Safety fear leads to evacuation of apartment residents

Nearly 100 residents from 30 households in a 28-year-old apartment building in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, were forced to leave the building on Sunday evening as huge cracks were found in the structure, according to Suwon City, Monday.

The local government said the fire authorities received a report at 7:05 p.m. on Sunday that cracks appeared in a joint connecting the apartment building with a ventilation duct. The building cracked from the seventh to the 15th floors, with their width being about five centimeters.

Due to the cracks, 92 residents evacuated the apartment building and there have been no reports of casualties.

Right after the evacuation, Suwon City carried out an emergency safety investigation, and determined that the ventilation duct was likely to collapse.

However, in preparation for every eventuality, the local government evacuated the residents to a senior citizens’ center and a church. On Monday, the local government performed an intensive safety inspection of the apartment building and decided to remove the ventilation duct.

“Exterior environmental factors such as rainwater and wind corroded the ventilation duct into cracking. It is inevitable to demolish it,” a local government official said.

“The removal work is expected to take three or four days.”

But the official added that the apartment building itself does not face an immediate risk of collapse.

The 15-floor apartment building was built in 1991.