The Bakersfield power plant had already claimed a life.
I do not buy into the whole “ghosties and ghoulies and things that go bump in the night”. So I don’t for one minute believe that buildings or structures can be inherently evil or cursed.
And yet, the tragic accident that took place in California this past weekend is yet another example of a building that seems to have a hex upon it.
Back in June last year, an employee of Cleveland Wrecking was killed at the site when he fell from the basket of an elevating work platform.
Now, as a realist and professional skeptic, I do not believe that these two incidents were connected. And, given that the explosive work that led to the injuries sustained on Saturday had been sub-contracted to an explosive demolition crew, I do not believe that this second incidents suggests an overall lack of safety at the site.
But it is remarkable just how often this kind of thing happens.
Perhaps the most notable example of this apparently cursed building syndrome was the ill-fated Deutsche Bank building in Manhattan. Damaged beyond repair in the 9/11 terrorist attack on the neighbouring World Trade Centre, the Deutsche Bank building went on to claim the lives of two firefighters in a fire. But this was just the beginning of a whole host of safety violations, accidents and near misses at the ominously-named “Tombstone at Ground Zero”. A spotlight melted; a wrench dropped by a worker fell 225 feet, hitting another laborer; a sidewalk shed was gashed; a skid steer loader nearly plunged through a hole in a deck, and a blowtorch was used too close to a fuel tank. As the demolished building was receiving one of its final safety inspections, an official slipped and broke his wrist.
Closer to home – and rather less catastrophic – was the infamous Sonae Plant here in the UK.
In August 2011, a demolition worker – James Dennis Kay – became the third person to be killed at the site after two workers had fallen into machinery at the site in a previous an unrelated incident.
What is most surprising about these repeat incidents at the same site is that they seem to go against all known logic. In the aftermath of an accident or fatality, sites have a tendency to go into safety lock-down in which every action is questioned, checked, double-checked and verified to ensure that lightning does not strike in the same place twice.
Despite all this apparent evidence, I remain skeptical. But we would love to hear if you have had any similar experiences of your own.
