Story here, but there’s not much detail yet.
People are trapped, 5 have been taken to hospitals, and there’s likely some dead.
WTF?
This sort of thing isn’t supposed to happen in the US.
just a few blocks away from me.
the salvation army has a thrift store that was collapsed by the 4 story building that fell. that is where the rescue efforts are concentrated. i’m told they have half price wednesday, if this happened a few hours later the store would have been filled with lunch time shoppers.
the fire station is only a few doors away from the collapse.
this block and the block next to it have buildings that are being demolished here and there causing the buildings to look like a six year old kid’s smile.
I work in Philly and that’s not far from where I went to grad school. When something like this happens you feel compelled to do something, but the reality is probably that the best thing to do is stay out of the way. I hope these people are out safely, and soon.
Reading the story, they were using the “tear it down brick by brick to sell the old bricks to rich people for garden paths” method. I’ve watched buildings be disassembled like this, and always thought it was only a matter of time before someone was killed on one of these worksites. OSHA regulations are non-existent on these locations.
Now taking bets on how long it’ll be before Alex Jones/Glenn Beck/one of their fellow travelers says it was a “false flag”.
I’ve actually seen situations where some loonball was operating an excavator on the second floor of the building being torn down.
I’m confused. Were they working from the bottom up? Because if so, I agree, that’s probably unwise, at best.
I was objecting to the whole idea of tearing a building down by sending in a bunch of people with hammers to knock individual bricks off the wall, as opposed to just knocking down the wall with a bulldozer. They do this to maximize the yield of whole, unbroken bricks. It’s insanely dangerous.
Last month I attended an address by the OSHA SE regional deputy director. He said that if all the inspectors were called in to work in only the Atlanta metropolitan area, they wouldn’t be done for thirty years.
I’ve donated clothes to that Salvation Army & parked in the garage on the other side on occasion when I worked in sight of the building that was being demolished. What I’ve heard was that the wall wasn’t properly shored up which is why it went for it’s own demolition schedule.
At least one confirmed dead now.
Shit! Now it’s six dead & they’re still searching.
Note to self: if the building next to mine is being demolished, do not be in my building.
14 survivors now that they pulled a 61 year old lady out of the rubble.
Any word on whether the demolition contractor was a reputable business?
From what I’ve read the contractor had all the proper permits and was performing the work in the manner they had said they would. Apparently the city allows the type of brick-stripping demolition work they were engaged in.
I’m amazed how little traction this event has gotten in mainstream media.
From the local paper it was “led by a demolition boss who in addition to a criminal record, also has a history of violations on other properties he’s worked on.”
The TV news has been playing up the criminal record, including insurance fraud for a faked car accident & some drug activity. WTF this has to do with his current company I’m not really sure. They also dug up that he filed for bankruptcy earlier this year. Again, not necessarily germain to whether it was a reputable business or not.
I also heard something about the crane/heavy equipment operator had a felony in his background as well.
The quotes from an architect & a construction guy on a nearby but unrelated job who saw it prior to tumbling & said it didn’t look right & wasn’t shored up as it should be absolutely are pertinent. I am in NO way trying to defend the guy, just wondering why something he personally did bad 8 years ago has any bearing on his current professional actions. Might show a pattern of overall bad character but I think that’s a leap.
It was the lead story on NBC National (TV) news last night, it was lead story on Yahoo’s website for a while yesterday.
To be fair, I’m willing to bet that if there’s any legitimate industry that’s chock-full of ex-cons, it’s probably going to be construction/general labor.
CNN has lead two days in a row now with a Hurricane and NSA data probes. I don’t even know if it ever was a headline on CNN. MSNBC meanwhile today leads with a piece on drones. Fox leads with phone data collection also.
I’ve seen this sort of work done before, and it is not the sort of job you take if anyone else will hire you. You have a hammer. You knock a brick off of a wall with the hammer. You break the mortar off the brick. You stack the brick onto the pile of bricks on a pallet. Repeat.