Guilin
Six-story building under construction collapses entirely at night
A woman trapped and rescued; the building under construction was illegal

On the night of September 23, a six-story building under construction in Guilin suddenly collapsed entirely, damaging two adjacent buildings. Fortunately, there were no casualties. After the incident, local authorities responded urgently, rescued one trapped person, and evacuated nearby residents. It is reported that the collapsed building was an illegal structure and had been ordered to be demolished.

At around 12:00 a.m. on September 24, the reporter arrived at Tangjiali Village, Xinjian Village Committee, Chaoyang Township, beside Jinji Road in Qixing District, Guilin City. A cordon had been set up at the scene, and firefighters and police officers were knocking on doors house by house to evacuate residents from nearby residential buildings. Resident Jing told the reporter that at 11:35 p.m. on September 23, with several loud noises, a six-story building under construction nearby collapsed onto the house where he lived. He immediately ran out of the room and saw white dust everywhere. Subsequently, he heard cries for help from an adjacent residential building. At that time, two nearby buildings were damaged by the collapsed structure, and several large holes were smashed into the rooms of one hotel.

After the incident, the Guilin Fire Detachment dispatched 42 firefighters from the Dongjiang and Special Service Squadrons and the detachment's full-duty command headquarters to the scene for rescue. A residential building was crushed by the collapsed structure and severely damaged, and a woman living on the second floor was trapped. Firefighters used ladders to build a rescue passage and promptly rescued the trapped woman. Due to the complex situation at the collapse site, firefighters conducted repeated searches to confirm whether anyone else was trapped. Meanwhile, firefighters and police evacuated the affected residents to a safe area.

At 10:00 a.m. on September 24, the reporter returned to the collapse site and saw that the building had collapsed entirely from east to west. The building had six floors, with 10 rooms on each floor. The collapsed building crushed a lower residential building and affected an adjacent hotel, which has now been closed. The collapse caused water and power outages and also blocked the access passages for several households inside.

A person in charge of the Xinjian Village Committee introduced that the owner of the collapsed building was surnamed Tang, and the crushed residential building was Tang's old house. The building began construction in the summer of 2014 by a construction team hired by Tang, without any design or planning. During construction, Tang had noticed that the load-bearing beams and columns on the ground were relatively small, and problems had also occurred with the crossbeams on the first floor, but construction continued upward.

A person in charge of the Qixing District Government of Guilin City introduced that after the incident, the Qixing District Government, Chaoyang Township Government, and relevant departments such as land and resources all rushed to the scene. On the morning of September 24, technical departments inspected the site and are currently analyzing the cause of the collapse. Investigation revealed that the building was an illegal structure privately built by villager Tang. The Qixing District Comprehensive Law Enforcement Bureau and Chaoyang Township Government had repeatedly visited the site to dissuade Tang from illegal construction, ordered him to stop work, and issued notices for self-demolition and forced demolition, but the owner continued to secretly rush the construction. After the collapse, Qixing District immediately activated an emergency plan, established a command center, promptly evacuated the people at the scene, and conducted safety assessments of the surrounding damaged buildings. At noon on September 24, a construction team entered to clear the collapsed building.