At 19:14 on March 7, 2020, buildings of Xinjia Hotel in Licheng District, Quanzhou City, Fujian, China collapsed, resulting in 29 deaths and 42 injuries, with direct economic losses of 57.94 million yuan. By the time the incident occurred, the hotel was a centralized quarantine observation spot for COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control in Licheng District.
The "March 7" Xinjia Hotel Collapse Accident has been considered a major accident with work safety liability due to illegal construction, reconstruction and reinforcement to the hotel building structures.
The investigation team specially set up by the State Council of the People's Republic of China for the accident, through in-depth investigation and comprehensive analysis, determined that the direct cause of the accident was that the accident unit illegally increased the interlayer from the original four-story building of Xinjia Hotel to seven stories, which reached the ultimate bearing capacity and was in a critical state of collapse.
The main contents of the report include:
The accident briefing, detailing the time and location of all previous damages during the period from the glass burst at 17:40 to the overall collapse of Xinjia Hotel at 19:14:17 on the day of the accident, composition of the 71 people trapped, and 118 emergency search and rescue teams which are composed of 5,176 rescuers. This is added with background situation in buildings, hotel units and quarantine points.
The direct cause of the accident includes the details of building load overrun caused by the increase of interlayer and collapse caused by the disturbance of welding reinforcement operation.
The main problems of the accident-occurring entity and related enterprises are listed, such as the illegal construction of construction units, the forgery and concealment of Xinjia Hotel, the failure to evacuate in time, and the illegal audit of technical service agencies.
The main problems of relevant departments shall be investigated for the responsibilities of land planning departments, urban management departments, housing and urban and rural construction departments, fire control agencies and public security departments.
The main problems of the local Party committee and government are related to the weak supervision of the three-level governments in Changtai Street, Licheng District, and Quanzhou municipal government.
Suggestions on the pursuit of accountability for accident-related entities and persons include the investigation measures for those who were taken compulsory measures (23 persons in total), relevant public officials, accident entities and technical service agencies.
The main lessons drawn from the accident include the lack of awareness of the major safety risks that have existed for a long time in illegal buildings in Fujian Province and Quanzhou City, the lack of bottom-line thinking and red-line awareness, the formality of investigation and management of potential safety hazards, the weak awareness of administration according to law, the serious irresponsibility of supervision and law enforcement, and the formalism of investigation and management of potential safety hazards. These are added by entities that violate laws and regulations and act arbitrarily.
Suggestions on accident prevention and rectification measures demands local Party committees, governments and relevant departments, especially Fujian, Quanzhou and Licheng districts, to draw lessons from the tragic accidents, firmly establish the concept of safety development, consciously put people's life safety and health in the first place, put prevention and resolution of safety risks in an important position, and strengthen the rule of law. We will comprehensively improve the safety and security level of epidemic-related sites and all kinds of centralized resettlement sites, deepen the investigation and management of "cracking down on non-violations" and potential safety hazards in the field of construction, improve the working mechanism of information sharing and coordination among departments, and carry out three-year special rectification of production safety.
In addition, the report has three attachments:
1. On-the spot emergency rescue operations of the accident
2. Information of buildings of Xinjia Hotel
3. Houses built under special circumstances in Licheng District of Quanzhou City, Fujian, China
Abstracted by Qiang Hao
International Exchange and Cooperation Center, Ministry of Emergency Management, China
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