On the evening of January 6, the indoor floor of a street-facing shop in Tongxin Garden Community, Houhu Avenue, Jiang'an District, Wuhan City, suddenly collapsed. The shop owner Mr. Li and his family of three, who were having dinner, all fell into a pit over one meter deep. Fortunately, none of them were seriously injured.
　　Indoor collapse on the first floor
　　Mr. Li's shop is in Building 5 of the community. He rents a two-story street-facing building as a massage parlor, operating downstairs and living upstairs. At around 10 a.m. on January 7, the reporter arrived at the scene and saw that the first floor of the massage parlor, about 40 square meters, had a collapsed area of about 20 square meters. The furniture and air conditioners in the shop had fallen over, and the shop was in a mess.
　　Mr. Li said that at around 6:30 p.m. on January 6, he and his wife and son were having dinner on the first floor of the shop when the floor suddenly collapsed, and all three of them fell into the pit created by the collapse. When the floor collapsed, he instinctively protected his 8-year-old son, and then he felt his head, back, and legs being hit. Mr. Li said that what hit him were fallen cabinets, cabinet air conditioners, and other objects. After the collapse, he and his wife were somewhat dazed, and their son was so frightened that he cried and worried that he would not be able to go to school the next day.
　　Mr. Li told the reporter that he felt his injuries were not serious, so he pushed aside the debris pressing on him, first lifted his son to the ground, and then climbed out of the pit himself. At that time, the neighboring merchant saw this and quickly called the community property management staff. The property management staff moved the cabinet pressing on his wife and pulled her out. "It was very deep, about 1.5 meters." Mr. Li's wife gestured and told the reporter that when standing at the bottom of the pit, the original floor was only at her chest level.
　　Ground settlement in multiple locations in the community
　　Several shop owners in the community told the reporter that their shops also had floor depressions, and some owners and merchants had repaired them after discovering the depressions. The reporter saw in the community property management office that the floor between the two offices was deeply sunken, shaped like a dish.
　　Property manager Jia of the community introduced that the community was built in 2007, with a total of 40 buildings, about 1,900 households, and 144 shops, but only Mr. Li's shop had a floor collapse. The collapse occurred because the backfill soil of the shop settled, forming a void between it and the surface concrete, which led to the collapse. After the incident, the property management company reported the situation to the community, street office, housing management, construction, and other relevant departments. On the morning of the 7th, relevant departments conducted a preliminary investigation at the scene. In addition, their preliminary investigation found that about 20 shops had floor depressions.
　　Manager Jia said that the ground in the community has been settling. In April 2016, the cement floor at the entrance of Unit 3, Building 29 collapsed and cracked into several pieces, forming a cavity about 1.6 meters deep. That year, the entire community took five or six months to repair the entrances of the buildings. Ground settlement has caused great damage to the community, with water supply and drainage pipes rupturing, and the community's monthly water loss is 20,000 yuan. In the past year alone, the property management has invested hundreds of thousands of yuan to repair public facilities damaged by settlement.
　　Manager Jia also stated that although the ground in the community has settled, the main structures of the residential buildings are intact, and relevant departments inspect the building structures every year.
　　The reporter learned from the Jiang'an District Construction Bureau that on January 8, experts will go to the community to further investigate the cause of the settlement.