hankyoreh

Preparation to bring in heavy machinery to assist in the search and rescue at the site of the partial collapse of an apartment building in western Gwangju’s Seo District can be seen underway on Thursday afternoon. (Shin So-young/The Hankyoreh)

On day three of a search effort following the partial collapse of an apartment under construction in Gwangju that left six workers unaccounted for, an unidentified individual was confirmed to be buried in the rubble.

But with rescue efforts hampered by the pile of concrete trapping the person in place, family members of the workers are growing increasingly anxious.

Using an endoscope camera, the Gwangju disaster safety countermeasures headquarters located one of the missing persons at 11:14 am on Thursday under a pile of concrete toward a staircase railing on the first basement level of the collapsed building.

But because the individual was not directly observable, neither their identity nor their condition could be determined

Determining that the pile of concrete rubble on top of the person was too heavy to be lifted manually, the headquarters worked to establish access by removing the screen surrounding the construction site in order to bring in an excavator and other heavy equipment.

After hearing of the trapped worker’s discovery, family members of the missing persons visited the headquarters and asked to be allowed to visit the scene, but their request was denied for safety reasons.

At one point, some family members were left in tears after hearing that the identity of the victims had been confirmed, but this turned out to be a misunderstanding. At 4 pm, the headquarters agreed to the family members’ request to show the interior of the accident site, with plans to continue the search and rescue effort into the night.

A day earlier, the headquarters had used an unmanned excavator and drone to search the 23rd to 38th floors of the building, where the collapse occurred — and particularly the 26th to 28th floors, where a rescue dog had signaled the presence of an unusual object. But the search turned up nothing.

On Thursday, HDC Hyundai Development Company, which is responsible for the construction, sent its own 10-person rescue team to the scene for assistance. A safety net was also put in place to prevent the building from collapsing further. HDC further plans to put a 1,500-ton tower crane in place to assist search efforts on the relatively inaccessible upper stories.

According to a committee for the family members of the missing workers, attempts to call the missing on Thursday resulted in a connection tone being heard from the mobile phone of one missing person who was performing silicone work on window frames.

The family members asked the headquarters to use the ringtone to search for the missing worker. The headquarters is now looking into whether this may have been the result of a mechanical error.

The ad hoc representative for the committee is 45-year-old Ahn Jeong-ho, whose brother-in-law is among the missing. Stressing the need for a safe search effort, Ahn said, “The family members of the missing people want a swift rescue, but we don’t want any additional losses.”

Amid adverse weather conditions including snowfall, search parties working with rescue canines continued their search on Thursday for the six who went missing during the collapse. (Shin So-young/The Hankyoreh)

Following the booking of a 49-year-old HDC construction site manager, Wednesday, on charges of professional negligence resulting in injury, police search-and-seizure efforts were conducted the same day on three subcontracted companies involved in concrete supplies and construction.

Police also plan to conduct a search and seizure on the construction site office once it becomes accessible.

On Wednesday, the Gwangju Regional Office of Employment and Labor booked the construction site manager and the site manager from a concrete construction company on charges of violating the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

Attention is now focusing on the fate of the 201 block of the Hwajeong Hyundai Ipark Apartment where the collapse occurred. The collapse of both the interior and exterior of the upper stories — leaving only the wall to the south precariously standing — has raised fears of an additional collapse.

In a briefing at the scene Thursday morning, Gwangju Mayor Lee Yong-seop said, “We plan to conduct a thorough review with experts, and if the structure’s safety cannot be established, we will consider demolishing and rebuilding the entire structure.”

While it would be contingent on an expert review establishing inadequate safety, he sent a strong message by suggesting that the entire structure — with nearly 40 stories already in place — may be torn down.

Experts were divided on whether the structure should be demolished or reinforced.

Some said that in the wake of a disaster without precedent in construction history that saw the 16 upper stories of a 39-story building come crashing down all at once, a full-scale demolition is unavoidable. Others noted that the belt levels from the 23rd story down appeared to still be in solid shape, suggesting it may be possible to rebuild the upper stories after a detailed safety assessment and structural reinforcement efforts.

“The results of the safety assessment will be key,” said Song Chang-yeong, a professor of architectural engineering at Gwangju University.

“Things like structural safety and resident attitudes could end up being variables,” he predicted.

Prospective residents argued that not only the partially collapsed building but all eight buildings in the two complexes built by HDC should be demolished and rebuilt. Worrying that the buildings are too unsafe to occupy, they said that even if the structure is rebuilt, they would be unable to forget that the upper stories had previously collapsed.

At 3:46 pm Tuesday, the outer wall collapsed on the 23rd to 38th stories of the 201 block of the Hwajeong Ipark apartments, which are currently under construction in Gwangju. Six subcontractor employees who had been working on the 28th to 34th floors went missing in the collapse.

By Kim Yong-hee, Kim Yoon-ju and Ahn Kwan-ok, staff reporters

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]