. 4 in the inspection records for the 17th indicated that the water accumulated inside Tower No. 7 of Hebei Yieneng (the cooling tower where the incident occurred) had not been drained in a timely manner, with parts of its foundation submerged in water. The handling suggestions section indicates that the general contractor should be tasked with evaluating Hebei Yieneng. On the 18th, no records of inspections or entries regarding corrective actions were found. The inspection record from the 19th shows that there was no fencing around the foundation trench of the circulating water pipe branch on the north side of Cooling Tower No. 7. On the 21st, the working platform in the central shaft of Cooling Tower No. 7 lacked a step ladder and protective railings. No entries were found in this “safety inspection log” prior to November 15, and the entries after that date go only up to November 22. 　　It is understood that the safety inspection and supervision team for the third-phase expansion project of Jiangxi Fengcheng Power Plant is headed by Miao Dewu, with Guo Yanming serving as the deputy leader. The team consists of 4 groups, with 2 members in each group. The safety management personnel from each contract section shall assign one person per day to join the inspection team, who will be responsible for conducting on-site safety inspections of the entire construction area in Contract Section A, as well as in the civil engineering and installation works of Contracts Sections BC, and in Contract Section D (the section where the accident occurred), throughout the day, both in the morning and afternoon.