Lessons from building collapse in Wangcheng district, Changsha city (April 2022)

A building collapsed in Wangcheng district, Changsha city, Hunan province, in April 2022, resulting in the tragic loss of 54 lives. A recent report that investigates the structural collapse underscores the necessity to enhance building quality inspections since the structure of interest exhibited profound structural and construction vulnerabilities.

It should be mentioned that the structure successfully passed multiple inspections, receiving only verbal warnings until the sixth assessment. Subsequently, the owner of the building was called in by the local law enforcement department and handed a rectification order. However, this intervention failed to prevent the tragedy. These findings illuminate deficiencies in the oversight of local governance, revealing a systematic failure in grassroots-level security governance.

Negligence and evasion of pertinent security risks, coupled with inadequate risk investigation and prevention by the primary responsible unit contributed to the accumulation of safety risks. The case exposes a lack of safety responsibility awareness among local officials. Furthermore, the ineffective collaboration among multiple departments with regulatory responsibilities rendered the top-down safety system ineffectual.

In all, the safety of people must not be neglected or compromised at any level of governance. Safety inspections and the enforcement of rectification requirements should be carried out by individuals possessing professional knowledge in order to mitigate potential risks.