The Indiana Coliseum Explosion - "The Holiday On Ice Disaster" 1963

[derekleffew]

How have I never heard of this before?

 

[FMEng]

"...and the band played on." What an odd way to react to an explosion.

 

[Malabaristo]

"...and the band played on." What an odd way to react to an explosion.

Right? LIke, the Titanic story makes sense to me because they knew there was very little chance they could make it to safety. Trying to calm/distract the crowds is a reasonable response in that situation. When you're in a building and there are multiple explosions, staying and playing makes a whole lot less sense than either getting out yourself, or trying to free survivors trapped by debris.

 

[TimMc]

And the State Fair roof blow down in 2011, killing 7 and injuring almost 60 more. Only 11 years later and it appears that the lessons that should have been learned then, have a very short shelf life.

 

[gafftaper]

Wow @derekleffew I'm also surprised to hear of this for the first time.

 

[SS Minnow]

Some years back while installing a moving light system for the hockey team there, a rigger on the job pointed out some remaining debris still in a hard to get to soffit type area from this very incident and filled me in on the story. He didn’t mention that the band played on though…