Independence water tower built in 1913 demolished, narrowly missing a house as it fell
Crews have begun to clean up a heap of steel and iron that had stood as a water tower in Independence since 1913, after the tower came crashing down during a demolition effort, landing eight feet from a house Tuesday.
Around 10:30 a.m., onlookers watched as a first attempt at bringing the old tower down failed. The demo crew then sawed the tower’s legs and used a truck with a cord to pull it down.
Instead of falling in an open plot of grass to the north, the legs of the tower buckled as they sawed. The tower came crashing down across South Osage Street, damaging power cables and falling just short of a home.
The contractor had anticipated that outcome as a worst-case-scenario. And even so, the tower remaining in the air would have been more dangerous, officials said.
“We measured and we knew if it did fall this way, it would be exactly eight feet from the house, and when it fell, it was,” said Dustin Lankford, an employee with Cornelius Wrecking. “We knew it wouldn’t hit the house, but we were worried about the debris.”
Dilapidated water tower falling apart
Long before the demolition, the city of Independence had fenced off part of the sidewalk near the tower.
Rebecca Gannon, a spokesperson for the city of Independence, said debris had been falling off the tower and landing near people walking their dogs.
The tower was old, but was not registered as a historial landmark. It’s dilapidated state rendered it unsalvageable, the city concluded in a 2014 study. The study revealed it would cost $250,000 to repair.
The ciry elected not to spend the money, but look at other options.
“It was beyond salvaging, so we had to bring it down,” Gannon said.
According to city offiicals, the tower had never been used by the city for water. It was erected next to a flour mill which used to sit on the same plot of land. The mill went out of business in the 1960s.
When the city acquired the property more than 10 years ago, the water tower was already in disrepair, Gannon said.
Cleanup to last several days
The contractor and city notified area residents ahead of time about the demolition. South Osage Street was blocked off and residents were notified to move their cars.
One vehicle that was left on the street had its back window broken out. It is unclear if the window broke from reverberations from the tower falling, or from debris, Gannon said.
Power went out for eight residents on the block as crews worked to repair the lines. A pole had to be repaired and reset, which took several hours Tuesday. Power was back on for residents between midnight and 2 a.m. Wednesday, Gannon said.
Lankford said the tower buckling as it came down showed how structurally unsound it had been, and that the metal was unique.
“When it fell, it just gave out. A lot of it just gave out because it was so old,” Lankford said.
Lankford said the company completed a 360-degree measurement before the demolition. If the tower fell to the south, it could have damaged part of the National Frontier Trails Museum.
Gannon said given how weak the tower was, the city is thankful that damage was relatively limited from its fall. No one was injured in the incident.
“We’re glad that it worked out the way that it did, all things considered,” Gannon said.
The rubble had been moved out from the street by Wednesday, but the road was still blocked off while Lankford’s team worked to clear the metal.
The city notified residents the road is anticipated to be blocked off for up to 10 days. However, Lankford said he expects his crew to have the metal cleared by Friday.
Lankford said Cornelius Wrecking will be fixing the sidewalk in front of the house where the tower ended up falling. Nobody answered the door when The Star attempted to speak with the homeowner Wednesday.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) workers were seen on the demolition site just after 11 a.m. Wednesday, speaking with the contractor. Wearing hard hats and vests, two workers took photographs and asked questions about the work site.
“The most challenging thing is the old properties. The metal is so old,” Lankford said. “Our guy that is torching has never seen metal cut like this before. If you look on the metal, there’s names on there from companies back in the 1800s.”
‘Preserve the story’
Amid the rubble, a few men surveyed the scene for parts, wiping the dust off of rusty beams revealing names more than a century old: Carnegie, Lackawanna, Jones & Laughlin.
Mark Carrick and Larry Smith were among those searching for parts to preserve.
Carrick, a member of the Jackson County Historical Society, is hoping to preserve some of the metal in local museums, and make furniture out of other scraps.
“All of those companies got their start in the 1800s,” Carrick said. “And you can see with the different manufacturers, how there are small differences in the support structure in the steel.”
Smith, a local history buff and contributor to the Jackson County Historical Society, is taking on the project out of an appreciation of the past.
While they haul away other unusable scraps of metal, Cornelius Wrecking cut portions of the tower that Carrick and Smith can later form into tables, chairs or other types of furniture.
They hope to preserve in local museums parts of the steel that bear the old company names.
“We’re looking at it through the eyes of history, you know, and what we can do to preserve the story,” Mark said.
