Demolition at Former Pacific Gas and Electric Plant Seriously Injures Man, Also Injures 4 More

#ad▼

View from the north end of the PG&E plant on Rosedale Highway in the Kern County Fire Dep Incident Command area. Projectile debris can clearly be seen flying out of frame left, to the East across Coffee Road where many spectators were seriously injured in the Lowe’s parking lot nearly one-quarter mile away (VIDEO CREDIT: ©2013 Eric James Swearingen).

Several people watching from the Lowes parking lot to the left of the video image were injured by flying debris from the explosion at about 5:48 a.m. Saturday, August 3, 2013. The videographer states he scouted several viewing locations (while on a bike). One of the locations included where the people were injured. The videographer was asked to move from the general area and relocated to the corner of Rosedale and Coffee.

One man reportedly suffered partial traumatic amputation of a leg, and serious injuries to the other leg. Saturday morning when shrapnel from the implosion of the old PG&E plant flew across Coffee Road and struck him while he watched the explosion from the Lowe’s parking lot, according to police. At least four other people received less severe injuries. The people were believed to be outside the danger zone, however the people controlling the d

Bakersfield Californian: Video of explosions and the area where injuries occurred after the Bakersfield Power Plant demolished.

Five spectators were injured Saturday after shrapnel was sent flying at the demolition of a decommissioned steam power plant in California’s Central Valley, authorities said.

Fred Garten was hit in his leg, and saw a girl that was hit by a 4-inch by 6-inch piece of shrapnel. Kelly Patt reported seeing the man with a seriously injured leg.

Debris flew in the area of the crowd about 6 seconds after the first flash of explosions was seen. The distance as believed to be about 1300 feet. That would have the debris flying about 217 feet per second or 148 miles per hour (calculation). Several vehicles were also hit and damaged.

Video shows a piece of shrapnel skipping across the pavement. Spectators were about 1300 feet away from the demolition site.

PG&E’s Kern Power Plant being imploded around 6am on August 3, 2013. You can see a piece of shrapnel hit the concrete barrier and skitter across the bridge at 0:28. The person who took this video said the man who was injured was somewhere to his right.

Cleveland Wrecking Company of Covina, California managed the demolition.


Get updates from The Cardinal ALL NEWS FEEDS on Facebook. Just ‘LIKE’ the ‘Arlington Cardinal Page (become a fan of our page). The updates cover all posts and sub-category posts from The Cardinal — Arlingtoncardinal.com. You can also limit feeds to specific categories. See all of The Cardinal Facebook fan pages at Arlingtoncardinal.com/about/facebook …

Search Amazon …

Search for products sold on Amazon:

Arlingtoncardinal.com is an Amazon Associate website, which means that a small percentage of your purchases gets paid to Arlingtoncardinal.com at no extra cost to you. When you use the search boxes above, any Amazon banner ad, or any product associated with an Amazon banner on this website, you help pay expenses related to maintaining Arlingtoncardinal.com and creating new services and ideas for a resourceful website. See more info at Arlingtoncardinal.com/AdDisclosure