Witnesses tell of horrific Christchurch CTV building collapse "like 9/11"

Witnesses tell of horrific Christchurch CTV building collapse "like 9/11"
2012 06 26

By Joelle Dally and Michael Wright | Stuff.co.nz

A man who was attending relationship sessions on the sixth floor of the CTV building was so anxious about its safety he could not wait to get out.

Eyewitness accounts of the building’s collapse were being heard by the Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission today.

David Bainbridge’s evidence was read to the royal commission hearing this afternoon, although he was present to answer questions.

In his statement, Bainbridge, a former builder, said he visited the building three times to attend sessions with his wife, Leanne.

On his second and third visits, on February 2 and February 16, 2011, he noticed damage "which concerned me.’’

When walking out of the lift onto level 6 on the third visit, he noticed the internal column in the foyer had at least three large cracks and other hairline cracks.

"These ran all around the column,’’ he said.

There were also flakes of concrete the size of a 50cent coin around the bottom of the column.

He could also see water damage around the top of the column.

"It looked like the column had performed to its capacity in the previous earthquakes, but would fail in any further events,’’ he said.

Bainbridge also noticed an exterior spandrel on the outside of the building between levels 5 and 6 was chipped, damaged and was not in line with the building.

"From what I observed I believe it had suffered significant movement prior and had at some stage been compressed against the North Core.’’

He asked his counsellor, Anne Malcolm, who survived the collapse, about what he had observed.

"She told me that they had been told the building was safe and had been signed off.’’

He had wanted to take photos on his cellphone as he was leaving but the lift arrived.

"I felt so uneasy about being in the building I could not wait to get out."

[...]

Witness Quotes:

~ When he arrived the fire was already smouldering and he could see smoke. At that stage it was localised to the lift shaft area. Eventually flames became visible, indicating the fire was burning underneath, he said. He estimated a third of the building was smouldering.

~ The masonry blocks he had been working on had "completely disintegrated".
"It looked like the building had fallen into a hole.’’

~Penelope Spencer has described how pillars on the CTV "exploded" about 10 seconds after the quake.

~Watching The CTV building collapse was "exactly like seeing the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings", an eyewitness says. "The top floated down and was engulfed by dust," he said. He did not see any pillars collapse, rather he described the collapse as if the building was sinking into a black hole.

Read the full article at: stuff.co.nz
Image: Source

Christchurch, NZ 2011 Quake - (language)

Video from: YouTube.com

Share |

Latest News from our Front Page

"Policy of multiculturalism in Europe has failed"
2013 05 22
The UK is experiencing a deficit of Caucasian people in the regions where the majority of the population is made up of immigrants and ethnic minorities. In the last 10 years more than 620 thousand white Brits left the capital of the UK, where Caucasians are now a minority making up only 45% of London’s population. The policy of multiculturalism in ...

Stockholm braced for further rioting by young immigrants
2013 05 21
Main article from FT.com follows below this comment: Well, all of this is hardly unexpected, since there now is pretty much annual riots in Sweden. Disgruntled immigrants who are burning cars, schools and other buildings is now turning into the norm in Sweden ...as it seems to be throughout the rest of Europe. Stones are flying and you can smell the ...

Dzhokhar’s boat ‘confession’ the most unbelievable part yet of Boston psyop
2013 05 21
Remember the notes that accompanied the anthrax deliveries right after 9/11? They said things like, “Allah is great!” “Death to Israel,” “Death to America!” and “9-11-01: This is next.” In other words, THE MUSLIMS DID IT: the same ones who had so handily defeated the world’s greatest military machine on Sept. 11, 2001. And they did it because they hate us ...

The Mystery of the ’Immaculately Conceived’ Baby Anteater
2013 05 21
[...]Staffers at a zoological conservation center in Greenwich, Conn., are very confused — as are the rest of us — because their female giant anteater, Armani, has managed to conceive a baby, apparently without the presence of a male anteater. What? It all started in August, writes Lisa Chamoff for Greenwich Time. Armani, an anteater at the LEO Zoological Conservation Center, ...

The US Government Might Be the Biggest Hacker in the World
2013 05 21
Cyber crime is big business in the US. It’s used to spy, steal, harass competition, political opponents, or to stage an attack and blamed it on a foreign enemy. Is the government in on this crime industry? Yes, and in bigger ways than you can imagine… This trend is enabled domestically by an institutionally corrupt US legal system and a police state ...

More News »