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.

Multi Storey Car park operators call for inspection regime

New Civil Engineer this month includes an article on the state of UK multi storey car parks and the need for them to be regularly inspected and maintained to prevent collapse. A recent collapse in Ontario, as mentioned in the article, caused the death of 2 people and injured many more and lead us to believe that similar incidents could occur in the UK.

The article mentions the car park in Scunthorpe, where C&D were acting as demolition consultants to the council, that was closed and then demolished by GBM Limited following the failure of a routine inspection. We have, in the West Midlands, seen the collapse of a car park in Piper's Row, Wolverhampton on 20 March 1997 (subsequently demolished by Coleman & Company) and the recent explosive demolition of Stourbridge Car Park by DSM (featured on this site).

C&D have also been involved as demolition consultants for the demolition of Barnstaple Car Park, by Lawson Demolition Limited and as consultants following the partial collapse of a car park at Southend on Sea during demolition by Elvanite Limited.

From our own experience of structures of this type we can only agree with the car park operators that regular inspection, testing, and maintenance is needed to ensure that our ageing car parks remain safe, and all suspect car parks are demolished safely and quickly to remove any chance of a premature collapse.

If you would like details of our work as consultants on multi storey car park demolition please do not hesitate to contact john.woodward@demolishdismantle.co.uk

Our thanks go to John Harris of Stewart & Harris Limited for sending us the article.