According to Chinanews.com, there are still uncertainties about the CCTV building fire, but one thing that is sure is that it has created an enormous financial burden.
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| The photo?shows the north wing building of the new CCTV (China Central Television) headquarters after the massive fire.?The fire broke out on Monday night at the building, namely Mandarin Oriental Hotel, which is about hundreds of meters away from the new CCTV main tower in east Beijing. |
The new CCTV site, formally started in May 2005 based on a Rotterdam-based OMA design, involved a total budget of about US $730 million. Opinions differ widely as to the extent of the loss: one architect has estimated that it is likely to reach US $ 85 to 100 million, excluding some shops inside the building and 241 five-star standard rooms.
"The worst-case scenario will require the removal of the entire building with a loss of 100 percent of the investment," Says Yan Peiyu, a Tsinghua University Professor.
The building is covered by a "total construction insurance" contract provided by PICC until June this year, according to PICC (The People's Insurance Company of China).
Sun Qixiang, Vice-President of the Economic Institute of Peking University, believes that the insurance coverage will depend on the content of the contract. If the cause of the blaze should indeed turn out to be the lighting of fireworks, the question will then turn on whether this is an excluded activity. An insurance contract always contains rules on certain responsibilities and exclusions, and PICC would not pay up if there has been any infringement of these rules.
In the "whole insurance for construction" contract, it is stipulated that "PICC can refuse a claim if the loss and responsibility is caused by guaranteed person's intentional act or gross negligence".
Officials from the Chaoyang branch of PICC said that firstly it remains uncertain whether lighting fireworks is against the law or not, and secondly, any official statement on payment of reparations would have to come from Head Office. PICC Head Office and its branches have made no formal statement, simply directing any enquiries to the information on the official website.
In the context of Monday night's massive fire that caused one death and seven injuries, regulations say that fireworks should only be ignited by professionals after making the appropriate application to the police, which the person accused of causing the blaze did not do.
Regulations further state that it is forbidden to ignite fireworks in the vicinity of sites where flammable or explosive materials are stored, or sites carrying a major fire risk. Again, the person accused of causing the blaze failed to respect these rules by igniting the fireworks on the construction site.
After the incident, Xu Wei, who was in charge of civil construction on the new CCTV site in eastern Beijing's central business district, was detained. Beijing police also collected video evidence - four cameras were on location to shoot the display. There was also a police presence, but the officers on site were unable to prevent the catastrophe.
(China.org.cn by Jessica Zhang, February 18, 2009)