Woman falls into hot water as road collapses in Beijing

A woman in Beijing is now in critical condition, with 90% of her skin deeply burned after she fell into hot water beneath the pavement when the road suddenly collapsed, according to Beijing News.
27-year-old white-collar worker Ms. Yang was returning to her office when the pavement suddenly caved in. The pipe beneath the pavement, which conveys hot water to a near-by building, happened to crack at the same time and water bursting out of the pipe almost submerged the victim.
Yang’s colleague, a woman surnamed Ma, who was walking with her when the accident happened, helped get her out together with a middle-aged male passerby. She told Beijing Times that by the time they managed to get Yang out, her skin and flesh were “almost separated.”
Yang is now suffering from multiple organ failure and has to depend on kidney dialysis to survive.
The leakage of the water pipe had been reported before the accident happened, said the local heating company, but the proprietor of Wuhua Mansion, the building to which the pipe belonged, did not take any measures to address the problem.
Ma said she only saw steam when she was walking and found nothing else wrong. “If somebody had warned us about the potential danger, we would not have gone that way at all,” she said.
The water pipe involved belonged to Wuhua Mansion, a building by the road, and local heating company had warned about potential safety risks before, but the proprietor did not address the problem at all.
The building developer has advanced 320,000 yuan to aid with the victim’s medical expenses. She currently remains in critical condition.

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