Sampun Mall Collapse

On June 29, 1995, a tragedy occurred in the capital of South Korea, Seoul, that the whole world was talking about. It claimed the lives of 502 people and became one of the largest man-made disasters of the century. On this day, the Sampoong shopping center, built using the most advanced technologies, collapsed. Almost 1.5 thousand people were trapped under the rubble, of whom only 937 were saved.

It was an ordinary weekday. The head of the security service, making his daily morning tour of the complex, noticed cracks on the roof of the building. He immediately reported this to his superiors. But Sampoong executives did not respond properly to the alarm.

That day, the owner of the shopping center held a meeting with the architect of the shopping center. He insisted on closing the complex and conducting an urgent inspection of the structures, but his opinion was not heeded. Unscheduled repairs could be required, which would have a negative impact on the profits received by the owner company.

At this time the situation became more and more threatening. Staff heard a loud sound that sounded like a gas explosion. The building shook and cracks appeared here and there on the floor. Soon the air conditioning system stopped working and the temperature in Sampoong rose to +30 degrees.

One of the center workers who survived the disaster, in an interview with the Ddanzi news portal, spoke about the events preceding the collapse:

The next loud sound came at 17.30 local time, when the shopping center was full of visitors. The building literally collapsed in a few seconds, burying customers and staff under the rubble. The seller of one of the stores recalled that the collapse was accompanied by a powerful movement of air flow, which literally threw people, things and furniture to the sides.

This department store worker and his colleagues were the lucky ones. They received bruises and abrasions, but were able to get out of the destroyed building on their own. Many were much less fortunate - they were covered with fragments of concrete, glass and tons of reinforcement.

Less than an hour later, the emergency response headquarters began operating at the nearby Seoul National University Gymnasium. Soon more than a thousand relatives of missing people gathered there. Under the rubble were a variety of people who were simply unlucky enough to be in the building during the collapse.

This is how one of the participants in the rescue operation described the victims in an interview with Busan. Clearing the rubble and searching for people lasted almost three weeks. The authorities stopped work several times, but resumed it under public pressure. The last survivor pulled from the wreckage of the building was 19-year-old Park Seung Hyun. She was rescued 17 days after the shopping center was destroyed.

In addition to hundreds of dead, there were also a huge number of casualties. People suffered serious injuries, not only physical, but also psychological. Chen Myung Suk, 40, who worked part-time at Sampoong after studying at university, spent 230 hours under the rubble. His injuries were not too severe, but he still feels the effects to this day. Even after several decades, the man is tormented by nightmares, he suffers from memory impairment and is prone to depression.

The commission to investigate the causes of the accident was headed by an expert on man-made disasters, Professor Leng Chan. Initially, many versions were considered, from a gas explosion to a terrorist attack organized by the DPRK intelligence services. But the very first examinations made it clear that the tragedy occurred due to the fault of the building’s builders, who grossly violated the technology.

Sampoong Shopping Center is one of the largest non-beam projects in South Korea. The floors were assembled from flat slabs connected to each other by steel reinforcement. Huge structures were supported by columns.

At the design stage, the customer, who is also the owner of Sampoong, decided to save money. Instead of columns with a diameter of 800 mm, he demanded that columns of 600 mm be installed. This was not only cheaper, but also significantly saved retail space. Engineers were also told to reduce the number of reinforcing bars in the columns from 16 to 8.

Following an investigation that lasted almost six months, the prosecutor's office brought charges against several dozen people. Among them was the “thrifty” owner of the building, several responsible city officials, designers, engineers and builders. The owner of Sampoong Group was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison. In addition, the company was ordered to pay a third of a billion dollars in compensation to the victims and families of the victims.

Tragedies that occurred due to the fault of thrifty businessmen and negligent engineers are not uncommon in the world. Unfortunately, most often it is random people who suffer.