Go to ground.news/plainlydifficult to give it a try. If you sign up through my link you’ll get 40% off the Vantage plan, which is what I use to get unlimited access to all features. I think Ground News is doing important work and I hope you’ll check them out. ►Thanks for watching, check out me other bits! ►My new EP: madebyjohn.bandcamp.com/album/retail-simulator ►Outro Song: ruclips.net/video/LJVNt_ruEJ0/видео.htmlsi=KaHhrFbCex3kJBKk ►Instagram: instagram.com/plainly.john/ ►Patreon: www.patreon.com/Plainlydifficult ►Merch: plainly-difficult.creator-spring.com ►Twitter:twitter.com/Plainly_D ►Sources: www.cross-safety.org/sites/default/files/2005-06/torre-windsor-building-fire-madrid.pdf www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Torre_Windsor_office_building_fire elpais.com/ccaa/2020/02/11/madrid/1581424711_895152.html# www.moncloa.com/2019/02/12/windsor-villarejo-francisco-gonzalez-8330/
I've seen some of your videos and I like them, and I think the scale at the end is a good touch, but I wanted to point out that 'megadeath' is an actual term for 'One Million Deaths'. Kilodeath would work, even if it doesn't sound as impressive (because, well, it isn't). Mega Death is also a Final Fantasy boss, I think it was. It's not just an arbitrary thing either. Mega = Million, Kilo = Thousand, etc.
If the timing of the fire in relation to the request for documents seems a tad suspicious, you'd also have to consider the likelihood that any modern company involved in such business (auditing, not arson) would not have had back-up copies somewhere.
The fact that there were gaps between the floor edges and the perimeter walls, by design, or as built, is a disgrace. It was known in the industry at the time that fires "wrap" through these gaps to the floors above. While my 1980 Manhattan office/industrial tower was properly sealed when built, I inspected the entire perimeter with an engineer around 1995, and found scores of violations. These occurred where electricians had done alterations, with no regard for damages they caused. These were immediately repaired. We found more between interior partitions. Negligence of fire safety standards ought to be a criminal offense, in my opinion. There is no excuse for putting lives at risk, when both hazards and cures are so well known.
Mate, everyone knows sparkies don't give two fucks. Now I'm not saying they did this on purpose, but for anyone who has been on a big site, everyone, from labourer to site foreman, know how critical the fire prevention is. Those electricians would have known. It's pretty easy to see fire prevention measures on site, shi, most of it is even labelled as such. They just didn't care, or didn't think. Which, in my 25+years in construction, sparks do not care. They will happily butcher walls because they know someone else (plasterer or painter) will pick it up. Honestly, sparks are essential, especially in this day and age but I have no love for electrians. I know you shouldn't tarnish everyone with the same brush, but every spark I've met and dealt with are like this. Sorry mate if you're a spark, but you're a c**t. Love ya
Nah, they don't think that much. Need a hole, make one, spray foam the gap. Done. Next job. Rinse and repeat. It's worth getting a surveyor to check that work is done properly, you never know when you'll be relying on that work with your life.
My wife and I arrived in Madrid on the afternoon of February 12th 2005 to stay with friends about a kilometer away from this building and the sirens alerted us to what was happening so our hosts turned on the tv and we saw the fire raging in this tower block. Naturally we all went out for a look and got to about 400 meters and even at that range the heat and noise was frightening to experience. We had to walk past that eerie blackened hulk almost every day of our week long visit as it was in a central position. It gave us both an uneasy feeling the way its blackened shell stood silent against the leaden low clouded February sky. Never thought that I would be an eye witness to one of your disaster videos.
Conspiracies of a convenient evidence-destroying fire aside, it just highlights how essential fre protection, prevention and suppression is in tall buildings, because the chances of a fire are low, but never zero, thankfully in this case nobody was knowingly killed, but it is still a perfect example of needing proper fire safety systems in place...
@@PlainlyDifficult especially suspicious that a company like Deloitte would not have disaster management measures in place to provide redundant backup locations for its records, unlike virtually any other major corporation in the world.
@@efretheim You would thing they'd have had some sort of offsite information storage, considering the nature of their business. At the very least, they were careless and sloppy. And at the worst... ?
Just a reminder of the conspiracy theory that Bill Gates is still walking around a free man, and not a single person who paid to molest kids on Jeffrey Epstein's pedo island has been arrested.
@@efretheim youd think.... but in 9/11 the pentagon lost all of it financial archives, which were destroyed at the pentagon AND the backup archive in WTC 7. Sucks, because the pentagon had lost 5 trillion dollars, and now we'll never know where
A good idea for another episode would be the hard rock collapse here in New Orleans. There was a lot of shady going on with it, bad construction, improper materials, bureaucracy, bribed inspectors, failed demolition, whistle blowers, deportations and three people left in the building for a year after their deaths in view of all passer byers. The collapse changed Mardi gras routes and nearly destroyed the saenger theater next to it. it damaged an entire block of canal st. It was hit by a couple hurricanes too before it was finally taken down.
And now, despite everyone knowing of the dangers people are still at risk while companies and corporations argue over who should pay to make homes safe.
It's worse than that. All over the world, "green" architects are pushing cross-laminated-timber "plyscrapers", high-rise buildings that are literally made of fuel. Proponents of these claim that the CLT panels last as long as a concrete slab in laboratory fire tests. What they don't say is that wood gives off heat as it burns, while concrete absorbs heat as it disintegrates. The GSK building in Nottingham was a low-rise CLT building and it burnt to the ground. It will take a major catastrophe to stop this trend, and it's only a matter of time.
I'm impressed with how much was done right in this one. The building was in the process of being properly updated, maintained, and even stood up to that powerful fire. It really just looks like a series on unfortunate events
It was really cool to see the difference between the old and new cladding and especially the new fire escape staircase(hope whoever put that one up got a few extra jobs after that one was shown in the news)
Seems like too much of a coincidence that a company under investigation for corruption just so happens to lose _all_ of the paperwork proving it in a fire. As one of my favorite sci-fi characters once said: "Oh, I believe in coincidences. Coincidences happen every day...but I don't _trust_ coincidences."
Id bet the cause was down to one of the top execs suddenly developing a nagging need to chomp on cigars despite never having smoked his entire life. “Lo siento señor! Oh look my new Yacht just arrived. What timing! gtg. peace. 😅”
One hell of a ballsy move though. "Currently we’re on the hook for a financial crime. I have a plan, which might get us off the hook, but it could get us a bill 10 times larger than the fraud we committed, and charges of arson, obstruction of justice, reckless endangerment and maybe even manslaughter, and if we are caught it will completely destroy our legal definition the case we are fighting.”
Burning down a high-rise building is not exactly the best way to AVOID scrutiny. Even if you ignore potential criminal charges, the fire probably cost them more than they ever would have been fined for. It's also clear the building was badly designed years before this company even moved into the building. Lucky coincidences might be rare, but winning the lottery is also rare, yet people win the lottery all the time.
A great video, as always. Perhaps you'll find the TETCO, (Texas Eastern Transmission Company), LNG explosion on Staten Island, which killed 40 men, of interest. The twist in that case being that the tank was "empty".
i have a suggestion for a topic; the 1973 fire at the Hafnia Hotel in Copenhagen. ( there seems to be at least some english languaged sources online, so it should be possible to do a video on ) Also, cheers for your videos! :)
Avoid. The moment you do anything from these tiny countries, there is endless screaming because "you got it wrong"! Plenty of other content out there we can cover without creating more offended people from postage-stamp-sized countries.
@@Heike-- I wouldn't call Denmark a "postage-stamp-sized" country. It may be small compared to the USA or Russia but it's the 130th biggest in terms of area and 112th in terms of population, out of 196 in total.
We lost the Glasgow School of Art to two fires. The initial one was painful and devastating, but the second one during the refurbishment destroyed the entire building beyond repair and some other beloved ones nearby. Refurbishment can be such a dangerous time for buildings :(
Yes I know a whole list of refurbishment disasters. It's in line with why things always get screwed up at shift change. That fire broke my heart. Glasgow is one of my favorite places.
That building was literally waiting to go up in flames all those years. It's fortunate that it didn't happen before any fire mitigation efforts were put in place or it would have definitely resulted in an absolute catastrophe with many deaths.
Is anyone else reminded of Grenfell Tower?? Gaps allowing for the chimney effect?? Lack of adequate fire protection and suppression? Also, that company that was about to be audited? By miraculous coincidence, it occurred just one day after the auditors requested documentation and the fire occurred where all that paperwork was stored and a lot of money had gone walkies. I think it highly likely that it was arson, and they only intended for their company to go up in flames. However, because pretty much all the block was a fire hazard, it took the entire building.
This is the opposite of Grenfell Tower. Grenfell had adequate fire protection measures but then installed new cladding that compromised those measures. This tower in Madrid had non-existent fire protection and was in the process of installing it, leading to partial protection of the lower floors.
No literate person should have any problem at all reading or pronouncing Deloitte. I honestly don't understand how anyone could. How misspelling a name can be a good idea, I cannot fathom
@@robertmoffett3486 I'm hyperlexic in English, and passably literate in two other languages (not counting the ones I can speak but not read or write), and since I'd never heard that name spoken, I had no idea how it was actually pronounced. Get over yourself.
@@thing_under_the_stairsI needn't "get over" anything. I simply expressed an opinion. Your ad hominem remark was uncalled for, and if anything, suggests that perhaps you should should take your own advice
The Windsor Tower fire was a total disaster waiting to happen; the real blame goes to cutting corners on safety measures and using cheap materials. It’s like they built it to burn
8:07 This picture looks so nice and flames are very clear because they used film, digital camera can't capture high highlight in this situation, you either get flames and nothing around it, or things around it and flames are washout and too bright. in 2005. Highest resolution DSLR was still 6-8MP, this pic is 12MP, only achievable with film in 2005. We won't see picture with high quality highlights like this these days, not many people carry around film camera. lol
Plainly Difficult: "The source of the fire is not known to this day, and there is a conspiracy theory that Deloitte started the fire deliberately to destroy evidence against them." Looking at the number of deaths here, this is nothing compared to the Scandinavian Star distaster (which I hope will be covered on this channel in a future video), where 159 people died and most of the evidence points towards insurance fraud. The case is still unresolved 35 years later, and has become more bizarre over the years: At first, people only thaught that 4 fires were started on the ship and the fire solely spread due to the use of flammable wall panels. Then, 6 fires were identified. And in the latest report. 7 fires are supposed to have taken place on the ship, and allegiations against the crew of the ship were made, because some experts believe that diesel fuel was pumped around the ship to fuel the fire... true nightmare stuff if you ask me.
Excellent video. I've seen a few of your video breakdowns now, and both you and Sam from Brick iMmortar really own this niche of the Internet. Very well done indeed
The fire started on the floor where Deloitte documents were stored. Hmm, what are the chances of that? Seems like a very covenient "accident" for Deloitte.
It's hard to ignore, innit... I'm sure there was a Deloitte employee who was - very conveniently - a smoker... This is just TOO MUCH of a convenience to be just an accident. I'll die on that hill.
A lot of interesting effects of fire damage based upon various structural techniques, fire prevention techniques and the risk of refurbishment progression. A lot of educational value here. Great video!
Hmm... Hadn't heard of this collapse before. I'm gonna dive deep down the rabbit hole of that potential conspiracy you were talking about and see if it speaks to me ;P Anyway, it was a very interesting video! I really appreciate you taking your time doing these for us each week. You're a class act, John!
Super happy to see you covering some of the spanish incidents. We have a lot of super interesting ones that just don't really get covered and this was rad to see
Collapsed? Parts of it did, but looks like lots of it was still standing... strange it didn't just collapse completely into its own footprint, and right into the cellar floors and basement. There should have been nothing left but dust. We saw that on the 11th September in New York.
It’s so funny, people know blacksmiths need to heat metal to soften it and be able to shape it but can’t think critically here. One of the first labs in my material science lab in mechanical engineering was to test metal samples under tension at different temperatures and examine how they creep or stretch over time.
a reminder of the "conspiracy theory" that not one person who paid to molest children on Jeffrey Epstein's pedo island has been arrested. For example, Bill Gates is still walking around a free man.
I happened to be in Madrid at that time. There was a video, shown on TV over and over, in which allegedly a group of people were in the Deloitte offices doing "Something." Those conspiracies before social media were more alluring and almost impossible to fact check.
Honestly kinda impressive that the parts that HAD been fire protected held up pretty well. Can only make you think "Would we still have this building today if the work had started just a few years earlier?"
It’s amazing how people can add information back in time when it didn’t exist and then assume the people who built the building wanted it to burn. The building was designed in the 60s.
What a contrast with building 7. The Windsor building had incomplete fireproofing and the parts that collapsed were red hot and totally engulfed, while the fireproofed steel section below didn't collapse. Building 7 was fully fireproofed (though, like the Windsor, it lacked working sprinklers), there had only been sporadic fires, it had only a few rows of windows with visible flames and most of the glass was fully intact. But, in the course of 30 seconds, all of it went straight down and broke into a million pieces. "We had to pull it." indeed.
I mean even the towers themselves collapse is suspicious. I know it was burning but like this shows that the steel structure could have hold it together even if everything else burn. Unless I'm missing something.
Still here loving the content. I wonder what would happen to the like count if just a small nudge toward hitting the like button was right at the start? Would the ten to one watch/like ratio increase or narrow? Certainly deserves more likes per view.
This is very similar to the 2017 Grenfell Tower disaster in London. Cladding acts as a chimney effect for the fire to completely devastate the structure.
Just a coincidence the fire started on 21. Another clear example of how unprotected steel will fail when subjected to high temperature fires for long periods. The Concrete central core stayed up even though the steel perimeter weakened and fell.
I have a photo of the building when it was still intact and in good shape, watched photos of my work travel to Madrid many times, never realized that the building is no more there or what happened to it.
Ah, the WIndsor tower. There's a documentary series by HBO, not sure if available worldwide. There gives more background, for instance the family owner of the building had a film production company. It gives a very epic moment, when a high end car stops by the police precint and lady dressed in a white fur coat identifies herself as the owner. Or goes deeper in the sale of the trading agency, who was the owner and what bank owns now. Or mentions another conspiracy theory about a video recording of several human-like shadows seen through a window of one of the lower floors during the fire (!), like they were looking for other documents to seize or to ensure they burn.
I worked for a trade association during that time. Deloitte & Touche, as it was known then, was involved in a huge scandal. They were an auditing firm, and along with KPMG, Pricewaterhousecoopers, and Arthur Andersen, had been involved in accusations of keeping double books for their clients. It was not the last time such accusations were made against these companies (they have been fined several times over the years). I would absolutely believe that the fire was set intentionally to destroy evidence. It's entirely in keeping with the corrupt nature of the organization (and apparently the industry in general).
That's a shame. One Meridian Plaza was just about done having a sprinkler system installed when it burned down. The sprinklers were there but they were waiting on inspection and valves were closed.
No sprinklers and no fire stops -- what could go wrong? Reminds me of the February 23, 1991 fire in the office building at One Meridian Plaza in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. No sprinklers -- except the 30th floor, where the fire stopped.
Since the 1900 Hoboken fire, dockers gave been forbidden to carry smoking materials. Perhaps there should be a similar prohibition on construction sites.
Omg, the files... and in 2005? Lol.... i would like to imagine the company looking at the auditor and very casually saying 'oh no. Now we can't be audited :( so sad.' 😂
Hey the Winsor. Never expected you covering stuff from my city! Anyways there has always been controversy with the fire, such as a video of people being inside the burning building, checking something inside rooms, lighting some on and off... That + the dissapearance of important documents, it certainly sounds interesting.
Not verbatim but I remember there being a quote or some kind of saying that pretty much goes that the architect is basically a trained artist who designs a building or house from their wildest imaginations, the engineer is the one who has to figure out if it can exist and function in reality.
The behavior of the spread of the fire sounded awfully familiar to that Commie Block apartment in London you did a few years ago. The fire spreading quickly up the side of the building between the frame and the cladding.
You should look at Novi Sad Radnički univerzitet fire(workers university) there is footage of people climbing down the windows. Also think someone died in the elevator during the fire. The buildings skeleton stood there for many years and took many lives due to urban explorers. It is now renovated.
You're collecting a set to go with the Grenfell Report, I see. The Tehran Plasco, closely resembling the Dagenham fire. This one. Any more? It reveals the report didn't go far enough.
WTC towers were built to withstand the impact of a Boeing 707 jetliner. It had sprinklers and insulated columns yet collapsed rather quickly from burning jet fuel that only burns at 800° to 1500°F, not hot enough to melt steel (2750°F). This older building without proper fire protection didn't completely collapse despite the entire thing being on fire a long time.
Hey John, I enjoy your videos and I'm subscribed with notifications on. Congratulations on your amazing achievement of 1 million subscribers! (I think the screen-time for your score card is way too short and the outro music too loud. IMO)
I love your videos, but thank god for Sponsor Block. Don't want to see an ad for a news service showing news headlines in the ad when I'm actively avoiding the news for anxiety reasons.
2005. It wouldn't have been a ciggie unless someone was having a crafty one in the toilets - any toilets are pretty robust when it comes to a small ignition source like that. Sounds more like a case of paper, a small bin pretending to be metal but is actually plastic, zippo fluid and said zippo. WOT? I didn't say 'nuffin.
Go to ground.news/plainlydifficult to give it a try. If you sign up through my link you’ll get 40% off the Vantage plan, which is what I use to get unlimited access to all features. I think Ground News is doing important work and I hope you’ll check them out.
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www.cross-safety.org/sites/default/files/2005-06/torre-windsor-building-fire-madrid.pdf
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elpais.com/ccaa/2020/02/11/madrid/1581424711_895152.html#
www.moncloa.com/2019/02/12/windsor-villarejo-francisco-gonzalez-8330/
Ground News: for when you need more details about the aliens 👽 eating pets in Springfield. 😉
You shouldn't have said A-Z-C-A but AZCA, like "Nazca" without the N
I've seen some of your videos and I like them, and I think the scale at the end is a good touch, but I wanted to point out that 'megadeath' is an actual term for 'One Million Deaths'. Kilodeath would work, even if it doesn't sound as impressive (because, well, it isn't). Mega Death is also a Final Fantasy boss, I think it was.
It's not just an arbitrary thing either. Mega = Million, Kilo = Thousand, etc.
If the timing of the fire in relation to the request for documents seems a tad suspicious, you'd also have to consider the likelihood that any modern company involved in such business (auditing, not arson) would not have had back-up copies somewhere.
every time you add one of these annoying sponsored segments, i come that much closer to unsubscribing.
The fact that there were gaps between the floor edges and the perimeter walls, by design, or as built, is a disgrace. It was known in the industry at the time that fires "wrap" through these gaps to the floors above. While my 1980 Manhattan office/industrial tower was properly sealed when built, I inspected the entire perimeter with an engineer around 1995, and found scores of violations. These occurred where electricians had done alterations, with no regard for damages they caused. These were immediately repaired. We found more between interior partitions. Negligence of fire safety standards ought to be a criminal offense, in my opinion. There is no excuse for putting lives at risk, when both hazards and cures are so well known.
Mate, everyone knows sparkies don't give two fucks. Now I'm not saying they did this on purpose, but for anyone who has been on a big site, everyone, from labourer to site foreman, know how critical the fire prevention is. Those electricians would have known. It's pretty easy to see fire prevention measures on site, shi, most of it is even labelled as such. They just didn't care, or didn't think. Which, in my 25+years in construction, sparks do not care. They will happily butcher walls because they know someone else (plasterer or painter) will pick it up. Honestly, sparks are essential, especially in this day and age but I have no love for electrians. I know you shouldn't tarnish everyone with the same brush, but every spark I've met and dealt with are like this. Sorry mate if you're a spark, but you're a c**t.
Love ya
It's both. For something safety related "Just following orders" is not a valid excuse.
Nah, they don't think that much. Need a hole, make one, spray foam the gap. Done. Next job. Rinse and repeat. It's worth getting a surveyor to check that work is done properly, you never know when you'll be relying on that work with your life.
@@davidhunt240 LOL, they didn't even do that much.
@@Heike--have a good cry, you'll feel better
My wife and I arrived in Madrid on the afternoon of February 12th 2005 to stay with friends about a kilometer away from this building and the sirens alerted us to what was happening so our hosts turned on the tv and we saw the fire raging in this tower block. Naturally we all went out for a look and got to about 400 meters and even at that range the heat and noise was frightening to experience. We had to walk past that eerie blackened hulk almost every day of our week long visit as it was in a central position. It gave us both an uneasy feeling the way its blackened shell stood silent against the leaden low clouded February sky. Never thought that I would be an eye witness to one of your disaster videos.
You should become writer
@@yawningcow8942 I agree
That emergency staircase on the outside being entirely intact tells you everything you need to know about how important they are
Conspiracies of a convenient evidence-destroying fire aside, it just highlights how essential fre protection, prevention and suppression is in tall buildings, because the chances of a fire are low, but never zero, thankfully in this case nobody was knowingly killed, but it is still a perfect example of needing proper fire safety systems in place...
I very much agree!
@@PlainlyDifficult especially suspicious that a company like Deloitte would not have disaster management measures in place to provide redundant backup locations for its records, unlike virtually any other major corporation in the world.
@@efretheim You would thing they'd have had some sort of offsite information storage, considering the nature of their business. At the very least, they were careless and sloppy. And at the worst... ?
Just a reminder of the conspiracy theory that Bill Gates is still walking around a free man, and not a single person who paid to molest kids on Jeffrey Epstein's pedo island has been arrested.
@@efretheim youd think.... but in 9/11 the pentagon lost all of it financial archives, which were destroyed at the pentagon AND the backup archive in WTC 7. Sucks, because the pentagon had lost 5 trillion dollars, and now we'll never know where
A good idea for another episode would be the hard rock collapse here in New Orleans. There was a lot of shady going on with it, bad construction, improper materials, bureaucracy, bribed inspectors, failed demolition, whistle blowers, deportations and three people left in the building for a year after their deaths in view of all passer byers. The collapse changed Mardi gras routes and nearly destroyed the saenger theater next to it. it damaged an entire block of canal st. It was hit by a couple hurricanes too before it was finally taken down.
With a sidebar on the dead high rise over by the Superdome.
Bright Sun Films has done a great episode on this
2017 would prove nothing was learned about lacking fire protection and fire promoting cladding designs when Grenfell burned up in the UK.
Grenfell. Exactly what came to my mind.
And now, despite everyone knowing of the dangers people are still at risk while companies and corporations argue over who should pay to make homes safe.
It's worse than that. All over the world, "green" architects are pushing cross-laminated-timber "plyscrapers", high-rise buildings that are literally made of fuel. Proponents of these claim that the CLT panels last as long as a concrete slab in laboratory fire tests. What they don't say is that wood gives off heat as it burns, while concrete absorbs heat as it disintegrates. The GSK building in Nottingham was a low-rise CLT building and it burnt to the ground. It will take a major catastrophe to stop this trend, and it's only a matter of time.
I'm impressed with how much was done right in this one. The building was in the process of being properly updated, maintained, and even stood up to that powerful fire. It really just looks like a series on unfortunate events
It was really cool to see the difference between the old and new cladding and especially the new fire escape staircase(hope whoever put that one up got a few extra jobs after that one was shown in the news)
Seems like too much of a coincidence that a company under investigation for corruption just so happens to lose _all_ of the paperwork proving it in a fire. As one of my favorite sci-fi characters once said: "Oh, I believe in coincidences. Coincidences happen every day...but I don't _trust_ coincidences."
Id bet the cause was down to one of the top execs suddenly developing a nagging need to chomp on cigars despite never having smoked his entire life. “Lo siento señor! Oh look my new Yacht just arrived. What timing! gtg. peace. 😅”
One hell of a ballsy move though.
"Currently we’re on the hook for a financial crime. I have a plan, which might get us off the hook, but it could get us a bill 10 times larger than the fraud we committed, and charges of arson, obstruction of justice, reckless endangerment and maybe even manslaughter, and if we are caught it will completely destroy our legal definition the case we are fighting.”
Ah, an open mind! The essence of intellect!
like WT7 and the Pentagon on 9/11?
Burning down a high-rise building is not exactly the best way to AVOID scrutiny. Even if you ignore potential criminal charges, the fire probably cost them more than they ever would have been fined for. It's also clear the building was badly designed years before this company even moved into the building. Lucky coincidences might be rare, but winning the lottery is also rare, yet people win the lottery all the time.
Thanks for another great video! Not a big deal, but "Deloitte" is pronounced like a guy who says "Roight" or "Noice" saying "Deloight" (Delight).
My bad thanks for the correction!!
Classiest explanation of a pronunciation I’ve ever read
A great video, as always. Perhaps you'll find the TETCO, (Texas Eastern Transmission Company), LNG explosion on Staten Island, which killed 40 men, of interest. The twist in that case being that the tank was "empty".
"Empty tanks are always far more dangerous than "full" tanks.
Unless your talking about Molasses tanks in Boston Mass.
i have a suggestion for a topic; the 1973 fire at the Hafnia Hotel in Copenhagen. ( there seems to be at least some english languaged sources online, so it should be possible to do a video on ) Also, cheers for your videos! :)
Thank you for the suggestion!!
Avoid. The moment you do anything from these tiny countries, there is endless screaming because "you got it wrong"!
Plenty of other content out there we can cover without creating more offended people from postage-stamp-sized countries.
@@Heike--It's the internet, not everyone's in agreement about anything 🙄
@@Heike-- Who hurt you?
@@Heike-- I wouldn't call Denmark a "postage-stamp-sized" country. It may be small compared to the USA or Russia but it's the 130th biggest in terms of area and 112th in terms of population, out of 196 in total.
We lost the Glasgow School of Art to two fires. The initial one was painful and devastating, but the second one during the refurbishment destroyed the entire building beyond repair and some other beloved ones nearby. Refurbishment can be such a dangerous time for buildings :(
Ooft, just got to the bit about the paperwork request. Yikes!!
Especially when the owner finds out how much it's REALLY going to cost for the refurbishment!!!!
Yes I know a whole list of refurbishment disasters. It's in line with why things always get screwed up at shift change. That fire broke my heart. Glasgow is one of my favorite places.
Look at Notre Dame.
The ship USS Bonhomme Richard was burned beyond repair in 2020 while being refurbished in port. Also kind of fits the pattern.
That building was literally waiting to go up in flames all those years. It's fortunate that it didn't happen before any fire mitigation efforts were put in place or it would have definitely resulted in an absolute catastrophe with many deaths.
99999
"Bad news, our office burned down. But good news, our office bruned down!"
a day with a new plainly difficult video post is always a good day!
Thank you!!
@@PlainlyDifficult If you're looking for another Boeing disaster, how about the Space Shuttle Columbia?
That's a remarkably story John; thank you as always for these.
Is anyone else reminded of Grenfell Tower?? Gaps allowing for the chimney effect?? Lack of adequate fire protection and suppression? Also, that company that was about to be audited? By miraculous coincidence, it occurred just one day after the auditors requested documentation and the fire occurred where all that paperwork was stored and a lot of money had gone walkies. I think it highly likely that it was arson, and they only intended for their company to go up in flames. However, because pretty much all the block was a fire hazard, it took the entire building.
This is the opposite of Grenfell Tower.
Grenfell had adequate fire protection measures but then installed new cladding that compromised those measures.
This tower in Madrid had non-existent fire protection and was in the process of installing it, leading to partial protection of the lower floors.
L.U.CI.FE.R.IAN. RITUA..L SAC.R.IF.ICE☠️😳
Pronunciation of Deloitte is ouchy. Deloytte is the best way I can think to represent it in text.
My bad sorry!!
@@PlainlyDifficult no worries chap most of us don't know wtf a deltoitte even is lel
No literate person should have any problem at all reading or pronouncing Deloitte. I honestly don't understand how anyone could. How misspelling a name can be a good idea, I cannot fathom
@@robertmoffett3486 I'm hyperlexic in English, and passably literate in two other languages (not counting the ones I can speak but not read or write), and since I'd never heard that name spoken, I had no idea how it was actually pronounced. Get over yourself.
@@thing_under_the_stairsI needn't "get over" anything. I simply expressed an opinion. Your ad hominem remark was uncalled for, and if anything, suggests that perhaps you should should take your own advice
It's not a Plainly Difficult video until the scary music starts!
Thank you
That music is to my Saturday mornings now what cartoon themes were when I was a kid.
I like the music at the end better. His second channel has all his music on it.
The Windsor Tower fire was a total disaster waiting to happen; the real blame goes to cutting corners on safety measures and using cheap materials. It’s like they built it to burn
Howdy from Temple, Texas, USA! Somebody dropped a lit (pack of) cigarettes into filing cabinets with carbon paper, had a quick giggle, and ran!
8:07 This picture looks so nice and flames are very clear because they used film, digital camera can't capture high highlight in this situation, you either get flames and nothing around it, or things around it and flames are washout and too bright.
in 2005. Highest resolution DSLR was still 6-8MP, this pic is 12MP, only achievable with film in 2005.
We won't see picture with high quality highlights like this these days, not many people carry around film camera. lol
Plainly Difficult: "The source of the fire is not known to this day, and there is a conspiracy theory that Deloitte started the fire deliberately to destroy evidence against them."
Looking at the number of deaths here, this is nothing compared to the Scandinavian Star distaster (which I hope will be covered on this channel in a future video), where 159 people died and most of the evidence points towards insurance fraud. The case is still unresolved 35 years later, and has become more bizarre over the years: At first, people only thaught that 4 fires were started on the ship and the fire solely spread due to the use of flammable wall panels. Then, 6 fires were identified. And in the latest report. 7 fires are supposed to have taken place on the ship, and allegiations against the crew of the ship were made, because some experts believe that diesel fuel was pumped around the ship to fuel the fire... true nightmare stuff if you ask me.
Excellent video. I've seen a few of your video breakdowns now, and both you and Sam from Brick iMmortar really own this niche of the Internet. Very well done indeed
The fire started on the floor where Deloitte documents were stored. Hmm, what are the chances of that? Seems like a very covenient "accident" for Deloitte.
It's hard to ignore, innit... I'm sure there was a Deloitte employee who was - very conveniently - a smoker...
This is just TOO MUCH of a convenience to be just an accident. I'll die on that hill.
The books were "cooked" for sure
@@clearcreek69 lol, a little over cooked to be sure.😊
"Senor Fawlty! Senor Fawlty! Is fire!"
"No, no, no fire, no fire. Is only drill!"
I wonder if you could do a video about the 1989 great fire of Chiado in Lisbon.
ty mate
Thanks for the suggestion!
@@PlainlyDifficult it was in 1988, not in 89 as I said on my first comment.
Convenient Accidents. Paper trails going up in smoke seems to be a theme these days...
A lot of interesting effects of fire damage based upon various structural techniques, fire prevention techniques and the risk of refurbishment progression. A lot of educational value here. Great video!
Hmm... Hadn't heard of this collapse before. I'm gonna dive deep down the rabbit hole of that potential conspiracy you were talking about and see if it speaks to me ;P Anyway, it was a very interesting video! I really appreciate you taking your time doing these for us each week. You're a class act, John!
Thank you so much!!
just got through the intro...and i'm thinking this one's gunna be a BINGO!! ...lets see
Super happy to see you covering some of the spanish incidents. We have a lot of super interesting ones that just don't really get covered and this was rad to see
Collapsed? Parts of it did, but looks like lots of it was still standing... strange it didn't just collapse completely into its own footprint, and right into the cellar floors and basement. There should have been nothing left but dust. We saw that on the 11th September in New York.
Jet fuel can't melt... oh wait, wrong building and wrong conspiracy.
🤣🤣🤣
23 years it's not too soon 😂😂
It’s so funny, people know blacksmiths need to heat metal to soften it and be able to shape it but can’t think critically here. One of the first labs in my material science lab in mechanical engineering was to test metal samples under tension at different temperatures and examine how they creep or stretch over time.
a reminder of the "conspiracy theory" that not one person who paid to molest children on Jeffrey Epstein's pedo island has been arrested. For example, Bill Gates is still walking around a free man.
different missing trillions the day before 👀
I happened to be in Madrid at that time. There was a video, shown on TV over and over, in which allegedly a group of people were in the Deloitte offices doing "Something." Those conspiracies before social media were more alluring and almost impossible to fact check.
I guess it's probably a coincidence, but... You can never be certain... Deloitte were probably relieved, in any case.
They must have felt better afterwards!!
@@PlainlyDifficult "Oh thank god, our office is on fire!"
Yup, that's relief.
@@thing_under_the_stairs If shenanigans are involved, I'm pretty sure this has happened more than once, lol
Skyscrapers turn into a chimney when on fire
Jesus Christ you got a million subs! Awesome
Honestly kinda impressive that the parts that HAD been fire protected held up pretty well. Can only make you think "Would we still have this building today if the work had started just a few years earlier?"
MAN! You masterfully weaved that commercial right into the meat of the story."I'm stunned!/I'm Flabbergasted!!!"
"Unfired" 🤣
Good video John!
Thank you! Tell your friends!!
Buildings either in the way of "redevelopement" or going over budget have a suspicious tendency to "go on fire".
Architects explaining the design “Then we built the tower with a drafty central core and cladding on the outside, which was the fashion” at the time.
It’s amazing how people can add information back in time when it didn’t exist and then assume the people who built the building wanted it to burn.
The building was designed in the 60s.
@@neilkurzman4907 i think its interesting how english towers had the same flaws. It literally was a fashion to do it this way.
@@koffeekage
Yes, towers built around the same time are going to have the same flaws because they all use the same technologies.
@@neilkurzman4907 would you say that designs like that could have been considered fashionable?
@@koffeekage
Fashionable? Sure buildings run through different fashions. And those fashions require similar construction techniques to achieve.
What a contrast with building 7. The Windsor building had incomplete fireproofing and the parts that collapsed were red hot and totally engulfed, while the fireproofed steel section below didn't collapse. Building 7 was fully fireproofed (though, like the Windsor, it lacked working sprinklers), there had only been sporadic fires, it had only a few rows of windows with visible flames and most of the glass was fully intact. But, in the course of 30 seconds, all of it went straight down and broke into a million pieces. "We had to pull it." indeed.
I mean even the towers themselves collapse is suspicious. I know it was burning but like this shows that the steel structure could have hold it together even if everything else burn. Unless I'm missing something.
Holy hell, I’ve never been this early
yea
Its 15:13 PM 😂😂
Still here loving the content.
I wonder what would happen to the like count if just a small nudge toward hitting the like button was right at the start? Would the ten to one watch/like ratio increase or narrow? Certainly deserves more likes per view.
You nudged me towards the like button
nice way to begin the day
This is very similar to the 2017 Grenfell Tower disaster in London. Cladding acts as a chimney effect for the fire to completely devastate the structure.
Today is a good day. New video from plainly difficult.
Just a coincidence the fire started on 21. Another clear example of how unprotected steel will fail when subjected to high temperature fires for long periods. The Concrete central core stayed up even though the steel perimeter weakened and fell.
I have a photo of the building when it was still intact and in good shape, watched photos of my work travel to Madrid many times, never realized that the building is no more there or what happened to it.
Ah, the WIndsor tower. There's a documentary series by HBO, not sure if available worldwide. There gives more background, for instance the family owner of the building had a film production company. It gives a very epic moment, when a high end car stops by the police precint and lady dressed in a white fur coat identifies herself as the owner. Or goes deeper in the sale of the trading agency, who was the owner and what bank owns now. Or mentions another conspiracy theory about a video recording of several human-like shadows seen through a window of one of the lower floors during the fire (!), like they were looking for other documents to seize or to ensure they burn.
Well, at least they learned that the renovations held up and they were on the right track for fire proofing the place.
I worked for a trade association during that time. Deloitte & Touche, as it was known then, was involved in a huge scandal. They were an auditing firm, and along with KPMG, Pricewaterhousecoopers, and Arthur Andersen, had been involved in accusations of keeping double books for their clients. It was not the last time such accusations were made against these companies (they have been fined several times over the years). I would absolutely believe that the fire was set intentionally to destroy evidence. It's entirely in keeping with the corrupt nature of the organization (and apparently the industry in general).
If it was best part of the day, what was Madrid's worst part of the day?
During a football/soccer loss.
@@kennethloki7011 No team has ever lost a soccer game in Madrid ;)
@@Membrillo81 good catch, should have called it cuju.
The building was unoccupied and presumably unfurnished, so I'm amazed that it would burn so fiercely.
Woah, it didn't pancake at free fall speed? Curious... hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
It is bizarre!! Thank you
Glad to see a new video from ya! I've watched many of yours, prob almost all of them
That's a shame. One Meridian Plaza was just about done having a sprinkler system installed when it burned down. The sprinklers were there but they were waiting on inspection and valves were closed.
2 minute ad read was WILD.... really need to work on that
Thank god for RUclips Premium
Titania? Titanic? These guys really like to tempt fate!
No sprinklers and no fire stops -- what could go wrong?
Reminds me of the February 23, 1991 fire in the office building at One Meridian Plaza in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. No sprinklers -- except the 30th floor, where the fire stopped.
I was 5 and it's the first thing i remember watching on TV
Since the 1900 Hoboken fire, dockers gave been forbidden to carry smoking materials. Perhaps there should be a similar prohibition on construction sites.
Omg, the files... and in 2005? Lol.... i would like to imagine the company looking at the auditor and very casually saying 'oh no. Now we can't be audited :( so sad.' 😂
Hey the Winsor. Never expected you covering stuff from my city! Anyways there has always been controversy with the fire, such as a video of people being inside the burning building, checking something inside rooms, lighting some on and off... That + the dissapearance of important documents, it certainly sounds interesting.
Not being funny but that original design concept gave me an idea in a city building game I play
If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and smells like a duck. It must be a duck, have you smelled them?😂😂😂
Between the time of this & Grenfell, when were problems with the chimney effect afforded by cladding first suspected as a super accelerant for a fire?
Not verbatim but I remember there being a quote or some kind of saying that pretty much goes that the architect is basically a trained artist who designs a building or house from their wildest imaginations, the engineer is the one who has to figure out if it can exist and function in reality.
"Hey John? - I was sorry to hear about your fire"
"schh! - it's next week".
No one was properly injured? Was anyone improperly injured?
Or if no one was properly killed? and the same question: can someone be improperly killed?
@TransistorBased
"I'm proper injured here mate."
What a bloody mess...
The behavior of the spread of the fire sounded awfully familiar to that Commie Block apartment in London you did a few years ago. The fire spreading quickly up the side of the building between the frame and the cladding.
You should look at Novi Sad Radnički univerzitet fire(workers university) there is footage of people climbing down the windows. Also think someone died in the elevator during the fire. The buildings skeleton stood there for many years and took many lives due to urban explorers. It is now renovated.
1:24 “ … thrown up … “ 🤮 John! Did you do that on purpose? I hope so because I needed that!
You're collecting a set to go with the Grenfell Report, I see. The Tehran Plasco, closely resembling the Dagenham fire. This one. Any more? It reveals the report didn't go far enough.
(0:25) This Refurbishment did work really well.
I mean, would you easily be able to tell the difference between a cigarette and a bunch of financial documents being burned and put in an ashtray?
You would think, but I reckon it was difficult due to the floor being all untogeather
WTC towers were built to withstand the impact of a Boeing 707 jetliner. It had sprinklers and insulated columns yet collapsed rather quickly from burning jet fuel that only burns at 800° to 1500°F, not hot enough to melt steel (2750°F). This older building without proper fire protection didn't completely collapse despite the entire thing being on fire a long time.
Definitely need to blot the "Risks Ignored" space on your BINGO card.
Hey John, I enjoy your videos and I'm subscribed with notifications on. Congratulations on your amazing achievement of 1 million subscribers!
(I think the screen-time for your score card is way too short and the outro music too loud. IMO)
Hey... If you want to keep things around Spain may I suggest "Alcalá 20 disco fire", Biescas flooding or the "Prestige" sinking at Galicia.
Cheers!
I'm sorry, but naming the replacement 'Titania' is just too close to 'Titanic' for my comfort...🙄
At least it can't sink... or hit an iceberg 🤔😁
@@alilonghair7792 That is what they said in 1912...
@@AndyFletcherX31 😂🤣😂
Spain is known for its flying icebergs
I don't usually comment on your videos, but the 12th of February, 2005 was my 30th birthday
Thanks John 👍
It was an Insurance Scam …
Never knew lifts required there own support. Never viewed them as heavy. Gathering it has something to go with the tube in rides in / counterweight
Perfect video to stary my lasy day off
Have fun!!
Definitely a little uncanny that a business engaged in dubious activity has their office go up in flames the day after documents were requested.
I appreciate your content my dude☺️
Thanks!
Thank you
I wonder how this fire compares to the ones at the World Trade Center.
The tube in tube design of the towers led to the fire weakened floors pulling in the outer columns, which led to the collapse
You should cover the National Personnel Records Center Fire. Lots of consequences from that one.
I love your videos, but thank god for Sponsor Block. Don't want to see an ad for a news service showing news headlines in the ad when I'm actively avoiding the news for anxiety reasons.
If I stick my head in the sand and don't look at it, it doesn't exist.
The title made me think I was going to see the live tv footage 🤔
2005. It wouldn't have been a ciggie unless someone was having a crafty one in the toilets - any toilets are pretty robust when it comes to a small ignition source like that.
Sounds more like a case of paper, a small bin pretending to be metal but is actually plastic, zippo fluid and said zippo. WOT? I didn't say 'nuffin.
It’s the 13th of feb 2005?! Oh shit I’ve time travelled!