The second time I almost died

I thought I’d lost an eye. Then I thought I was about to die.

Post-accident x-ray of my head — My shattered eye socket on the right. The large dark area to the left is my sinus filled with air. The sinus opposite is filled with blood.

I am about to recount the tale of how I found myself lying on the floor bleeding onto my camera bag, convinced I was about to meet my maker. But first, you need a bit of background.

I write about demolition and construction for a living. I know what you’re thinking — That’s not a real job. But I can assure you it is; I have been doing it for the past 35 years. I have travelled the world visiting demolition sites and the factories of the very specialised companies that make the equipment used in the industry sector.

And that is how I came to be on a demolition site in the UK in August 2016.

In February 2016, the UK demolition industry suffered its worst single accident. Four working men lost their lives when the boiler house at the former Didcot A Power Station collapsed and buried them beneath 15,000 tonnes of twisted metal. It would be another seven months until the bodies of three of the four men were recovered.

There was some initial media coverage of the collapse in the two or three days after. The incident was even mentioned in the Houses of Parliament. And then, the rest of the world moved on.