From Geekosystem: [This is a must watch video / safe for work]
On Wednesday, thousands of Springfield, Ohio residents were left without power when a 275-foot smokestack being demolished fell the wrong way, knocking down two 12,500 volt power lines and crushing “several pieces of power equipment,” including a building that stored backup generators.
According to the demolition company that handled the work at the former Ohio Edison Mad River Power Plant (not a nuclear power plant –Ed.), the explosives detonated correctly, “but an undetected crack on the south side of the tower pulled it in a different direction. ‘Nobody’s happy with things that go wrong in life, and sometimes it’s out of our hands and beyond anybody’s prediction. … We’re all extremely thankful no one was injured,’ Kelly told The Columbus Dispatch.”
Watch the video below:
I can think of many metaphors for what this wayward tower represents: politics, the economy, and climate change come to mind. Anyone think of some specific metaphors…?
John Whitman says:
November 13, 2010 at 5:41 am
Having some logging experience, I have found that trees do not always obey the intentions of the guy with the chainsaw.
John are you saying that trees don’t have any regard for the “consensus” opinion?
Come back, Fred Dibnah!
RE: Rick K: (November 12, 2010 at 6:17 pm)
“Trust us. We’re the experts. We know what we’re doing.”
Well, perhaps more often than not …
Why put power lines so close to chimneys that will be demolished with explosives?
@Francisco says: November 13, 2010 at 8:18 am
This one was also done with a technique that was not only mastered by Frank Dibnah, it dates much further back in history, for example during the Medival Warm Period it was a method demolishing castle walls during a siege, basically what you do is you dig a tunnel under a wall, enlarge the tunnel once you are under the wall and place wooden struts to support the ceiling, then fill the room with flammable materials and set it ablaze.
Also known as (under) mining, it works even better when explosives are used, lots of it. Mind you, this poses a bit of problem when the castle or fortification is build on solid rock, wetlands, sand, behind deep moats and in the middle of lakes.
i hav cut down trees and you always think about all of the options on how the tree might fall. These people were unprepared in my opinion. Standing right under the power lines when you can obviously see that the tower could reach the lines is just plain unprepared. Forget about murphys law here.
Shovel ready.
I’m sure this entire issue can be explained by isotopes, right Ammonite ?
In Hollywood movies, when disaster is imminent the adults grab the kids and run away. Reality sucks.
http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/news/springfield-news/many-flee-as-tower-demo-fails-falls-wrong-way-999527.html
Sometimes things just go wrong.
I have done a lot of farm sile drops and got into it after the local ace had a 1/2 ton fragment land on him. These tower thingy’s have a degree of unpredictability and explosives and their accessaries are not terribly reliable. Slow fuses, damp prima cord, and jsut plain bad luck make for a bad mix. Murphy’s Law is the only constant.
I figure my good record/reputation was just good luck and a lot of prayer.
IMHO having spectators under a power line that crossed the shadow was not clever…..reckless….
The British have “Sods Law”
If a thing can go wrong it will and when it does it will be at the least conveieint moment and in the worst way possible.
Robert says:
Also known as (under) mining, it works even better when explosives are used, lots of it. Mind you, this poses a bit of problem when the castle or fortification is build on solid rock, wetlands, sand, behind deep moats and in the middle of lakes.
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Lakes? Lakes are crucial in analysis. In fact, it is well known that mental lacunae can often grow to be large enough to swallow reason raw and whole.