Dave and I were sitting in the back yard of the cabin on Cape Cod, having a beer and watching something get cooked on the grill. Dave was an architectural engineer, and the cabin was in an interior location probably in Dennis or Harwich (can't remember ... I spent a lot of time in cabins on Cape Cod doing archeology and stuff) and we were so close to the town water tower that we had to crane our neck back to read it.
So I said to Dave, "If that sucker fell over in our direction, we'd get wet. And dead."
Dave said, "No way, man. Big things like that don't fall over. They fall down. There is no over. Trust me. I'm an architectural engineer, I know what I'm talking about."
So ever since then, I've never worried that much being near, but not under, a big giant thing. But now, I know Dave was full of shit:
The damn thing rolls over! Onto its roof! Holy crap!
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They were trying to implode the building and it looks like only one side of the building's charges didn't go off. For a water tower, or any standing building, for that matter, he was correct. Only when something weakens one entire side of a building and a significant portion towards the opposite side (but leaving the opposite side intact) will something such as this occur. If your water tower completely loses, simultaneously, two of four legs, then it would fall over. If only one buckles, the remaining three would either allow it to stay standing or the top would sheer off. Either way, it would fall down, not over.
Jared,
You're just a rolling building denier! How much did Big Dynamite pay you to say that?
When doing building demolitions, always hire a professional.
In the fire service we worry about the collapse zone -- the area near a burning building into which it's likely to collapse if it loses structural integrity. My concept of 'collapse zone' just got magnified by a factor of 5!
This is more like a "Rolling across town" zone.