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In the weeks following the fatal Philadelphia building collapse, many questions remain, including why buildings collapse in the first place and how they can be prevented. National Geographic recently explored these questions in an interview with a civil engineer at California Polytechnic State University.
According to the civil engineer, it appears that the Philadelphia building collapse, which killed a total of six people and left more than a dozen injured, was an accident. But he said it is likely that someone was at fault, either for not “following what was going on” or by not knowing enough about the structure of the building that was being demolished.
The collapse involved a four-story building that was being demolished by a demolition company in downtown Philadelphia. However, the demolition went terribly wrong when the building came down on top of a neighboring two-story building, which housed a busy Salvation Army thrift store.
The civil engineer interviewed by National Geographic said that just like there needs to be careful planning when constructing a building, there also needs to be careful planning in destroying it, which appears to have been neglected in this case. Though the civil engineer said he can’t be sure exactly what went wrong with the Philadelphia demolition, he said building collapses are often the result of “human error or misjudgment.”
The civil engineer also noted that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is currently investigating the incident and if someone is determined to be at fault, they could face serious repercussions. In addition to being punished by OSHA, or perhaps the criminal justice system, it is also likely that the guilty party or parties could face civil liability in personal injury lawsuits filed on behalf of those who were injured or killed.
Source: National Geographic, “Why Do Building Collapses Like Philadelphia’s Happen?” Ker Than, June 5, 2013