Bakersfield Power Plant Demolition

The demolition of an old power plant in Bakersfield on Saturday morning went badly off script when a man was seriously injured by large shards of flying debris, police said. Several thousand people had gathered by 6 a.m. to watch the planned implosion of a closed steam power plant owned by Pacific Gas and Electric, according to police and Denny Boyles, a spokesman for the company. The curious onlookers stood outside a 1,000-foot safety perimeter set up by the demolition company that Pacific Gas and Electric had hired for the job, Boyles said. When all was ready, explosive charges placed at critical points in the building were detonated in a pattern meant to bring it down on itself in a heap of rubble and a cloud of dust. In the moments after the structure fell, a police officer patrolling the event heard a man screaming. Pieces of metal ejected from inside the plant during the implosion had struck a 43-year-old man, severing part of one leg, and seriously injured another spectator, Bakersfield Police Lt. Scott Tunnicliffe said. Read more at http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0804-bakersfield-demolition-201…