A Brief History of: The Sampoong Department Store Collapse (Documentary)

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New fear unlocked.. surviving a building collapse, being trapped underneath and then getting unknowingly drowned by the fire department

This story is a good reminder why building codes exist. Not to cost money but to save lives.

As an architecture student,, when I heard the slab system, reduced column section to increase space, on top of that adding a whole new floor and increasing the load distributed on each floor... absolutely BAFFLING

I haven’t fact checked this, but I heard from someone that when interviewed, the owner said; “My reputation was ruined.” This obviously ended up in backlash because why would he be concerned about his reputation when 500 people died. This incident was horrible, it must have been very traumatizing for all victims. Imagine being unable to stay indoors because of a trauma-related fear of the roof collapsing in on you again. Absolutely horrible.

"They didn't recalculate, they just made some adjustments on the blueprint" Well, that's your problem right there.

“With collapse all but guaranteed, an emergency board meeting was held.” Incredible

I was amazed by Korean shopping malls today when I went there recently. So big, so well designed and structured. Sad to know they probably learned a hard lesson of building regulations for these to exist today after this disaster.

Amazing that a 20 minute earlier evacuation would have saved likely everyone.

Funny story; the guy who insisted they stay open, but left the building for his own safety? His daughter-in-law worked in the building and was rescued from the rubble days later. He didn't even bother trying to find her to warn to her.

Nineteen-year-old store clerk Park Sung Hyon was rescued from a coffin-sized space in the basement 16 days after the collapse. I don't even want to imagine what that must have been like for her.

I remember watching a documentary about this disaster as a kid. What still stands out to me was the epilogue, in which further building inspections were carried out across South Korea. And in these inspections, they found that 2% of the buildings inspected, were safe...

Me, starting to watch this: Oh, must be because of poor building on the landfill. Me, in finishing this: Oh balls, this was probably the most avoidable disaster PD has ever covered.

Looks like the original construction company missed a bullet and stuck to intelligent thinking rather than worshipping greed and profit, kudos to them for that hope they went from strength to strength in the future.

If a manager disagrees with closing a building, they should be mandated to remain on-site.

"The land was cleared and turned into luxury apartments." Welcome to literally every city, where a dump site gets turned into a mall, and then high priced condos and apartments.

Park sung Hyon surviving is one of the most amazing stories ever. Trapped in a coffin sized space only slightly larger than her body for 16 days in almost total darkness. She is thought to only have survived due to a small trickle of water that she was able to drink from that saved her from dying of thirst

Moral of the story: when the owners and managers leave, do the same.

Sampoong survivor(discovered fairly soon. No permanent injury except psychological ones) here. This still hurts my heart. Well made video. Except some pronunciation(understandable), solid research and good video. Me and my family was frequent visitor of the department store. Underground food court had good quality and cheap price. I remember one of the very few Wendy's store was there too. People expected to find survivors there due to the some pillars and large area but found nothing but corpses. I was lucky, stayed near escalator. I remember about 140 people's body parts were found at the Nanjido landfill. Like Sampoong site became the luxury apartment complex, Nanjido landfill got covered and became the park and World cup soccer stadium. I never go there. Eerie.

How to commit mass murder: 1. Build and manage a defective building 2. ignore all the warning signs 3. Wait for the building to collapse 4. Sign all of your company's money and assets (of which haven't been transferred under your name yet) to the victims' families 5. Sit in jail for 10.5 years, later reduced to 7.5, and continue to live ur life with your money