The collapse of a privately built residential building in Changsha resulted in multiple casualties.

The collapse of a self-built residential building in Changsha resulted in multiple casualties

A press conference was held in Changsha, Hunan Province on April 30 to report on the "April 29" residential building collapse in Wangcheng District. At 12:24 pm on April 29, a self-built residential building in Panshubawan, Jinping Community, Jinshanqiao Street, Wangcheng District, Changsha City, Hunan Province collapsed. The public security department, using technical investigation and big data methods, initially verified that 23 people were trapped in the building, with 5 rescued; additionally, investigations showed 39 people missing near the incident site, and the situation of the missing persons is under further investigation. Five injured people have been sent to the hospital for treatment, and their vital signs are stable. Preliminary investigations show that the collapsed building was a self-built residential building with 8 floors, with the first floor being a storefront, the second floor a restaurant, the third floor a cafe, the fourth, fifth, and sixth floors a family hotel, and the seventh and eighth floors residential units. Tenants made structural modifications to the building to varying degrees. The specific cause of the building collapse is under investigation.

　　After the accident, Hunan Province quickly activated its emergency plan, quickly established an on-site dispatch and disposal command center, and made every effort to carry out on-site rescue. More than 700 firefighters, armed police officers, and social emergency forces were urgently dispatched, along with more than 120 sets of rescue equipment, including fire trucks, large cranes, power generation vehicles, and life detectors, as well as search and rescue dogs, to conduct on-site search and rescue.

　　Due to the pressure exerted by the collapsed building on the buildings on both sides, causing serious damage to them and the possibility of collapse at any time. To prevent secondary disasters, after consultation between the expert group and the rescue team on-site, while actively conducting rescue operations, emergency reinforcement of the severely damaged buildings on the east and west sides that could collapse at any time was carried out, and the surrounding residents were immediately evacuated. At the same time, safety assessments of the surrounding buildings were conducted to eliminate safety hazards, ensuring the safety of the construction and rescue site, and keeping the access for large rescue equipment and the treatment of the injured unobstructed.

At around 10 pm on May 2, operations that could produce noise, such as mechanical operations and personnel movement, were stopped at the rescue site to create a "silent" environment for rescue tools such as radar life detectors and snake-eye detectors. The rescue team detected signs of life from multiple angles, and about 50 minutes later, it was confirmed that "there was a situation on the west side." After further reinforcement of the rescue passage, the fire rescue team entered to conduct rescue operations.

At around 4:10 am on May 3, medical personnel entered the rescue site to assess the vital signs of the rescued woman. About 5 minutes later, the rescued woman was carried out of the accident site. "Communicating with her, she responded quickly, proving that her basic consciousness and vital signs were normal." Fire rescue personnel introduced that the rescued woman had repeatedly knocked on objects to send signals to the outside world, and rescue personnel had been using life detection instruments and manual searches to find her exact location.

At around 8:15 pm on the 4th, after peeling off the top floor slabs of the collapsed building layer by layer, rescue personnel once again used a full-field silent search method. When firefighters led search and rescue dogs to conduct search and rescue operations on the east side of the collapsed building site, the search and rescue dog suddenly gave an alert, and rescue personnel quickly found a female trapped person. Firefighters immediately carried out excavation operations, ambulances and medical teams were on standby at the scene, and the traffic police ensured smooth roads. Currently, the trapped person has been successfully rescued and sent to the hospital for treatment.

At around midnight on May 5, more than 130 hours after the accident, the tenth trapped person was successfully rescued.