13 Lives Saved in Tanzania Thanks to SANY's Cranes

A building in the down town of Dar es Salaam, the biggest city in Tanzania, collapsed on March 29. In response to the accident SANY immediately sent its cranes to the site. With the help of China’s medical team assisting Tanzania and hundreds of military policemen, 13 people were rescued that day.

According to the witnesses they heard a thunder and thought it was an earthquake and people were screaming and running. Amid the dust they realized what just had happened. And the whole street was covered by big chunks of concrete and bar construction. The construction workers, people passing by the site and children playing football in the neighborhood were all buried underneath.

Military policeman and rescuers who volunteered to come to the site removed small pieces of stones by themselves and tried to remove the chunks of concrete by spade, and round timber, but despite these efforts very little progress was made.

In this critical moment, Zheng Liu, marketing representative of SANY Africa in Tanzania and LAKE OIL (SANY’s customer in Tanzania) went to the site with crane STC500. Though the weather was burning hot SANY’s cranes arrived at the site immediately. The crane extended its boom and hoisted a big chunk of concrete to create space for people underneath to breathe some air. With the help of rescuers, 13 people were rescued that day.

By April 1, the rescue was officially over and the ruins of the building were cleaned up. Local police announced that 36 people died in the accident.

In response to the report on the accident, Wenbo Xaing, president of SANY Heavy Industry said on his microblog that he hope SANY’s equipment would benefit the whole world.

In recent years SANY’s equipment such as excavators, pump trucks, crawler cranes and truck cranes has contributed its part to the rescue work in the wake of disasters like the earthquake in WenChuan, the mine disaster in Chile as well as the earthquake in Japan. On July 3, 2012, the National Production Safety and Rescue Command Center signed a contract with SANY Heavy Machinery to introduce 15 cranes. Since then SANY has become the sole supplier of cranes used for rescue to the National Production Safety and Rescue Command Center.

In 2012 SANY started the free 24-hour rescue service which provides assistance with lifting equipment for any rescue effort in case of emergency.