Rescue mission turns into recovery effort for 2 missing after Adams County power plant collapse

The collapse took place around 9 a.m. at the site of the former Killen Generating Station along U.S. 52.

Officials said the building was in the middle of a demolition when the awning of the plant collapsed.

Adams County Sheriff Kim Rogers said, initially, five people were unaccounted for following the collapse.

Three of the five people have since been located and taken to the hospital for treatment. Two were taken to the hospital early on, and a third was taken to an area hospital after being buried under the rubble for hours. The first two are expected to be OK, but the third person remains in serious condition as of Wednesday night.

Demolition is extremely hazardous. An engineering company I was with some time ago was drawn into a wrongful death lawsuit by survivors of a worker killed in a demolition incident at a steel mill. In that event, a welder was removing abandoned pipes out of an overhead rack in a coke handling area. Active lines were also in the pipe rack. The welder cut into an active pure oxygen line with the torch.

So... Ignition source, check. Pure oxygen, check. Combustible dust, check. Kaboom, check. One dead welder.

The survivors sued everyone in sight, no surprise in that. My company had done the engineering and construction specifications and drawings several decades previous. I was tasked to search our archives for all documentation we retained. Eventually, I found the right boxes that had the engineering docs and contracts.

Our lawyer provided the documentation to the court that had our design detail and owner acceptance of the work product. Significant in this situation is that our specifications for pipeline labels were in conformance with OSHA specifications in effect at the time. In addition, our contracts documented that others were responsible for construction inspections and startup inspections. The judge in charge of the lawsuit released us from liability about one week later so we were out of the lawsuit.

Another demolition related injury, not fatal thankfully, occurred at this same steel mill a few years previous. Again, a welder was cutting out derelict pipes from an overhead pipe rack. The welder was sitting on the pipe and cutting a section loose. Unfortunately, he was sitting on the side of the cut that had the pipe section that would fall. Down he went thump.

Regarding the fatal accident in the referenced article, I can infer a few things likely to be prominent in the investigation. Very obviously, why was anyone in in unstable structure at all?

Before doing a lick of work, the first thing that should be done is an engineering determination of structural safety. This is not just an eyeball guesstimate but a formal determination. Zero salvage or any action takes place before engineers sign off on it. Sometimes it's cheaper to write off salvage than to invest in reinforcements to allow for safe removal of equipment, other salable materials or hazardous Another prime cause is personnel are knowingly in the danger zone in violation of safety restrictions because of convenience or they are ignorant of the restrictions (cough, don't speak English and are clueless to instructions, aka head bobbers during safety briefings, cough).

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