Rana Plaza Collapse (huge life losses)

[eastwatch]

Though I'd blame the greedy Garments factory owners for this tragic accident.

No, no. The building is not owned by any garments fatory. It is owned by some irresponsible Rana. Many owners mistakenly think a building can stand well on its feet whatever may be the subsoil conditions, lengths/diameters of piles, strengths of superstructure consisting of columns, beams and floors. In many other cases, owners force the designer and contractor to reduce the sizes of columns, beams and floors, and reduce the area of steel bars in order to reduce the cost.

Yet, in some other cases, the designers do not follow the design rules set out in the US design codes like ACI, ASTM, ASCE or ANSI, or similar British codes and standards. Most of them in BD do not even know that these standards exist. For example, the ACI code specifies the live or imposed load on the floors to be 400kg/m2 for public buildings like cinema, theater, shopping center, office buildings etc. where a heavy concentration of human movements are expected many times in a day.

I doubt, the design engineers or the owners care much about these things. Their moto is 'There will be no problem,' but then there are collapses like this.

 

[jaunty]

dhaka medical is full of hefajat karmi now who want to donate blood for the cause. young teenagers are also coming. good to know patriotism is still alive...

Trying to gain political mileage on this thread too?
----
No value for human life in South Asia. The story is same everywhere.

 

[Sugarcane]

R,I,P ......

 

[Imran Khan]

really sad tragedy .

 

[Skallagrim]

No, no. The building is not owned by any garments fatory. It is owned by some irresponsible Rana. Many owners mistakenly think a building can stand well on its feet whatever may be the subsoil conditions, lengths/diameters of piles, strengths of superstructure consisting of columns, beams and floors. In many other cases, owners force the designer and contractor to reduce the sizes of columns, beams and floors, and reduce the area of steel bars in order to reduce the cost.

Yet, in some other cases, the designers do not follow the design rules set out in the US design codes like ACI, ASTM, ASCE or ANSI, or similar British codes and standards. Most of them in BD do not even know that these standards exist. For example, the ACI code specifies the live or imposed load to be 400kg/m2 for public buildings like cinema, theater, shopping center, office buildings etc. where a heavy concentration of human movements are expected many times in a day.

I doubt, the design engineers or the owners care much about these things. Their moto is 'There will be no problem,' but then there are collapses like this.

One pillar ruptured yesterday suddenly, having noticed that the workers stopped working and went home. Today they again came to work, willingly? I doubt it, either the factory owners or some other persons forced them to come to work. One thing to ponder about- why Sheikh Hasina tried to hide the truth by saying they had come to 'take their valuables back' and suddenly the building collapsed? Did they have to come to work because the building owner being an Awami leader himself thought that if they didn't work it would give the impression that they ceased to work in observance of the strike called by BNP?


Workers forced to enter despite the cracks in building noticed


Thousands of workers of three garments have been ordered to attend work despite the crack came under notice.
Last Update 24 April,2013 04:51:36 pm

Dhaka (RTNN): The crack in walls and a pillar that leads to the fatal collapse of the eight-stored building ‘Rana Plaza’ in Dhaka’s outskirts, has been noticed earlier on Tuesday. But the owner of the complex and ruling party’s local leader ignored the risk.

It is thought that the complex, which housed three or four garment factories, may have been the workplace of up to 3,000 people, although it is unclear how many were in the building when it collapsed.

At least 85 bodies were recovered from the debris of the building that collapsed on Wednesday morning. And at least 800 injured people rescued from the rubbles of the crashed buildings.

They were admitted to different local hospitals and clinics in critical conditions. Of the dead bodies, many were kept at local Enam Medical College Hospital while the rest in different other hospital and clinics, but the victims could not yet be identified yet.

"I 've received 85 bodies and sent those to various hospitals and clinics," Wahiduzzaman, OC DB (Dhaka district) told Journalists. Witnesses said the building, ‘Rana Plaza’, collapsed all of a sudden after a big bang around 9.00am.

Earlier on Tuesday, soon after tracing out of the crack on the building, people and workers rushed to escape from the feared collapse. But owner of the complex Sohel Rana and Kabir Hossain, the Chief Executive Officer of Savar Sub-district have assured that the crack was not serious.

Building owner Mr. Rana is a senior convener of local unit of Jubo League, youth wing of ruling Awami League.

Later on Wednesday morning, without taking any repairing measures, thousands of workers of three garments have been ordered to attend work in that building.

 

[BDforever]

One pillar ruptured yesterday suddenly, having noticed that the workers stopped working and went home. Today they again came to work, willingly? I doubt it, either the factory owners or some other persons forced them to come to work. One thing to ponder about- why Sheikh Hasina tried to hide the truth by saying they had come to 'take their valuables back' and suddenly the building collapsed? Did they have to come to work because the building owner being an Awami leader himself thought that if they didn't work it would give the impression that they ceased to work in observance of the strike called by BNP?

tv news channel showed interview of injured workers, they said owner and his office people forced them to work

 

[Skallagrim]

tv news channel showed interview of injured workers, they said owner and his office people forced them to work

Which owner? building or factory owner?

 

[BDforever]

Which owner? building or factory owner?

factory owner

 

[EXPERIMENT]

Sad.... Sickness of the subcontinent

 

[kobiraaz]

Trying to gain political mileage on this thread too?
----
No value for human life in South Asia. The story is same everywhere.

yeah also know that, owner of the building rana is awamileague leader. this is not accident. this is cold blooded murder. there was crack yesterday but the workers werenot allowed to leave. shame on the govt.

 

[Backbencher]

RIP departed souls .
BBC is currently telecasting this affair

 

[Durrak]

Rest in peace ..

 

[kalu_miah]

My condolences to the victims of this avoidable tragedy. Building codes need better enforcement. Several groups of people should be investigated and prosecuted under charge of criminal negligence:

1. owner of the building who may not have followed proper design and construction
2. structural/architectural firms who designed this building
3. construction firm that constructed the building
4. management/owner of garment factories who allowed these people in after the building was cracking and became clearly unsafe for occupants

People should not get away with murder, whether it is in politics or in criminal negligence in running of a business or in constructing unsafe buildings.

 

[Mattrixx]

 

[eastwatch]

It crumbles like a pack of cards | The Daily Star

THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2013
It crumbles like a pack of cards
National mourning today
Shaheen Molla

It was 8:45am, a bright glorious morning. The nine-storey Rana Plaza in Savar was humming with life. Sewing machines whirred; irons steamed. Nobody was much bothered about the cracks that had developed in the building the day before. In fact, more than 2,000 people working there had forgotten it in the flurry of activity.

Laxmi Sarkar, a sewing machine helper, was working on her machine next to a pillar on the third floor. Suddenly, she felt that the floor started tipping, as if it had come alive. The first thing that came to her mind was the cracks in the building.

Laxmi jumped up. As she was running down the stairs, she heard a thunderous sound.
She saw the pillars and beams coming down. Along with many others, she got trapped inside the building.

Hours later, rescuers started pulling out the trapped workers. And eight hundred of them came out alive.

Jharna Begum was gazing out of the window at her garment factory opposite Rana Plaza. Suddenly, she heard a loud noise. She could not believe her eyes, as she saw the plaza crumbling down like a deck of cards.

Within seconds, the nine-storey building was reduced to rubble with dusts rising up slowly. A part of the plaza tipped onto another three-storey building that also collapsed trapping at least 16 people inside.

Jharna shivered thinking of the fate of the people working there.

Thousands of people thronged the scene after the disaster. Many of them were in tears without having any clue where to look for their loved ones. The army and the fire service found it difficult to carry out the rescue operation.

A few thousand volunteers were busy keeping the road clear for ambulances.

The ill-fated building had no approval from Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) that authorises the construction of buildings. The pillars of the illegal structure contained only nine thin iron rods each. And its floors were constructed in phases.

The country will observe a national mourning day tomorrow in memory of the victims of the Savar tragedy. Special prayers will be offered in mosques, temples, pagodas and other places of worship for the salvation of their departed souls.

The government yesterday donated Tk 55 lakh to the victims. The family of each deceased would get Tk 20,000 while every injured person would receive Tk 5,000, Abdul Wazed, director general of the Department of Disaster Management, told The Daily Star in the evening. The families of 45 deceased had already received the money, he said.