Prominent Skyscrapers Disasters
from around the World

July, 28th 1945

July, 28th 1945


Lost in the fog, a B25 Mitchell bomber slams into the north side the Empire State Building and explodes, causing severe damage between the 79th & 80th floor. By the time fire was extinguished, more than 40 minutes later, 14 people were killed.

April 9th 1975

April 9th 1975

Five years after the completion of the World Trade Centers, a horrific fire breaks out on the 11th floor of the North Tower, the same tower that Dan Goodwin, a.k.a. SpiderDan, scaled in 1983. According to the reports, the fire raged for three hours, spreading down to the 9th floor and up to the 16th floor. Temperatures were believed to have exceeded 700°C, which were greater than the temperatures reached on 9/11, but yet, there wasn’t any serious structural damage to the building, nor did any of the trusses need to be replaced. Most importantly, the North Tower did not collapse.

May 21st 1980

May 21st 1980

The MGM Grand Hotel Fire in Las Vegas has been hailed as the second largest loss of life in United States history. As illustrated in the book SOS, this fire proved to be the catalyst for Dan Goodwin, a.k.a. SpiderDan, building ascents. By the time the fire was extinguished, 84 people had died, 679 people were injured.

May 4th 1988

May 4th 1988

The 62 story First Interstate Bank building in downtown Los Angeles, California has been hailed as the most challenging and difficult high-rise fire in the city's history. The fire, which continued unabated until May 5th, destroyed four floors, claimed one life, injured approximately 35 occupants and 14 fire personnel.

February 23rd, 1991

February 23rd, 1991

A twelve alarm fire gutted eight floors of the 38-story One Meridian Plaza building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The fire raged for 18 hours. The extreme heat caused window glass and frames to melt and concrete floor slabs and steel beams to buckle and sag dramatically. According to consulting engineers for the owners, the structural steel elements were bent into an hour-shape . Three firefighters were trapped on a fully engulfed floor, and efforts to rescue them failed. There were increasing concerns about the stability of the structure. Fire officials called off the attack and allowed the fire to "free burn," concentrating their efforts on containing the fire to this building. When the fire reached the 30th floor, a tenant-installed fire-sprinkler system was activated, and the worst high-rise fire in U.S. history was finally brought under control.

February 26, 1993

February 26, 1993

A 1,500 lb (680 Kb) car bomb was detonated by Islamist terrorist in the underground parking lot of the World Trade Center “North Tower”, the same tower that Dan Goodwin, a.k.a. SpiderDan, scaled in 1983. The intention was to cause the tower to collapse onto its twin, killing everyone inside. Fortunately, the explosion, which left a 30-meter wide crater through four sublevels of concrete, was unsuccessful. Still, six people were tragically killed, and least 1,040 people were injured.

February 23rd, 1991

March 12th, 1993

A powerful car bomb exploded in the basement of the 28-story Bombay Stock Exchange building in Bombay, India . Fifty people were killed in the initial attack. Hundreds more were killed that day when a series of suit case bombs were detonated in three hotels, the Hotel Sea Rock, Hotel Juhu Centaur, and Hotel Airport Centaur. Despite the level of devastation, none of the structures collapsed.

April 19th, 1995

April 19th, 1995

Timothy McVeigh reportedly detonated a truck bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City. 168 people were killed. Hundreds were wounded.

Nov. 21, 1996

The worst fire in Hong Kong's history occurred in an office building on Nathan Street. People were seen leaping from the windows to escape the flames. The fire was so intense it turned the entire skyscraper into a towering inferno, killing 40 people and injuring 81.

February 23rd, 1997

A fire at Bangkok's President Tower, a 36-floor complex on Ploenchit Road, kills three, two of them after jumping from the seventh floor to escape the flames. The seventh to tenth floors were destroyed.

December 8th, 1997

14 people perish in a fire that engulfed the top floors of a new tower block in Indonesia's central bank complex in Jakarta.

September 11th 2001

September 11th 2001

Two commercial aircrafts slammed into the two World Trade Center towers. Even though the fires burned for less than an hour, three skyscrapers, including WTC 7, which hadn’t suffered any damage, mysteriously collapsed into their own footprints at free fall speeds.

January 5th 2002January 5th 2002

A 15-year student flew a stolen single-engine Cessna into the 20th floor of the Bank of America building, a skyscraper in Tampa, Florida, killing himself and slightly damaging the building.

April 19th, 2002

April 19th, 2002

A little more than six months after 9/11, a small passenger plane slammed into the 30-storey Pirelli building in Milan, Italy, causing a huge explosion which left three people, and dozens injured.

January 4th, 2003

China Airlines, a Boeing 747 filled passengers, nearly slammed into one of the tallest skyscrapers in Hawaii, the 41 story Century Center. Eye witnesses said the jumbo airliner came within 30 feet of striking the 12th floor condominium complex.

January 5th, 2003

Exactly one year after the 15 year old boy stole the single engine Cessna, a German man stole a small aircraft at gunpoint and flew it over downtown Frankfurt, threatening to crash it into the European Central Bank. German fighter planes eventually forced the plane to land as the man circled the city’s towering skyscrapers, and was immediately arrested.

October 17, 2003

A fire started in a supply room on the 12th floor of the 35-story Cook County administration building in Chicago, Ill. U.S.A. The flames and smoke spread quickly, trapping several workers in a stairwell. Six of them died. As one survivor said, "All the sudden you realize those doors are locked and there's really no way out." That survivor was none other than Randy Roberts, the executive assistant to State's Attorney Dick Devine.

October 18th, 2004

October 18th, 2004

Parque Central, a 56-story office tower in Caracas, the same skyscraper Dan Goodwin, a.k.a. SpiderDan, scaled back in 1982, was engulfed in flames. For more 17 hours the fire rages. Two floors in the skyscraper, and several staircases, collapsed as the fire spread through 26 of the skyscraper's 56 floors, forcing the evacuation of neighboring buildings. At one point, the temperatures were so intense, the firefighters had to stop. Many were concerned the skyscraper would collapse, remembering all too well what happened 9/11, but the building remained standing.

December 7th 2004

LaSalle National Bank in Chicago, Ill. U.S.A. The fire began on the 29th floor and raged, unabated for more than four hours. Twenty-nine people were hospitalized. Fortunately nobody died, but it did renew an old debate which was sparked after the tragic Cook County fire in 2003; why aren’t all skyscrapers, both old and new, required to install automatic sprinklers systems?

February 14th, 2005

February 14th, 2005

Windsor Building in Madrid, Spain. The 32-story burned like a Roman candle stick for two days. At one point, the entire building was completely engulfed in flames. Several of the top floors collapsed onto the lower ones, which should have, if you believe in the “Pancake Theory,” caused the collapse of the entire skyscraper. But the skyscraper remained standing.

December 6th 2005

A military transport plane that was carrying journalists from Iranian news agencies on their way to cover military maneuvers crashed into a 10 story apartment building. The impact caused a huge explosion and set the entire building on fire. Flames roared from the roof and windows of the upper floors. Everyone on the plane, including 84 passengers and 10 crew members were killed. Twenty-one people in the apartment building were also killed. Ninety were injured. Even though the fire raged unabated for several hours, the skyscraper remained standing as a scorched shell.

January 16th 2006.

A tragic fire broke out in an office building in Vladivostok, Russia, killing 9 people, and injuring at least 15 others.

Oct 11th 2006

Oct 11th 2006

A small plane carrying the legendary New York Yankee’s pitcher Cory Lidle crashed into a 50-story luxury condo building on Manhattan's Upper East Side, killing Lidle and an instructor . The results of the crash ignited a raging fire, trapping people on the floors above the point of impact. Twenty-one people, including six firefighters, were injured. Miraculously, nobody inside the building was killed.