Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: TV Tower Collapses here in Huntsville, AL

my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

»	Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE » Community » Film-Yak » TV Tower Collapses here in Huntsville, AL (Page 1)

This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2

Author

Topic: TV Tower Collapses here in Huntsville, AL

Evans A Criswell
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1579
From: Huntsville, AL, USA
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 09-04-2003 04:33 PM

Today, around 12:30 or 1:00 PM, the tower for WAAY-TV (channel 31, our ABC station) collapsed, killing 2 and injuring 1 critically. Here is the text from WAFF-TV, which at the time had the most detailed news story about it. Actually, their story is from the Associated Press. link to WAFF story, with a few pictures (The text is posted below in case the link changes or goes away.)

quote:

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) - Two men were killed and a third injured Thursday afternoon when a television tower they were working on collapsed in Huntsville, police said.

Huntsville police spokesman Wendell Johnson said the three men were several hundred feet up into the 985 feet high tower when it collapsed.

The cause of the accident was under investigation. The weather was calm and not believed to be a factor in the collapse.

Two died crushed in the rubble of the tower and the third was critically injured.

Witnesses said the three were tied to positions in the tower and unable to escape.

Johnson said the three men were not employees of the station, WAAY. He said the three had been hired to strengthen the tower on Monte Sano, a mountain overlooking the city, when the 1 p.m. accident occurred.

The tower is owned by SpectraSite.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) AP-NY-09-04-03 1540EDT

| IP: Logged

Sam Hunter
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 779
From: West Monroe, LA, USA
Registered: Jan 2002

posted 09-04-2003 04:55 PM

Unfortunate [Frown]

Just goes to show you that you have to be extremely careful on those things.

| IP: Logged

Ken Layton
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1452
From: Olympia, Wash. USA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 09-04-2003 05:04 PM

That's tragic. [Frown]

Just a couple of days ago here in Olympia a worker was killed in a huge explosion at a gas station/convenience store. He was working on an underground gasoline tank when it suddenly exploded (it was empty!) and hurled him into the air. He was killed instantly and the explosion ripped all his clothing off. He was an employee of an underground tank repair firm from Portland, Oregon. All this happened just two miles from my apartment.

| IP: Logged

Gerard S. Cohen
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 975
From: Forest Hills, NY, USA
Registered: Sep 2001

posted 09-04-2003 06:50 PM

How ironic that they died trying to strengthen the tower, presumably to prevent just such a collapse that might endanger other lives.

Such maintenance can carry risks that we never think about until such a catastrophe makes us aware of everyday heroism...

| IP: Logged

Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 09-04-2003 08:30 PM

Actually empty gas tanks are more dangerous than full ones, and more likely to ignite. The 747 over the Atlantic a few yers ago is the best example of that. Gas fumes are far more prone to ignite than kerosene type jet fuel.
Mark

| IP: Logged

Paul G. Thompson
The Weenie Man

Posts: 4718
From: Mount Vernon WA USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 09-04-2003 08:55 PM

I wonder if the tower climbers used a dynomometer to check the guy wire tension if the tower was not a "free standing" tower.

At KXRO in Aberdeen Washington (when I was there) the tower people detected the tower was slightly twisted. It was a free standing tower. They did not climb it. Instead, a new tower was built, and the old tower was pulled down. We had to put the station on autopilot, and all personnel evacuated. The tower people had a reasonable chance the tower would land where it was supposed to, but due to the condition of the tower, they were not sure. So all safety precautions were followed - to the letter.

| IP: Logged

Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 09-05-2003 01:30 AM

Most engineers who work on transmission towers are usually supposed to get "danger pay" for climbing those things. At least that was the case at the TV station where I worked in Georgia.

Tower collapses can be really dangerous considering some may be near residential areas. The north side of Oklahoma City has a bunch of high rize broadcast towers. It's kind of eerie looking at night with all those red lights slowly pulsating on and off. Amarillo, TX has a similar collection of towers.

Concerning gas station tanks and pumps, people take these things for granted and take dangerous chances. Here in Oklahoma a lady burned to death while pumping gas into her vehicle. She wasn't smoking or anything foolish like that. All she did was get into her vehicle to retrieve something and come back out to grab the pump handle. The trip into the vehicle gave her body a static charge. When she touched the pump handle it ignited the gas fumes. She panicked, pulling the handle out of the vehicle with the gas still flowing! The lady effectively had a flamethrower torching her part of the station. The incident was caught on videotape and happened very quickly.

In spite of the dangers of static charge, many gasoline companies and convenience stores are dragging their feet to place warning signs on pumps.

| IP: Logged

Darryl Spicer
Film God

Posts: 3250
From: Lexington, KY, USA
Registered: Dec 2000

posted 09-05-2003 02:37 AM

I don't understand why some people want to pull into a station for gas and not turn the engine off. Makes me nervous when people do that.

A car with a full tank of gas is less likely to explode than a car near empty if it is involved in a rear end collision.

| IP: Logged

Thomas Procyk
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1842
From: Royal Palm Beach, FL, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 09-05-2003 09:36 AM

My father and I were at a bakery in a shopping plaza once when we looked out the window and saw a pickup truck with its hood area on fire driving down the road. What does the idiot do? PULL INTO THE GAS STATION IN THE SHOPPING PLAZA!!!!

We grabbed our things, got in the car and got the hell out of the area, not even looking back to see what was about to happen. Luckily, there was no explosion and no injuries, just frazzled nerves.

People take a lot of potentially dangerous places and/or situations for granted. Until something happens, then there are blanket knee-jerk reactions as if they're trying to prevent what already happened.

=TMP=

| IP: Logged

Jesse Skeen
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1517
From: Sacramento, CA
Registered: Aug 2000

posted 09-05-2003 01:37 PM

It collapsed because it was tired of transmitting the ABC logo on every damn frame!

| IP: Logged

James R. Hammonds, Jr
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 931
From: Houston, TX, USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 09-05-2003 02:36 PM

Hahahaha!
Oh, now that's funny Jesse!

| IP: Logged

Charles Everett
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1470
From: New Jersey
Registered: May 2001

posted 09-05-2003 04:37 PM

According to today's Huntsville Times, the 3 workers were installing digital equipment on the tower for WAAY's upgrade to digital TV. Two of the workers were killed instantly and the third died in hospital.

The Times also reported that the tower came within 15 feet of crashing into the WAAY studios. WAAY came back on the air from a standby antenna in time for the NFL game last night.

| IP: Logged

Bruce McGee
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1776
From: Asheville, NC USA... Nowhere in Particular.
Registered: Aug 1999

posted 09-05-2003 05:22 PM

I worked at WAGA in Atlanta. The tower is standing about 30 feet from the back of the building. It is fast approaching 40 years of age. It is maintained yearly, or was when I was there.

The roof of the building is 18-20" thick. In the winter, ice forms on the tower and guy wires. When it falls, it causes damage to everything including the building and parking lots.

The local station here in Asheville, WLOS, has a small tower on top of Mount Pisgah in Haywood County. It has 3 legs and no guy wires. There is going to be a new digital antenna installed beside the current one. That is, if they can get the permits. Mount Pisgah is in the National Forest and many locals are fighting the new antenna location. Many people want the current tower removed, too.

I have worked with some of the WAAY-TV crew. Good people. Professional. I'm very sorry for the techs that were killed. They are a special breed. I will never climb a tower again. I went up about 25 feet on the 400' tall tower that WZTV-TV in Nashville, TN used until about 1977. I'd a sworn that I was up higher than that. Even harder to come back down.

| IP: Logged

Paul G. Thompson
The Weenie Man

Posts: 4718
From: Mount Vernon WA USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 09-05-2003 10:23 PM

We have a "Paran??" tower system at KAPS AM 660. It cosists of four towers formed in a square plot with cross-wires at the top. The tower bases are grounded and the RF conductors go up the middle of each towers and connects to the cross-wires.

Anyway, a crow plowed into one of the towers and apparently hit the conductor and promptly fried the crow like one would expect to happen in a microwave. It didn't blow the transmitter off.

What is funny about this is that there is a fried crow wedged in the tower about 30 feet off the ground. If you think I am going to climb that tower to remove the crow, you are nuts! [Big Grin]

That's what we have professional tower techs for. The boss understands....But I think he was hinting that he wanted me to remove the crow.... [Big Grin]

No way!!!

| IP: Logged

Don Furr
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 509
From: Sun City, Ca USA
Registered: Nov 2002

posted 09-06-2003 07:02 AM

Hey Bruce........
WAGA took down that old tower a couple of years ago and replaced with one of the multi-antenna types. It's a bit taller (and wider base) than the old one and moved "away" from the studios. The old stick wouldn't hold the newer digital "stuff".

Don

| IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2

Printer-friendly view of this topic

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.