A Brief History
On March 15, 1986, the Hotel New World in Singapore arguably became the worst hotel in the world in moments when the six story building suddenly collapsed, burying 50 people under the rubble. Fortunately, 17 of those people were saved, but the other 33 died.
Digging Deeper
Hotel New World, originally called the New Serangoon Hotel, was built in 1971 and had a name change in 1984. The ground floor was a bank, the second floor was a nightclub, and the top four floors were the hotel. A parking garage was in the basement.
Perhaps an omen to future disaster, the hotel suffered a carbon monoxide leak into the hotel rooms in 1975.
When the collapse came, there was no warning and the building fell in less than a minute. An explosion like noise caused speculation that a gas leak had caused a blast, but investigation revealed improper construction to be the cause of the failure.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
de Jong, Ria. Lonely Planet Singapore 12. Lonely Planet, 2022.
Hon, Joan. Hotel New World collapse. Times Books International, 1987.
The featured image in this article, The Sunday Times front page the day after the incident, is now in the public domain because its term of copyright has expired, according to the Copyright Act (Cap. 63) of Singapore.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.
