C&D customer Windmill Demolition in emergency demolition of fire damaged building

A fire has completely gutted a block of 50 flats in Wigan. The problem is, it's unclear how the fire started (although a barbecue is suspected) and the structure isn't deemed safe enough to go in and investigate. Demolition is coming to the rescue though.

C&D customer Windmill Demolition is on site and aiding the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service and investigators to get to the bottom of the blaze. It has been agreed that the top two floors will be demolished to allow the investigation to continue. A hydraulic platform is also being raised and used to take thermal image scans ensuring no more fires are brewing.

While this is going on 50 residents have to be housed. They spent the first night in a local Premiere Inn, but the local council is busy creating a "housing cell" at Mill at the Pier for longer term temporary housing. With the flats gutted, and now in a state of demolition, they could be there a while.

Source: Wigan Today

Wooden Colorado River rail road bridge collapses due to fire

The video above shows a wooden rail road bridge that runs over the Colorado River in Lampass County, Texas. It looks as though it was deliberately set on fire, and it soon spread. Firefighters were on the scene for 15 hours, but they couldn't prevent it from collasping. And to be honest, it would have probably had to be demolished anyway due to the fire damage.

Timelapse of a hotel demolition

Late last year in Belleville, Ontario in Canada, the Hotel Quinte was gutted by a fire the cause of which is still unknown. However, the damage was severe enough the hotel needed to be demolished.

The demolition has been captured in timelapse form by a camera positioned across the street from the hotel. It recorded for several days, over the course of which the camera captured a shot every 60 seconds and stored 1,440 photos each day. The result can be watched below.

The video ends with only half the hotel demolished and the hint that the investigation will be ongoing. I'd imagine the local authorities and fire fighters will want to know exactly what caused the fire before it disappears completely.

University of Edinburgh wants a building to experiment on

The University of Edinburgh has put out a call for a building that it can run experiments in. It's for a large research project run by the university's BRE Centre for Fire Safety Engineering aimed at better understanding the behaviour of fire in modern compartments.

The desired building will have the following characteristics:

- Building has a large compartment, typical of modern open-plan office space
- No occupied buildings in the close vicinity
- Within 1 hour drive from Edinburgh
- To be vacated by end of 2013
- To be demolished after March 2014

Ideally they would like to have a steel-framed building with a continuous concrete slab or any other type of construction which is more modern than the very structurally redundant concrete buildings that were commonplace a few decades back. However they do realise it is unlikely that a modern-construction building is likely to be scheduled for demolition, so we will consider any building that has the above-mentioned characteristics.

An old office building would be ideal. Buildings with housing occupancy tend to have small compartments, however if there is a large communal area, this might be adequate. We will also consider using schools, community centres, factories, warehouses or any other building which meets the desired characteristics.

If you know of a suitable building then please get in touch with one of the following people:

Cecilia Abecassis Empis: 0131 650 6023 or c.abecassis-empis@ed.ac.uk
Adam Cowlard: 0131 650 7161 or adam.cowlard@ed.ac.uk

Glasgow Co-op Funeral Service building demolition begins

At the end of November a fire broke out in the Co-op Funeral Service building (also known as the Gusset Building) on Morrison Street in Glasgow. The fire managed to leave two of the three buildings making up the structure completely gutted.

100+ firefighters brought the fire under control, but the building was deemed dangerous and had to be demolished. Unfortunately, it doesn't look as though anything could be saved, including the well-known and distinctive clock front.

According to STV, demolition has now begun.

The video below was recorded by a resident who also lives in Morrison Street. It shows you the extent of the damage and just how quickly the fire spread through the building:



Source: STV

Innovia Films prosecuted for fuse box fire, severe electrician injuries

Innovia Film, a company specialising in the production of cellulose films for labels and packaging, has been prosecuted for breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act.

In 2006 electrician Gordon Metcalf and his apprentice were working in Innovia's Cumbira factory and were tasked with cleaning a fuse box full of debris. What they didn't expect was the box to shoot out fire. Both electricians had their clothes set on fire, and while the apprentice suffered more minor injuries, Metcalf had burns across 47% of his body. He did survive, but is still undergoing treatment 5 years later.

The HSE investigated and discovered the day before this accident occurred the fuse box had suffered a fire. That box was integral to cooling equipment functioning that allowed production to continue at the factory.

Rather than shutting down production to find out what caused the fire and fix the box, Innovia instead decided to route live cables through it to continue production. A shutdown would have meant being offline for 36 hours.

So Metcalf was asked to work on a fuse box without full knowledge of what had happened the previous day, and while live cables were routed through it.

Innovia pleaded guilty to the charges brought against them and have been fined £90,000. A further £26,790 was demanded by the judge to help pay for the prosecution.


Source: Health and safety at work

100-year anniversary of safety-changing factory fire in pictures

On March 25th, 1911 there was a devastating fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory.

With tons of highly flammable cotton and tissue the blaze burned out of control and the firemen could not put it out, or even get to the fire higher up the building due to inadequate equipment. Much like the Twin Towers on 9/11, workers were trapped and in some cases jumped from the higher floors of the building. In all, 146 people died that day.



The tradgey occurred due to a number of health and safety shortcomings. They included only one fire escape, a single stairway in the building, only one usable elevator, and life nets that had been torn. Fireproof doors has also been locked.

While this event was tragic for all involved and their families, it did force workplaces to be looked at and new safety policies were put in place laying the groundwork for the health and safety regulations we all rely on today.



Source: Time

Fire started deliberately at Dumfries demolition site

Police and fire crews attending a blaze at a demolition site in Dumfries have said the fire was started deliberately.

The site, located at Dalswinton Avenue, consisted of over 170 council houses that were in the process of being demolished. On site there was a large waste timber pile which is where the blaze started at 2am on Tuesday. It took firefighters 3 hours to bring it under control.

Members of the public are being asked to stay off the site for their own safety.

Source: BBC News and London Wired News