Preschool building collapse in Seoul narrowly misses disaster
The building of Sangdo Kindergarten in Dongjak-gu, Seoul, hangs precariously over the edge, Friday, after its partial collapse the previous night. / Yonhap
Cracks on school building floor reported but ignored
By Lee Suh-yoon
Around 11:20 p.m. Thursday night, residents living near Sangdo Kindergarten in Dongjak-gu in Seoul heard a series of sharp crashing sounds.
The three-story preschool building buckled as a retaining wall, which was supporting the foundations of the building, collapsed, causing residents in the area to evacuate.
It narrowly missed being a disaster that could have affected over 120 children had it happened during the day.
The building, with its windows and signs missing, now precariously hangs over the edge of a slope, tilted about 10 degrees from vertical.
The incident happened as some major reconstruction work was taking place next to the kindergarten to redevelop a cluster of small housing units into an apartment complex.
Warning signs had appeared in August, including a small crack in a classroom floor, but the construction firm of the apartment complex ignored the kindergarten's complaints, teachers there told reporters, Friday.
A day before the collapse, officials from the kindergarten, the district office, and the construction firm held a meeting after an inspection showed the warning signs were too big to ignore. The construction company agreed to present a safety plan but the collapse occurred the next day.
Successive rainfall in recent weeks may have contributed to weakening the building's foundations, but this was not the main factor, according to experts.
“The rain only hastened the timing of the collapse. The main reason was unsafe excavation work,” Lee Soo-gon, a civil engineering professor at the University of Seoul, said in a radio interview. Lee performed a safety check on the kindergarten at the preschool's request five months ago and issued a forewarning.
“The geographic conditions of the area showed that major excavation work could lead to building collapses in the surrounding areas,” he said.
Residents look at the partially collapsed Sangdo Kindergarten building from their balcony, Friday, / Yonhap
The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education also came under fire for failing to prevent the disaster.
Cho Hee-yeon, the SMOE head who visited the site Friday morning, said his office “warned” the construction firm after being notified of the problem, and claimed the root cause of the disaster was lax construction regulation laws.
“Looking at this site, I find it hard to believe that the construction was allowed so near a preschool,” Cho said. “And it was allowed legally. The construction laws need to be revised.”
Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon also visited the site and called for a “speedy inspection and demolishment to allay residents' fears.”
Dongjak-gu Office said it will tear down the part of the preschool building where the foundation collapsed. It will also reinforce the crumbling foundations with soil to prevent further damage.
Just one week ago, a huge sinkhole appeared next to a construction site in Geumcheon District, southern Seoul, forcing nearly 200 people to evacuate their building next to it.
The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced Friday it would conduct a nationwide safety check of all construction sites.
More than 4,500 sinkholes have appeared in the country over the past five years, according to government data. Over 78 percent of them occurred in Seoul.