The ceiling collapsed in the middle of a show in the Apollo Theatre in London, at 8PM local time. The place was packed, and the ceiling collapse also brought down part of a balcony.
There appear to be more than 80 injured, several of them in “serious” condition (sources are saying either 4 or 7).
I didn’t expect this kind of things to happen nowadays… I cannot conceive that there were structural troubles that had not been detected during check-ups (I think that they carry out periodic check-ups in this kind of venues, right?). What might have been the reason for this accident?
It is terrible that so many people were hurt. Hopefully nobody will die.
Very early report but this may have started it. I’m glad there haven’t been any reported deaths. The fire rescue did a really good job getting people out quickly.
I used to have a weird phobia of theater and Church balconies when I was a kid. When I was on them I just couldn’t get the thought of them collapsing, and how screwed I’d be if they did, out of my head.
I got over it, but if I’d read about this when I was ten I probably wouldn’t have been able to go in a theater for a decade or two.
Ironic that somebody cut a few corners a hundred years ago and the plaster ceiling comes down on Dec 19,2013. It may have been unstable for many years. But how could anyone tell with just a surface inspection?
I wouldn’t want to be the inspector that went tap, tap, tap Crash!!! You broke it, you own it.
I see it happened about 8pm. I was leaving work in London about 7.15pm and there was a thunderstorm with very heavy rain at the time. I wonder whether either a lightning strike (although that surely would have been noticed?) or water penetrating a leak in the roof could have been responsible?
There was scaffolding up on the adjacent building so it is possible that works there had somehow caused damage to the external roof.
Yes Colophon, Emergency Services has that theory about the rain:
" Mark Field, the MP for the Cities of London and Westminster, which includes the West End, said he had been briefed by the emergency services and the working theory was that heavy rain caused the collapse.
He said: “Probably what happened was that we had this flash flood-type thunderstorm and there may have been a problem with the drainage and water settled on the roof."
Still you would think the theatre has had very heavy rainstorms before in its 113 year history.
This is pure speculation, but my first thoughts were a long standing roof leak that weakened the ornamental plaster but, due to the gilding, didn’t penetrate the rather ornate ceiling. The heavy rain might have been the straw that broke the camels back.
I think I got the wrong Apollo… there’s the Apollo London and the Apollo Victoria London. The first was the one that had the issue, and the second one is the one that’s been showing Wicked for 7-8 years now.
Its a horrible tragedy. My heart goes out to the victims.
If there is any good that can come of it, though, hopefully it can be found how this fault was not detected earlier, steps can be to improve the system going forward, and other buildings can be rapidly re inspected before there is another tragedy.
