On June 24, 2021, at approximately 1:22 a.m. EDT, Champlain Towers South, a 12-story beachfront condominium in the Miami suburb of Surfside, Florida, partially collapsed.
Modern buildings do not collapse all that often but when they do there is usually a good answer as to the causes of the collapse. The ever “helpful” Wikipedia page about the Surfside collapse references the 1922 Knickerbocker Theatre collapse in Washington D.C., which exactly like the Surfside collapse, killed 98 people.
The Knickerbocker and Surfside collapses are tied for third on the building collapses in the United States in terms of lives lost. The Alfred P. Murrah building collapse in 1995 in Oklahoma City ranks second (168 dead) and the World Trade Center (WTC) collapse in 2001 is first (2,763 dead.)
The Murrah building “officially” collapsed from a fertilizer bomb. The WTC (towers One and Two) “officially” collapsed because each was hit by a huge commercial jet. The Knickerbocker Theatre collapsed from two days worth of snow on the roof.
Setting aside plenty of doubts with respect to the official cause of the One and Two WTC tower collapses, no marginally awake Conspiracy Theorist believes the official story about the collapse of WTC Building Seven.
The cause of the collapse of WTC Number Seven is still under investigation, even if the investigation is not official.
Similarly, the cause of the Surfside collapse is still under investigation.
WTC Building Number Seven was a Controlled Demolition.
That it was a controlled demolition is hardly disputed. How the controlled demolition was pulled off is still a mystery. In short, it takes weeks for professional demolition companies to wire and place explosive charges in a building that needs to be demolished under ideal conditions.
Ideal conditions would include a structural analyses of the building to be demolished, computer modeling, and then the placement of the explosives and related hardware, with drywall, doors, office furniture removed, and no office workers getting in the way.
Building Number Seven was pre-wired for demolition. We think we have a pretty good answer as to why a large skyscraper in lower Manhattan would be wired for demolition during construction in this piece we published on September 11, 2019.
What if Godzilla was Sent from Gibson Island to Destroy the World Trade Center?
The short answer, to the long answer at the link above, is that Insurance underwriters would require a building to be wired for demolition during construction should the building become structurally unsound, and have to be taken down at great risk to nearby buildings. (An insurance company wants to reduce the risk that an already compromised building falls on other buildings when attempting to demolish it.)
It seems risky to put explosives in a building during construction, what if years later someone pushes “the button” for no good reason with thousands of people in the building?
The evidence supporting any theory that the collapse of the Surfside condos was a controlled demolition, like WTC Building #7, is speculative at best. The best evidence is only that buildings do not collapse for no reason.
Whether the Surfside condos were intentionally collapsed by a controlled demolition, or the collapse was an accident caused by some structural and/or engineering failure, we think we can address the risk that an insurance company would want to account for the risk that someone might accidently or intentionally push “the button” while people were still living or working in the building.
A few things that can compromise the structural integrity of a large building, requiring it to be demolished, include Godzilla attack, commercial jet impact, tidal wave impact, and earthquakes.
Earthquakes remain the most common risk to a modern buildings structural integrity, so it might be advantageous to be able to demolish a building after an earthquake, but not accidently or intentionally before an earthquake.
If I was designing a system to demolish a building after an earthquake, but never before, I think I would include an earthquake trigger in my design.
The demolition system would only work, or become armed, after an earthquake, which would be detected by seismographs in the local area of the building, but probably over a wider area for added safety. (One seismograph might pick up other disturbances that are not necessarily a risk to the specific pre-wired building. For example, if a large building a block away was intentionally demolished resulting in a local seismic event.)
Earthquakes are pretty rare on the East Coast. If the Surfside condos were pre-wired for demolition for insurance reasons; and for safety reasons, “the button” would only work after a material seismic event, as detected by seismographs dispersed up and down the eastern coast of Florida, someone with diabolical intentions might have to wait a life-time for the earthquake trigger to make that button functional.
Unless they could dial up a seismic event.
‘Experimental explosion’ prompts earthquake off Florida’s coast – June 20, 2021.
A massive military explosion off Florida’s coast triggered a 3.9 magnitude earthquake on Friday.
The Navy was testing its new aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford in a “shock trial,” about 100 miles off the coast of Ponce Inlet, Florida. The explosion helps to test a ship’s ability to withstand nearby explosions.
On June 24, 2021, at approximately 1:22 a.m. EDT, Champlain Towers South, a 12-story beachfront condominium in the Miami suburb of Surfside, Florida, partially collapsed.
Just saying.