A strange looking building in downtown Pittsburgh with a smoke stack and a story to tell

Photo credit PACT Web Site

Thousands of people go by this strange looking building and smoke stack  along Fort Duquesne Blvd. on a daily basis and never give it a second thought  but it serves an important function and also saw a drama play out which would result in the rewarding of the Carnegie Heroes medal to a smoke stack worker who saved a fellow worker.






Once much taller when the smoke stack burned coal Now of days it burns Oil or Natural Gas this was one of 2 plants that produced steam to heat buildings and there hot water systems in the down town area.  which where once known as Allegheny County Steam Heat Company which was a subsidiary of Duquesne Light Company .

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=19511115&id=ScNRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=m2oDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1764,1166881

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19760229&id=5uAhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=J1gEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6474,3309755

Back in the day it was much more pollution wise and economic wise to have centralized steam provided by one stack instead of several hundred separate operating coal fired  boilers .


But as time and technology rolls on it became cheaper for some buildings to go it on there own and install there own boilers and disconnect from the system which ended up being rescued and now operates as a non profit   Pittsburgh  Allegheny County Thermal. Ltd.
http://pacthermal.com/about-us.html
 

How ever the real story of this building goes way back to 1948when the stack and building where being being repaired and scaffolding collapsed and involved tremendous courage and heroics by one of the workers to save another several hundred feet up in the air Which resulted in the awarding of the Carnegie hero medal 

http://www.carnegiehero.org/about-the-fund/history/

The rescue is unbelievable when a boatswain  chair collapsed and a worker from Avalon Ross Chapman  hanging by one leg on one rung of a ladder  rescued a fellow worker.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19480129&id=9lsbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=H00EAAAAIBAJ&pg=5610,4195333

Ironically he saved the same worker Samuel Hopkins   years earlier in a flag pole mishap on a different job site on Private  Brunot Island which Duquesne Light maintains a large power plant .

While never considering himself a hero Mr. Chapman surely was. 

Bizzare Coincidence ? involving construction of 2 Scrubber Smoke stacks and 2 unfortunate deaths

With the tightening of EPA rules on the amount of emissions being allowed from Coal Burning Power Plants 2 plants in the valley below me in towns next to each other  along the Allegheny River  the first plant owned by West Penn Power in Springdale which is now run on Natural Gas   and the 2nd Plant owned at one time by Duquesne Light Company   in Cheswick now owned by Gen On  decided to install new scrubber smoke stacks to help comply with the new rules.
I actually got a close up look at the Springdale Plant in 1974 when I was on a canoe trip from Tionesta Pa to Pittsburgh 150 miles  and we stayed in an old abandoned Spring dale  boat clubs grounds behind the plant 

The Springdale plant was first to start  the enormous 300 ft stack and it was almost finished when the unthinkable happened and a worker building the stack fell to his death inside the stack.
The former  volunteer fire chief  where I once volunteered was the responding paid  medic that day and was among the first responders from emergency agency's to arrive.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2519&dat=20011117&id=17djAAAAIBAJ&sjid=_CgMAAAAIBAJ&pg=3110,32993531

Springdale plant  with scrubber stack old stack removed

 It was a horrifying scene when he arrived something you hope you never see again in your life time Yet like dejavue it would happen again  and on the same day of the week and the former chief would be first medic unit on the scene since this was his normal scheduled work day and area he worked. .

When another worker fell to his death at the power  plant in Cheswick a few miles down from the Springdale plant.

Old smoke stack to left new scrubber stack on right  Cheswick plant

Aprox. a year later when  this  scrubber stack was almost finished  talk about creepy coincidence

 OSHA investigated both sites and they where nothing more than accidents . Nothing sinister at all involved  yet for such an accident to happen twice in same area cane be called nothing more than bizarre.

$75,000.00 Dollar Gem goes Missing from Carnegie Museum Collection in 1981 never to be seen again

I will never forget sitting at a Pittsburgh Mineral & Lapidary Society meeting in late 70s when Del Oswald a curator with the Carnegie Natural  History Museum presented the plans for a brand new Hillman Hall to show off the museums collection which had been hidden away for years . he fought many years to get the hall built as museum officials where always trying to eliminate the collection but in the end Del won out.

http://www.carnegiemnh.org/online/hillman/

They had a grand opening and with in a few weeks of opening a major gem was missing from the collection despite excellent security system.  which is described in article from Pittsburgh post gazette .

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19841007&id=3xEdAAAAIBAJ&sjid=IJYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3536,3825841

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2002&dat=19810727&id=WK0iAAAAIBAJ&sjid=77EFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4669,5623068
 After the robbery I asked Del would he like me to look the security over  to see if there was a hole some where since I worked with alarm systems  he said No.  Which got me suspicious this $75,000.00 gem gone and its all hush hush whats going on.Also why was just this stone targeted  It really seemed like an inside job but why?  You could not sell a stone like that legitimately and cutting it down into smaller stones would not make it worth any where near what it was whole .

But then a couple years later things would get very interesting and bring down many big names in the city on tax evasion charges . Del Oswald  personally and with out the museums knowledge was caught up in a tax avoidance scam  run by some  gem dealers where a donor would buy a a raw uncut stone which might cost $1500.00  and an additional $500.00 to have it cut but then they would give them to museum at a cut value  and get a deduction letter for $10,000.00  retail price gem was worth . not the $2000.00 it cost and where taking an illegal $8000.00 deduction

Eventually the whole thing unraveled and many got caught and had to pay up and I have always wondered was this tax scam the reason the stone disappeared? as it would have been part of the scam being run and traced to some one even higher up the food chain the IRS could target? 

Of course we will never know and Del and many of the donors have since passed on and the gem still missing and its story as yet untold. 
The last time I saw Del was at a mineral club meeting where he explained the whole tax scam and how it worked while no one went to jail it cost plenty of $$$ for those involved  to get out of this mess ,and who ever stole the stone the statute of limitations has since log run out and they got away clean