Collapse of Prefabricated Slab Houses in Chongqing
Details of two prefabricated slab house collapse incidents in Chongqing are as follows:
House Collapse Incident in Fengshou Community, Guanba Town, Zhong County
At around 12:00 on April 11, 2024, a three-story prefabricated slab house in Fengshou Community, Guanba Town, Zhong County, Chongqing, collapsed. The ground floor of the house was used as a mahjong parlor, and the second floor was used as a goods warehouse. The direct cause of the accident was that the temporary load accumulated on the second-floor slab at noon that day exceeded the bearing capacity of the prefabricated slab, leading to brittle fracture and collapse of the slab. This accident resulted in 2 deaths and 3 injuries. After the incident, local residents spontaneously participated in the rescue efforts. The county's emergency management bureau, housing and urban-rural development bureau, and other departments quickly carried out on-site response. The county government set up a special team for post-accident work. Currently, the specific cause of the accident is still under investigation. Among the injured, 1 person has been discharged from the hospital, and 2 are continuing treatment with no life-threatening conditions.
Collapse Accident at No. 129 Dongquan Zheng Street, Dongwenquan Town, Banan District
At around 7:56 on May 22, 2024, a collapse accident occurred during the chiseling and cleaning of the second-floor prefabricated slab floor cushion in a dilapidated house renovation project at No. 129 Dongquan Zheng Street, Dongwenquan Town, Banan District, Chongqing. The accident resulted in 1 death, 3 injuries, and direct economic losses of approximately 882,000 yuan. After investigation, it was determined that this accident was a general production safety liability accident caused by the违规作业 (non-compliant operations) of the workers and the inadequate implementation of the main responsibility for work safety by Chongqing Songgang Construction Labor Service Co., Ltd. The direct cause of the accident was improper demolition sequence. When demolishing the structures above the second-floor cantilever beams, the demolition workers did not follow the previous construction sequence of first removing the walls and then chiseling and cleaning the prefabricated slab floors of the house. Before the brick railings on the balconies outside the cantilever beams were completely removed, they proceeded to chisel and clean the second-floor prefabricated slab floor cushions and slab joints in advance. This reduced the load (construction debris) pressing on the prefabricated slabs, causing the overturning moment outside the cantilever beams to be greater than the anti-overturning moment inside. The indirect cause was the inadequate implementation of the enterprise's main responsibility for work safety, including the lack of a clear work safety responsibility system for the demolition workers' positions, the failure to conduct work safety education and training for the demolition workers, and the lack of a safety risk classification and control system and a production safety accident hazard investigation and treatment system.
