UK demolition company cited and fined for safety breaches.
Gaskells Demolition Services Ltd was contracted to demolish the Orion building in Thornton Cleveleys so that a supermarket could be constructed at the site. The art-deco building opened as a cinema in 1934 before being converted into the Orion bingo hall in 1965. It closed permanently in October 2009.
The company erected scaffolding with light debris netting around the front of the building and used a high-reach excavator to demolish small parts of the building. On 17 June 2010, workers were using the excavator when a coping stone became dislodged from the top of the building and fell on to the top deck of the scaffolding. This caused the scaffold to become unbalanced and detach itself from the building. It collapsed into the A587 during rush hour, pulling part of the building down into the road with it. Nobody was injured during the collapse.
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