Tower crashes to ground after DeLand High School football game

BEACON PHOTO/BARB SHEPHERD
No one injured — Three vehicles were damaged but no one was hurt when a 400-foot radio transmission tower crashed to the ground about 9:55 p.m. Friday, Sept. 4. Hundreds of football fans were milling about in the area, leaving the DeLand High School football game, when the tower came down.

BEACON PHOTO/BARB SHEPHERD
Scene — Police and firefighters swarmed the north end of Earl Brown Park after a 400-foot radio-transmission tower crashed to the ground in the aftermath of a DeLand High School football game in the stadium on the north end of the park.

BEACON PHOTO/BARB SHEPHERD
Tower crumpled — Pieces of a radio-transmission tower lie across the hood of Jean (John) Alepin's pickup.

BEACON PHOTO/BARB SHEPHERD
Escaped unharmed — From left, 13-year-old Sarah Alepin, 6-year-old Lexie Alepin and 18-year-old Danny Alepin recall their few seconds of terror in their family pickup, shown behind them. Jean (John) Alepin was just pulling out of the grass parking area at the south end of Spec Martin Memorial Football Stadium when a 400-foot radio-transmission tower fell, crashing onto the hood of the family vehicle.

BEACON PHOTO/BARB SHEPHERD
Which way would it fall? — These five young men, Andrew Barnett, Aaron Comeens, Dakota Williams, Chance Sixma and Stephen McDonald, were in Sixma's pickup, ready to leave the DeLand High School football game, when they saw a guy wire holding a 400-foot radio-transmission tower snap, and the tower begin to sway above them. Within seconds, they were out of the truck and dashing to safety. The tower fell in another direction and Sixma's truck was spared. Three other vehicles were hit.

BEACON PHOTO/BARB SHEPHERD
Scary — Jean (John) Alepin, two of his children and his granddaughter were in this truck, just leaving the DeLand High School football game tonight, Sept. 4, when the radio-transmission tower at Earl Brown Park crashed down, shattering the truck's windshield.

Three cars smashed; Bulldogs win

By Jen Horton and Barb Shepherd
BEACON STAFF WRITERS

posted Sep 5, 2009 - 12:10:42am

A radio-transmission tower estimated at 400 feet tall crashed to the ground Friday night, Sept. 4, in Earl Brown Park in the aftermath of a DeLand High School game.

Hundreds of football fans were gathered in the parking area on the south end of Spec Martin Memorial Football Stadium when the tower tumbled to the earth about 9:55 p.m. No one was injured.

Witnesses said a red Jeep pulling out of the parking area had snagged one of the tower's guy wires on its rear bumper.

Students saw sparks as the tower began to sway and then buckle and crash, pulling down the power line to the tiny radio-transmitter building as it fell.

People standing in the area began screaming and running. Pieces of the tower hit at least three vehicles.

"I heard a snap, snap, snap, and then a crash as it fell down," said Nick Lankford, a DeLand High student. "Someone said, 'Look!' and I watched it fall over and heard it hit the cars. There was a lot of commotion after that. Everyone was like, 'Aaaahhh.'"

Four members of the Alepin family were in Jean (John) Alepin's pickup when part of the tower crashed onto the hood. The family had just watched the DeLand High School Bulldogs blank the Wekiva High School Mustangs, 34-0.

"Dad said 'Get down,'" 18-year-old Danny Alepin said. He sheltered his 6-year-old niece, Lexie Alepin, and his 13-year-old sister, Sarah Alepin, also took cover inside the cab.

The windshield shattered, and sparks and glass flew around them, the Alepins said.

As he surveyed the scene, the tower lying across his shiny white truck, Jean Alepin predicted there would be engine damage.

"It hit hard," Jean Alepin said, using his hand to describe how the truck bounced under the weight of the huge structure.

Had he not just backed up about a foot, Alepin said, the tower would have hit the cab of his truck where he and his children and grandchild were.

The tower broke into sections as it fell, possibly by design, leaving a zigzagging snake of twisted metal lying across the grass and vehicles.

The north end of Earl Brown Park was a sea of flashing lights about 10:30 p.m. Friday. Police and firefighters secured the area around the fallen tower, as a worker from Progress Energy disconnected power to the transmitter shack. The power line to the shack was the only one damaged; there were no outages in the area.

The radio tower, which sits on land leased from the City of DeLand, was in use by a Spanish-language AM radio station. Radio has been broadcast from Earl Brown Park since the 1940s.

Veteran radio newsman Al Everson, now a writer for The Beacon, produced hundreds of newscasts that were transmitted by DeLand radio station WXVQ via the orange-and-silver tower.

Everson said he believed the tower had stood in Earl Brown Park for as long as 50 years.

Five friends — Andrew Barnett, Aaron Comeens, Dakota Williams, Chance Sixma and Stephen McDonald — had just piled into Sixma's red pickup after watching the DeLand High School football game. They heard the Jeep snag the cable, and saw the giant transmission tower begin to sway above them.

"My life flashed before my eyes," Sixma said.

Two support cables on the south side of the tower remained intact, allowing the young men time to leap from the truck and dash toward South Alabama Avenue, to safety. As it turned out, the tower fell toward the north, away from where they were parked.

"It was pretty wild," Jean Alepin said.

Sitting in his truck, he watched the landmark fall. "It was like a snake," he said. "It was dancing above us."

— info@beacononlinenews.com

Reader Comments

The comments posted below are posted by readers, not by The Beacon staff. These comments express the views and opinions of the authors, and not the administrators, moderators or webmaster. The comments forum is governed by these rules. Please use the report abuse link if you find offensive comments.

Comment on this article

Commenting is closed for this article.

If you would like to contribute a letter to the editor, please click here.

Did you find this story interesting or informative? Subscribe to The DeLand-Deltona Beacon to read more stories by Jen Horton and Barb Shepherd, along with others from our award-winning writers. Subscribe now!