Can readers shed any light on this catastrophic collapse.
Our good friend and World Highways editor Mike Woof has just sent us this deeply disturbing photograph from a demolition site in the heart of Brussels.
At first glance, aside from the general untidiness of the site, it looks like any workaday inner city demolition site. But a perimeter of police tape suggests that all is not well. And it’s only when you look more closely, you can see just why the police tape is there.
For there, buried under hundreds of tonnes of rubble, is a Caterpillar skid steer loader (circled).
“I also saw a Gehl mini excavator that had been crushed flat. I don’t know if anyone was killed but if there was someone in the cab of the Gehl, they wouldn’t have a chance as the ROPS was completely flattened,” Woof says. “[It was] harder to tell with the Cat skidsteer as it was flattened down to the level of the boom but it didn’t look like they’d tried to dig anyone out of the machine so I’m guessing there wasn’t. There was some police tape around the site so I presume the emergency services were there just after it happened. I don’t know when this incident occurred though or how long work has been stopped. I think it’s possible the collapse happened when no one was on site.”
Woof reports that the debris from the collapse had also damaged a neighbouring building. “Debris has hit the building next to it as well and one of its walls has been buckled with the impact.”
If anyone knows any more about this catastrophic collapse, please let us know.
