Sludge floods homes after wall collapses

By Wang Xiang and Dong Hui  |   2009-2-13  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

THREE houses were flooded with sludge from a construction site in Jing'an District yesterday.

The sludge poured into the homes about 5:45am. Mud was being stored behind a wall of Concord City, a hotel and suites project still under construction. When the wall collapsed, a wave of silt flooded the houses, which were less than 1 meter from the site.

A resident was in a hallway of one of the homes when the sludge poured in.

"My husband narrowly escaped when the wall fell," said Zhu, a resident living behind the construction site. "He could have been buried alive if he entered the house one minute later."

Zhu said the sludge was 1 meter high in the hallway and that they could not open the door due to its weight.

A neighbor surnamed Chen said motorcycles and bicycles stored in the hallway were buried under the sludge.

The Jing'an government said the residents and the builder reached an amicable solution.

"Concord City agreed to pay clean up costs and rebuild the wall," said Yao Yaming with the district government.

"The builder has all necessary licenses and its operations are legal," Yao said.