The lights of the 200 meter high chimney at Didcot Power Station can be seen reflected in the River Thames at Abingdon.
A lady, I knew, approached while I was taking the picture, to say ‘Unlucky Didcot’. Her father worked there as part of the initial crew, and over the years she could remember other accidents, during the building of the power station, and since. Then just last year the woodern cooling towers, for the new gas fired power station, caught fire. Yesterday part of the concrete and steel boiler house, being prepared for demolition, collapsed, tragically killing one person. Three others are missing.
We take our power supply for granted. Events at Didcot remind us that perhaps we shouldn’t. How tragic for the families of those lost.
A similar number probably died on our roads yesterday (and every day)
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/580347/Road-deaths-UK-research
But because largely ‘unseeen’ are not remarked on.
While tragic for those intimately involved, families and rescuers, all activity carries Risk; dismantling an old industrial structure like Didcot A sits at the higher end of that scale but is only different to the public because it is very visible and ‘camera-worthy’.
Whether this was an avoidable accident remains to be seen. I sincerely hope that none of the Emergency and search teams joins the list of victims.
Hi all – on dark evenings, when I’m on high ground round here (Stroud) I can see a vertical line of 3 red lights in, as far as I can tell, the direction of Didcot.
I assume it’s the power station, but obviously I can’t tell how far away it is, or the precise direction.
Is there anything else remotely around Didcot that it could be?
Thanks!