A student said that it took less than 10 seconds for the ceiling to fall down. Rescue teams searched all the night and continued searching Tuesday on the wreckage, with about 400 rescuers on the scene. The cause of the collapse is being investigated but apparently the collapse occurred due to heavy snow which had piled up on the roof. Inside the building all became a mass of twisted metal. “Heavy equipment has been brought in to clear the debris”, said a fire official. The resort which is high up a mountain was in an area that has experienced exceptionally heavy snowfall. The weather slowed also the rescue efforts delaying the arrival of the emergency staff to the site. They arrived at about 20 – 30 minutes after the collapse occurred. The Mauna Ocean Resort was a pre-fabricated structure. The auditorium was assembled with rigid frames and side walls, resembling to the aviation hangars.
Kim Jeon Dong, a professor of architecture at Hanbat National University declared to the media that “it’s another case of insensibility toward safety” because “in snowy areas like this the construction regulations should be tougher.”
