Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor:  Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report   

Video Credit: AsiaWire

This footage seen over five million times shows firemen escaping unscathed as the burning facade of a blazing building appears to collapse right on top of them as witnesses scream.

The dramatic moment was captured by witnesses in the village of Changshan, where members of the Wucheng District fire service, from the city of Jinhua in East China’s Zhejiang Province, were tackling the blaze on 5th January.

The blaze was reported at 9:23pm local time, with three fire engines and a total of 21 personnel dispatched to the scene, the fire service said.

Video shows a group of four rescuers, who were each carrying some 66 lbs of equipment, walking in front of the wood and brick structure when its facade suddenly collapses.

The unsuspecting rescuers, who are aged between 22 and 25, have no time to react as the facade made of bricks crashes to the ground, apparently on top of some of them, as the footage appears to show.

Rescuers Ni Jiayue, Wang Yongfei, Zhou Chao and Nie Ping were able to clamber away from the rubble and avoided injuries, the fire service’s report said.

Ni said: “We were in the process of relocating to another part of the site when the collapse happened.

“Fortunately, the building didn’t fall directly onto us. It crashed onto the ground next to us and kicked up a lot of dust and debris.”

The blaze, which resulted in no injuries or deaths, was put out by 11:46pm, but the cause of the fire was still unclear and pending the outcome of an ongoing investigation, the service added.

The ViralTab page is created by and dedicated to professional, independent freelance journalists. It is a place for us to showcase our work. When our news is sold to our media partners, we will include the link here.