Demolition triumphs are quickly forgotten, but mistakes live on in infamy.

This morning, along with the usual offers of Viagra and penis enlargements, my email inbox contained a message that filled my heart with a mix of dread and loathing. The reason for my fear was due to the fact that the message was marked “Demolition Fail” and I knew, without even opening the accompanying video attachment, that it was the latest example of the Turkish building performing a forward roll that we featured on Demolition News some months ago.

Now I have just checked my deleted items and I can tell you that I have been sent the same piece of video (or links to it) no less than 37 times. I have also just done a quick recap of my Twitter feed and I find that this same video has been picked up by my search engine more than 100 times. And on YouTube, one version of the same video has been viewed more than 120,000 times.

You see, in the days of print media, a story of this type generally lasted about as long as that edition of the newspaper: Today’s news is tomorrow’s fish and chip wrapper, as the UK adage would have it.

But in the world of digital media, just about everything we do is added to the constantly-evolving cyberspace landscape and will remain there long after we’ve all hung up our hard hats and safety boots.

Which is why I firmly believe that demolition contractors need to think twice before speaking to or involving the non-trade press in any way, shape or form?

Want to know why? Let me give you some examples.

We recently followed the run-up to the implosion of a chimney in Leicestershire here in the UK. The opportunity to “press the button” had been auctioned off to raise money for charity, the local newspapers and radio and TV channels had been informed, and – seemingly best of all – one of the presenters from the TV programme Top Gear was expected to be on hand.

Come the appointed hour when the button was pressed and, thanks apparently to some faulty detonators, nothing happened.

Now to the average “blaster”, such an eventuality was not entirely without precedent, which is why the contractor in question had a high reach excavator on hand to subsequently push the chimney over.

However, to the national press, this was news indeed. Not only did the chimney fail to fall but the Top Gear presenter had failed to show up as well. As a result, the contractor in question – a highly professional and well-trained outfit – made perhaps their one and only appearance in a national newspaper linked forever to a job that had gone a little awry.

But there’s worse. Let’s try a little role-play.

Imagine you had overseen the explosive demolition of a bridge that had sent a foot long shard of copper shrapnel through the roof of a nearby house, and several houses have had windows broken by flying debris, even though they had apparently been assured that they were in a safe zone.

At this point, a local news reporter sticks a microphone under your nose and asks: “Well, how do you think it went?” What do you say?
a. “No comment”
b. “We’re still assessing things and will be able to provide you with a full statement just as soon as our investigations are complete.”
c. “I think we hit a home run here. I am tickled to death.”

If you answered a, the chances are that you have been watching too many TV movies and believe that the term “no comment” will be construed as a declaration of innocence.

If you answered b, you’ve probably had some media training and have just afforded yourself some thinking time in which to address the concerns and complaints of local residents whilst preparing a formal statement.

If you answered c, you should almost certainly have all your media liaison privileges revoked with immediate effect, regardless of your position within your company or your stature in the industry.

Sounds like a joke, right? Well, in truth, I have written this, in part, for comedic effect. But the fact is that this is based upon a real event and real quotes from a contract in Pittsburgh earlier this year. And here we are, five months later, and those quotes live on.

And, sadly, it is not just the single contractor that is tarnished with this but the entire demolition industry.

In the UK, the National Federation of Demolition Contractors now requires each of its members to have a site audited for best practice as a prerequisite of membership, and the Institute of Demolition Engineers offers a formal qualification for its members. In the US, the National Demolition Association runs its Demolition Academy sessions, again to promote best practice. And even the European Demolition Association, traditionally a forum for cross-border politics, has attempted to lobby the European Parliament to promote the cause of demolition professionalism.

Yet all that can be undermined in an instant.

Demolition, particularly explosive demolition, may be an art but it is an imprecise science. An unforeseen defect in a structure’s composition CAN result in debris flying further than calculations and previous experience might suggest; a change in wind direction CAN deposit plumes of dust in precisely the area we were trying to avoid.

How you handle such eventualities on the day and, moreover, how you handle them with the press will dictate whether you’re seen as a king for a day or a fool for a lifetime.

Demolition of former middle school attracts copper and metal thieves.

In the original version of the story, they came bearing gold, frankincense and myrrh. But in the modern retelling, they came to Bethlehem looking not to deliver but to remove.

According to the Bethlehem Area News, the demolition and stripping of the old Broughal Middle School in Bethlehem has attracted a slew of copper and other metal thieves, according to police.

Piles of copper piping and mounds of wire have been stolen, police said, in the few days the school has been under demolition. Several hundred pounds of copper is missing from the site, police said.

Latest installment in our series of “the press knows nothing” series.

It’s less than 24 hours since I ranted on about the general ignorance of the press and its refusal to understand the demolition business. And already, we have another example of just how little they know about what constitutes professional demolition.

We reported last week on the implosion of the Mountain Bell building in Phoenix. And here is a part of the report on the resulting clean-up operation as written by azcentral.com:

The explosive demolition earlier this week of the 10-story building at Third Street and Earll Drive went off as planned. The building came down, a plume of dust went up and debris showered some homes in the neighborhood.

Now, just to be clear, a plume of dust is an unfortunate and largely unavoidable side-effect of an implosion. But debris showered onto neighbouring homes is a serious mistake, and not an example of demolition going “as planned”.

The rest of the story can be found here.

The demolition of Houston’s Savoy Hotel is back on again; and Cherry got picked!

It’s a saga that has taken more twists and turns than the worst daytime soap opera; but the demolition of part of the Savoy Hotel in Houston is finally reaching its denouement.

You may recall that the crumbling edifice of the older part of the structure had been earmarked for demolition, with Cherry Demolition being the low bidder at a price of $448,000. However, this met with objections from the building’s owner, who preferred to appoint a contractor of is own choosing and negotiate his own price direct.

And word reaches us that Cherry Demolition has manged to retain the contract for an as-yet undisclosed sum.

More details can be found here.

Despite media suggestions to the contrary, demolition contractors are acting on orders

I know this is site is called Demolition News and that, as the name suggests, our job is to bring you the latest news from the world of demolition. But, every once in a while (and it does seem to happen most often on a Friday) I am overtaken by the need to vent my spleen; a pre-weekend catharsis if you will.

So what has fallen under my steely gaze this time I hear you sigh, perhaps more in abject dejection than genuine interest?

Well, I’ll tell you. I am seriously hacked off with the media: the newspapers; magazines; TV and radio channels that occasionally turn their unknowing, inaccurate and downright ignorant spotlight on this industry of ours.

Now, before anyone reaches for the keyboard to point out that I am part of the media, let’s set that aside for one second. For what I am talking about here is the media from an “outsiders looking in” perspective and not about someone who spends almost as much time in and around demolition as those he writes about (and hey, this is my site and I can make exceptions to suit my own ends).

For years, I have tolerated the media’s almost total refusal to find out more about this business of ours. I have tutted loudly as a TV news reporter has talked of “the bulldozers moving in” when there’s a wheel loader directly behind him; I have shaken my head in disappointment when a newspaper article refers to a wrecking ball and shows a photo of an excavator; and I have cringed as highly complex explosive demolition work is dismissed as “blowing stuff up”.

But what has genuinely got my goat, ruffled my feathers, rattled my cage and just generally pissed me off this time is the apparent belief among the media that demolition contractors are some form of uncontrollable marauding force that blunders about the place demolishing any structure it takes a dislike to.

Such suggestions are generally the lead into an article or news item about how local residents are up in arms (they’re always up in arms, aren’t they) about the demolition of some much-loved local landmark.

Now forgive me for stating the obvious, but to the best of my knowledge, no demolition contractor has ever randomly marked a structure for destruction. The demolition of any structure comes as a result of months and even years of planning and negotiation, 95% of which doesn’t even involve the demolition contractor.

Which makes me wonder – exactly where were the up-in-arms merchants when the local authority liaison or planning meetings were taking place? Were they, perhaps, sat at home waiting for the sound of bulldozers (that’s an excavator buddy, OK!) to trigger them into action?

Public ignorance of the demolition business is forgivable and altogether understandable. They have been raised on a series of TV exclusives in which buildings are blown up (down, surely) and fed a constant diet of ill-informed coverage of high profile demolition contracts by – yep, you guessed it – the media.

The crazy thing is, there’s no excuse for such media ignorance. If they’ve been to a site, surely they could have taken an extra thirty seconds to make sure that the terminology they were using was, in fact, correct. And even if they haven’t there are plenty of experts off and online that would be only too willing to guide them through.

But then I guess it’s hard to fit research into a celebrity-creating/celebrity-baiting agenda. Let’s face it, demolition, the people it employs and its ability to shape our landscape is way less important than Britney Spears’ latest breakdown….right?

Oh, and by the way British media types: it’s only called a JCB if it says so on the machine; that Caterpillar logo really should be a clue!

National Demolition Association offers final few places at Demolition Academy.

The Demolition Academy – an intensive safety and management training program of the National Demolition Association – has spaces remaining for this year’s event at the OSHA Training Institute in Arlington Heights, IL, October 14-16.

The schedule of events for the Demolition Academy includes a Demolition-Specific OSHA 10-Hour Certification and well as in-depth training in fall protection, accident investigation, confined space, and aerial lift training. There is also an option for a full-day management training workshop.

The National Demolition Association’s Demolition Academy gives participants a wide selection of options for attending the event for one, two, or all three days. The pre-registration deadline is October 7. For more information, contact the association at info@demolitionassociation.com.

The online Demolition City game is back in a new, upgraded format.

Those sadists at Armor Games have upgraded the Demolition City game, apparently with the sole aim of destroying not buildings but office productivity.

As many of you will recall, Demolition News was gripped by Demolition City fever just a few months ago. In fact, we even went as far as to launch our own unofficial Demolition City World Championships. However, having proved that us 40-somethings are no match for the gaming upstarts of the online world, the dust settled and we slowly went back to using our computers for something altogether more sensible….well, Twitter.

However, the developers of the game have upgraded it to a version 2 format which is even more frustrating, difficult and time-absorbing.

Demolition City 2 can be found here. But please, if you value your work or personal time, career or relationships, we beg of you….don’t try this at home…or in the office….or at an Internet cafe.

Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Demolition crew forced to take down part of a mill building damaged by fire.

A team of demolition experts has been called in to make the scene of a dramatic mill fire safe. Firefighters battled a blaze at the disused industrial premises in Bolton near Manchester on Tuesday night.

A dozen neighbouring properties had to be evacuated and four families had to spend the night with family and friends. All of them were allowed home on Wednesday morning.

Now a specialist team has demolished the most unstable part of the building.

Read the full story here and here.

The mighty Caterpillar is the latest company to join our Business Directory.

I am proud and constantly amazed at how quickly Demolition News has grown in the mere 12 months it has been in existence. The number of subscribers increases almost daily; the traffic levels are off the chart compared to just a few months ago; and, perhaps best of all, we’re getting more and more positive feedback both in the comments and in direct emails.

However, we have just received some news that has put all our previous achievements and development milestones in the shade.

Caterpillar, the world’s largest and most-respected construction equipment manufacturer, just joined our Business Directory.

We thank them (and all our other Business Directory members) for their support. It means a huge amount to everyone at Demolition News that our efforts are being recognised by companies of this stature.

Demolition company owner pleads guilty to asbestos violations.

Construction & Demolition Recycling magazine today reports that Gary Fillers, the owner of the demolition and salvage firm Watkins Street Project LLC, based in Chattanooga, Tennessee has pleaded guilty in federal court for conspiring to violating the Clean Air Act’s work practice standards related to the proper stripping, bagging, removal and disposal of asbestos.

Read the full story here and here.