Collapse of a Prefabricated Slab Building in Nanchang

At 6:45 p.m. on November 22, 2022, a partial collapse occurred in a six-story brick-and-concrete prefabricated slab building located in the dormitory area of the former Baimamiao Pharmaceutical Factory on Guoyao North Avenue, Xinqizhou Management Office, Ganjiang New Area, Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, resulting in the deaths of four people.

Basic Information about the Accident

The dormitory building was constructed in 1995 and covered an area of approximately 430 square meters at the time of collapse. Prior to the collapse, a resident on the first floor noticed cracks in the building and doors that would not close properly. While preparing to go upstairs to notify neighbors, one side of the building suddenly collapsed. This resident escaped unharmed as they had gone out to buy snacks. On-site rescue personnel utilized search dogs, manual searches, and instrumental searches to locate missing individuals, and employed engineering machinery for the rescue operations.

Analysis of the Accident Causes

The cause of the accident is still under investigation, but there are various speculations and potential risk factors:

• Structural Risks of the Building: The collapsed building featured a brick-and-concrete prefabricated slab structure, which had issues with unregulated treatment of slab gaps, leading to poor structural integrity. Additionally, its seismic resistance was relatively weak, making it prone to damage under external forces or geological changes. Furthermore, if the building had been subjected to long-term overloading beyond the design capacity of the prefabricated slabs, this would have increased the risk of collapse. Construction quality issues may also have been a contributing factor, such as substandard concrete strength or dimensional deviations in components, which could affect the structural safety of the building.
• Ground Factors: There is speculation that the collapse may have been related to ground subsidence. Ground subsidence can cause the building's foundation to lose stable support, leading to tilting and sinking of the building, and ultimately triggering a collapse.
• Human Modification Factors: It is suspected that the first floor of the collapsed dormitory building had an underground room excavated several years ago. Excavating an underground room can damage the original foundation structure of the building, alter the stress state of the foundation, and potentially lead to uneven settlement of the foundation, thereby affecting the overall stability of the building.

Follow-up Actions after the Accident

After the accident, local authorities urgently evacuated and properly resettled 183 residents living around the accident site to prevent further harm from secondary disasters.