Demolitions Gone Wrong, Terribly Wrong

#1 Springfield Power Station - Idaho

In 2019, the Springfield Power Station was scheduled to demolish the 300-foot chimney. Unfortunately, it didn't go as they had planned. The chimney fell in the opposite direction. People nearby or watching the destruction were forced to scramble to escape harm. It crashed down on two 12,000 volt power lines and then crashed into a building housing backup generators. Luckily, no one was injured in this demolition.

#2 Three Story Building - Lipetsk, Russia

In June of 2013, a Russian man was working on a crew that was tearing down a three-story building in a courtyard of a hardware store. They were using steel cabling and a bulldozer to do the job. One of the employees at the store was filming the demolition. Before the crew began, they failed to make sure there were no people around the site. As the building tumbled down, pieces of rubble in big chunks sprayed in every direction. The man filming and another worker were kill when they were hit by flying debris.

#3 Beer Brewery Storage Facility - Brisbane, Australia

The over 50-year-old storage facility was set to be demolished because it was no longer maintainable and needed to be replaced completely. It had previously been a storage facility for a beer brewery. The team gathered 220 pounds of explosives but when they blasted the building, the silo didn't topple over. It stood at an angle, for almost an hour until a man with a jackhammer got the unsafe building to fall completely down. Several people filming the blast were injured but nobody was killed.

#4 Apartment Building - Liuzhou, China

A Chinese real estate company had purchased the property and had planned to tear down the 22-story building to make room for a bigger project. They gathered their explosives then detonated them. Nothing happened. They tried once more, expecting that now the building would come crashing down, but only half of it came to the ground. The other half remained standing at a slant. For safety reasons, several cranes were brought in quickly to complete the job.

#5 Turkish Office Building - Turkey

When most buildings are scheduled to be demolished they normally go down right away without any problems. There are some cases, however, where the building is so well built and in place that it doesn't want to go. This Turkish office building needed to come down for another project, so the demolition team brought in 300 pounds of explosive, much more than would normally be required, to take it down. After they blew it up, the building stood in place. It took five attempts of 300 pounds of dynamite to finally destroy the building and bring it to the ground.

#6 Partial Wall - Great Britain

A demolition company was hired to bring down a wall that was left remaining after a large fire. Unfortunately, the company didn't follow proper safety procedures and when the wall began to fall, it came down on top of cars and traffic in the street nearby. It came dangerously close to hitting bystanders, who ran to safety. Miraculously nobody was injured but the company was cited for improper safety precautions and it ruined their reputation, forcing them out of business.

#7 Residential Garage - Lincolnshire, England

During this botched home demolition, a man nearly lost his leg. The garage that he was prepping to be demolished, began to tumble prematurely, and landed right on top of the homeowner, crushing him between hundreds of pounds of bricks and debris. The man, Jack Weir, was buried under the rubble for an hour before managing to dig himself out. When he made it to safety, he was unaware that his leg was hanging from just a strand of skin. Doctors were able to reattach his leg and after therapy, he is able to walk again.

#8 Home Renovation - Toronto, Canada

A home renovation team in Toronto was working on the home's basement. While digging out the basement, the house began to tip to the side, slipping off its foundation. It almost collapsed but leaned against the neighboring house instead. The crew admitted that their digging had forced the foundation to buckle, causing the house to lean. The entire home had to be demolished that same day for the safety of the neighbors and other buildings. One man was hurt in the demolition process, and the house that got leaned on ended up being torn down as well after repairs could not be made to it.

#9 The Phillips Building - Eindhoven, Netherlands

A company was hired to knock down the Phillips building in Eindhoven but unfortunately, the experts didn't set the charges on the explosive properly. The building stood, waving like a flag for 30 minutes before finally falling to the ground in slow motion. The elevator shaft remained, never falling in the explosion. A second company had to be hired to come in and take out the shaft, which took 200 pounds of dynamite. It ended up costing three times more than expected to get the Phillips building totally down.

#10 The Zip Feed Mill - Sioux Falls, South Dakota

In December of 2005, the Zip Feed Mill was set to be demolished in Sioux Falls. The company hired the best demolition crew in the business, but when the blast went off, the building settled down, into the basement. It didn't go any further. It sat there, at a slight lean, for over two weeks. Finally, the company came back and they smashed the building down since it was clear that a blast wasn't going to work. It took almost 3 months to get the building down completely, as the building seemed as though it didn't want to go.

#11 Harllee Branch Generating Plants - Georgia

The coal-fired generating plant located in Putnam County, Georgia was set to be demolished. It had one of the tallest chimneys in the entire world and it stood 1001 feet tall. Boaters had always used the chimney to navigate Lake Sinclair. It was supposed to be knocked down on October 9th, 2016 but was rescheduled because of Hurricane Matthew.

#12 Harllee Branch Generating Plants - Georgia

The demolition took place on November, 15th, and the explosion took down the entire stack after 4 attempts. The bold, tall chimney refused to tumble after the crew used three batches of 200 pounds of dynamite three different times in 6 hours. Finally, it fell like a tree after a bulldozer simply pushed the side with one small shove.

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