The Glass Tower Disaster | A Short "Documentary" | Fascinating Horror

[Music] on the 16th of December 1974 hundreds of excited guests gathered at the Glass Tower in San Francisco for the building's dedication ceremony the Glass Tower was the tallest building in the world at the time and a hugely anticipated new addition to the skyline of the city however very few of the guests in attendance that night were aware that the building had several hidden faults faults that would ultimately turn out to be deadly in nature the Glass Tower was designed by architect Doug Ro

berts on behalf of developer James Duncan Duncan had an extensive portfolio of properties to his name but the Glass Tower was to be a particularly special addition standing at 500 15 M or 1,688 ft tall it would be the tallest building in the world at the time and the tallest on the San Francisco skyline by a significant margin as well as being record-breaking tall the Glass Tower would also be luxurious it was a mixed use Skyscraper with various businesses occupying premises up to the 80th floor

from the 81st floor to the 120th there would be hundreds of luxury apartment Ms each with an incredible view over San Francisco the topmost 18 floors would be occupied by bars restaurants event spaces and conferencing facilities as well as the skyscrapers rooftop heliport as well as internal Express elevators that could transport guests to any of the 138 floors in minutes there was also a Scenic glass elevator that ran up the exterior of the building on the 6th of December 1974 in the tower's 1

35th floor prominade room a special dedication ceremony was arranged politicians socialites and movie stars from all over the country would attend with celebrity guests including Paul Newman Steve McQueen Fay Dunaway OJ Simpson and Fred a stair the city mayor would also be present to inaugurate the new tower guests would be able to meet architect Doug Roberts who had designed the Glass Tower and Inferno rivalry between him and the building's owner James Duncan who would be overseeing the night's

Scara dinner James Duncan's son-in-law whose firm had contributed to the building's construction was also present to enjoy the occasion no expense was spared in making the dedication ceremony a memorable one a red carpet reception was laid on at ground level attended by members of the local and national press the May himself kicked off proceedings by cutting a golden ribbon although it was noted that this required several attempts something that was later interpreted as an ill Omen for the nigh

t ahead as VIP guests began to arrive and ride up to the 135th floor every light in the building was switched on at once making it stand out like a torch on the skyline of San Francisco it was shortly after this that security guards monitoring CCTV cameras noticed smoke pouring from underneath a door on the 81st floor they rushed to attend anticipating only a small easily extinguished fire however at the very moment they arrived on scene a fireball blasted open the door fatally burning one man t

his would be the first casualty of the Glass Tower disaster with a significant fire now burning on the 81st floor the San Francisco Fire Department was called to the scene the sheer scale of the skyscraper made the firefighting effort a difficult one Crews were reliant on the express elevators to rapidly reach the sight of the fire and then had to use the building standpipe system to attempt to extinguish the Flames up on the 135th floor 294 guests were at that very moment sitting down ready to

enjoy the first course of a Gala dinner James Duncan the building's owner was informed of the fire he was initially reluctant to disrupt the event especially as he believ that the tower was essentially fireproof even a significant fire on the 81st floor he was confident could not travel up to the 135th it was only after a Fire battalion chief spoke with him in person that he agreed to begin an evacuation at this point however the fire was already wrapped rapid ly worsening several guests who tri

ed to evacuate using an Express Elevator were severely burned when a short circuit caused the elevator to stop and open on the 81st floor following this incident it became immediately clear that the express elevators were no longer a viable means of escape this left only the stairs which were rapidly filling with smoke and the scenic elevator on the outside of the building an extremely slow elevator that could transport only 12 people at a time with the rate the fire was spreading it was clear t

hat this one elevator would not be sufficient to evacuate everybody present helicopters were called in to airlift guests from the roof of the building however the first helicopter to arrive struggled to land due to high winds this was compounded by two guests approaching the helipad this appeared to startle the pilot and resulted in the crash of the helicopter into the the roof with the loss of everyone on board this helicopter crash started a second fire on the roof of the building the options

for evacuation were now incredibly limited leading some of the guests on the 135th floor to start getting quietly drunk on the Abundant alcohol available behind the bar as a last resort another helicopter with a less nervous pilot was used to rig a line between the Glass Tower and the next nearest building the 102 story Peerless building this line allowed guests to escape one at a time by means of a breaches boy a device which is more commonly used to move Sailors between ships at Sea though thi

s line saved several lives It could only accommodate one person at a time with the fire spreading rapidly upwards it seemed certain that hundreds of people would not escape this time pressure became even more acute when the explosion of a gas line damaged the scenic elevator leaving it hanging from the side of the building the whole elevator was lifted from the side of the building by a helicopter and carried to ground level leaving only the breaches boy as a means of escape this to however was

damaged during a panicked scuffle and became non-operational with at least 100 people still trapped on the 135th floor as a Last Resort the fire department lowered a man equipped with explosives to the roof these explosives were used to destroy the building's massive water tanks almost a million gallons of water drained downward through the building finally extinguishing the fire the flood drowned and crushed several people but avoided a complete loss of life among those still remaining inside t

he Glass Tower several amazing barely credible stories of survival emerged in the aftermath of the disaster particularly notable was the experience of the building's architect Doug Roberts who narrowly escaped death when a ruptured gas line exploded and destroyed a stairwell despite this he was able to assist in the rescue of a deaf woman and her children from the 87th floor before climbing across a ventilation shaft to circumvent a door blocked by debris his intimate knowledge of the building a

llowed him to assist firefighters in executing the plan to blow up the water tanks his presence at the dedication of the building he had designed ultimately saved dozens of lives an investigation revealed that significant Corners had been cut during the building's Construction in order to save around $6 million developer James Duncan had relied on subcontractors over whom he had little oversight some of these had used non-standard materials While others had neglected to complete work to a high s

tandard resulting in missing fire doors and extremely explosion prone gas Ms throughout the building it was also observed that the windows in the building were not made from toughened glass as throughout the disaster they had shattered completely from even relatively slight impacts it was also found that Duncan had hired his own son-in-law's company to complete some of the electrical systems the skyscraper this had been done on a limited budget using materials that did not comply with standard r

equirements this was what had ultimately caused the fire the substandard wiring had overheated and ignited due to electrical overload when every light in the building was switched on during the opening ceremony this Revelation led to harsh criticism of the building's owner James Duncan with some critics remarking that if the construction budget was stretched he should have cut floors not Corners in total around 200 people lost their lives in the disaster around 2/3 of the guests in attendance at

the dedication event this significant casualty count was nonetheless characterized by one rescuer as lucky as it could have been much worse estimates of the cost of the disaster placed it around 14 million in the aftermath of the fire the tower was demolished and has since been replaced by the Trans America pyramid which stands just 48 stories to several of those involved in the fire went on to dedicate their working lives to designing safer more fireproof skyscrapers in this endeavor they clea

rly made significant advances as the Towering Inferno that engulfed the Glass Tower currently remains without a [Music] sequel