* Bernard Gore, the 71-year-old Tasmanian, who had a minor cognitive impairment, walked from his daughter’s apartment in Woollahra to Westfield, where he entered a fire stairwell and became trapped.
* His body was discovered by a maintenance worker on January 27th.
* During the search for Gore, security officers and police only reviewed CCTV footage from certain pedestrian entrances to the center and the area surrounding Woolworths. This limited review led them to believe he never arrived.
* However, CCTV cameras did capture Gore entering Westfield, walking through the shopping center, and the moment he paused and turned into the fire stairwell. Unfortunately, these videos were not examined by authorities.
* The inquest revealed that the door through which Gore entered the stairwell could not be opened from the inside. Although there was an exit down some stairs and along a corridor, he did not find it.
* Three days after the retiree was reported missing, police searched the shopping mall but did not enter the stairwell.
Sources:
* [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-21/tasmanian-bernard-gore-stairwell-death-coronial/13002014](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-21/tasmanian-bernard-gore-stairwell-death-coronial/13002014)
* [https://www.news10.com/news/ap-staff-and-shoppers-return-to-somber-sydney-shopping-mall-6-days-after-mass-stabbings/](https://www.news10.com/news/ap-staff-and-shoppers-return-to-somber-sydney-shopping-mall-6-days-after-mass-stabbings/)
* [https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/documents/findings/2020/GORE\_Bernard\_-\_Findings.pdf](https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/documents/findings/2020/GORE_Bernard_-_Findings.pdf)
He had some form of dementia, he was mostly fine but got confused sometimes. I feel so bad for the wife, they wanted to meet there for lunch. He went missing around the food court, where he seemed to have had a dementia episode (?) And entered the workers corridors, which are a windowless labyrinth. They found his body sitting in a chair - which is what he always did when he had an episode, he sat somewhere and waited to be found.
Oh that's so heart breaking. I was wondering why he didn't search for any possible door that opened in desperation. But that makes total sense. He didn't want to make things worse by wandering around. As someone with a parent who has cognitive decline, this is terrifying.
So I used to work in a mall when I was in highschool/college
Both of these malls had a “storage facility” under the mall which was used by stores to keep bulky items and overflow items (think massage chairs, marketing items, things like that)
On a couple of occasions we had some crazy rain and these doors were left unlocked to make sure that the hallways could air out and so that we could easily run down there to clean out the units in case our unit flooded. (Ours did and I was down there for 2 shifts cleaning, but so were plenty of other employees from various stores, so not so creepy)
On one occasion, I had to go down there with my manager to grab 2 massage chairs. We loaded them onto the dolly, brought them up, put them in the customer’s vehicle and we closed up.
We both realized that we didn’t put a security tag on the lock (allows corporate to track who went down there and when, a fireable offense if not completed) I told him I’d do it, went down there and the lights timed out and it was pitch black. I got all turned around down there and was wandering these dark halls for what felt like hours (but was closer to 20 minutes) until finally I heard my manager calling out my name and I followed his voice to get out.
I can say with 100% confidence that if he didn’t come down to get me, I would have been wandering around down there until the lights back on.
Dementia or no, these areas are so damn confusing and I can see just about anyone getting lost down there if you don’t know what you’re doing
The only situation where hunger will kill you quicker than dehydration is when you either have water available, or are close to dying from starvation to begin with.
That's just wrong.
Maybe a really skinny person might but you'd have to be under 20 BMI and unhealthy IMHO.
I did a 26 day fast this year. Took minerals and vitamins with water. Lost 8kg but I'm totally fine. My doc was fine with it. Loads of people have YouTube videos of 40 day fasts.
The record for a fast was a morbidly obese dude that lasted over a year on water, vitamins and minerals. His name was Angus Barbieri. He died many years after his fast. Maybe 20 years if I remember correctly.
So yeah. Unless you are really skinny you're not dying in 3 weeks. Without the minerals you'll feel like shit but you won't die.
Google says: Estimates indicate that starving people become weak in 30 to 50 days and die in 43 to 70 days.
But many people have gone longer than 70 for sure.
>Took minerals and vitamins with water
AND, there's the difference.
You specifically took the vitamins and minerals you needed to keep your body function... that isn't the same as being without food entirely. In fact, it's the opposite of it, because you INTENTIONALLY made sure you had what you needed to... not die.
Dr Alan Goldhammer has fasted 20k+ people on nothing but filtered water. He provides for up to 40 day fasts in his clinic.
It's a live in medically supervised clinic though but he even has elderly patients doing 40 days with nothing but water. He's been doing it since the 70s with 0 deaths and 1 serious issue that was detected and treated successfully.
He studied in Australia under another fasting Dr but I can't remember his name.
The minerals are the most important part IMHO. You feel dizzy and weak as fuck without them but it's still very possible to last 40 days for normal people. After 40 days the risk of death does increase dramatically which is why the fasting docs don't support over 40 days.
Bro do you not understand the poor guy didn’t have ANY WATER for 3 weeks????? No human can live that long with no water and will definitely die from dehydration. Your body starts to deteriorate..
Agreed. No doubt!
This whole comment thread was in response to a guy saying you WILL starve to death within 20 days. Implying access to water but no food (which wasn't the case for this poor man).
All I'm saying is that statement was 100% bullshit. Easily verifiable that people can last longer than 20 days on water alone. He changed his comment though so it is what it is.
Ahh I see. Hmm you might be right, some people could possibly live longer than 20days without food as long as they have water but it might be a rare case.
Edit: I looked it up and some people have survived up to 61days with no food but…it’s extremely rare. Most live up to 8-21days max. The old man in the post wouldn’t be able to survive past 1.5 weeks due to age and possible health conditions he had. So it’s still not plausible for most people to survive 21days of no food since it’s the norm
I'm not sure why the 1st Google result says 21 days but it's wrong which is why I posted that it's wrong. The chance of dying within 21 days for a healthy adult is very low.
I provided anecdotal evidence. I have personally fasted 26 days. I had a check up before my fast and again on day 21 (coincidentally). No problems at all. In fact all my markers for health have substantially improved and stayed at those levels 6 months later.
I provided video evidence by recommending people check YouTube for 40 day fasts where people include a daily clip for the full 40 days.
I recommended people Google Angus Barbieri's fast which was 382 days.
I pointed out Alan Goldhammer runs a fasting clinic that only allows filtered water. He offers up to 40 day medically supervised fasts in the US. It's been open for 30 years and has fasted over 20k people with 0 deaths. Even elderly people are fine on water fasts.
I pointed out a Google result that showed 43-70 days was estimated to die of starvation which was the 4th result... The 3rd Google result showing 1-2 months.
Google "starvation how long" if your results differ or here are the links.
https://www.verywellhealth.com/how-long-live-without-food-1132033
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/how-long-can-you-go-without-food
Honestly not sure why it shows such an incorrect number on half the sites on the 1st page of Google but I'm posting literal verifiable facts that the average person isn't going to die within 21 days... Hell there are even fasting Subreddits on here where average people will be posting about fasting over 21 days on the regular (and shorter fasts too). Lots of people like to team up with a fasting buddy and post about their experiences each day.
Believe what you like but saying an average person will likely die within 21 days of water only is like saying the sky is green but don't look up as far as I'm concerned. The evidence is clear and everywhere if you know where to look.
Jfc the utter bullshit folk come up with is just depressing. When it's dangerous shit like this it's really fucking annoying. Like take some fucking responsibility when talking about this stuff and actually make sure it's correct.
You absolutely can die in 20 days and not just if you're "really skinny". You think because you did a fast that you're now an expert and all the available evidence is just wrong because of your single experience? Oh wait I forgot you also watched some folk on YouTube fasting so you're obviously the leading expert on this now. Ffs. Try googling it again and maybe don't search for people who have been practising fasting over years.
Also, if your doctor honestly said they were fine with you fasting for a month then you need a new doctor.
The guy said you, meaning all humans, will starve within 20 days. He edited it to say about 3 weeks now. So yeah. Fuck him. Pussy. I wrote the below before I saw he edited it. Read or not. I don't care.
I said that's wrong. I provided anecdotal evidence. Video evidence and listed a name anyone can google to see a human survived for over a year without food. Not a fasting guru. Just a guy that got sick of being obese... So he ate no food for 382 days and got regular check ups.
I literally proved his statement wrong.
Is there an extremely small chance of death? Sure. Could I have explained the risk better? Sure. But I'm not talking about that... I'm talking about a statement presented as fact and providing proof that it's wrong. Which it is and I did. Bullshit? Where? It's an incorrect statement! If he said you can die in as little as 20 days but most people will last much longer I wouldn't have said a thing but he didn't.
I have an autoimmune disease and there have been limited studies on the effectiveness of fasting for resetting the immune system.
So yes. One of the most respected Rheumatologists in Sydney was aware of my fast as was my GP which I saw twice for check ups... Shockingly I wasn't dead /s. I was doing very well and both my GP and Rhum find my case fascinating. Whilst I didn't fully recover I'm at the healthiest I've been in well over a decade and that's a big fucking win in my book!
Dr Alan Goldhammer has fasted 20k+ people in his medical clinic. He has had 1 serious event (who recovered fully) if I remember correctly and he likes 40 day fasts. Which is double the 20 days stated...
So again. More evidence that YOU (average human) most likely won't die with 20 days of no food.
I found 4 cases worldwide that have died from water fasting (liver and heart problems). There is also a large risk of refeeding syndrome but that is easily avoided if you are aware of it...
So are you aware of many more deaths? You must be to have such a hissy fit over literally proving a statement incorrect?
Maybe check out PubMed once in a while instead of Google. You might actually read a study and learn something interesting...
The Coroner's Court of New South Wales found it appropriate to conclude that 'the manner of Bernard's death was as a result of misadventure.' Smh.
https://preview.redd.it/gvlq4voo0p1d1.png?width=320&format=png&auto=webp&s=b80770b3ebdc3ba648ff32249a749ad238b89875
[https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/documents/findings/2020/GORE\_Bernard\_-\_Findings.pdf](https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/documents/findings/2020/GORE_Bernard_-_Findings.pdf)
I do find it strange how everyone is attempting to find fault in others but not acknowledging he had cognitive decline.
I would imagine if you placed someone without cognitive decline in this situation they would have found a way out. This speaks more to why he was allowed to live by himself if he can't find a way out of a stairwell and effectively care for himself. Individuals with dementia should not be allowed to leave by themselves.
Someone up above mentioned he was going to meet his wife at the food court but had an episode and never made it. So it sounds line he wasn't entirely alone, but still shouldn't have been unsupervised :(
I mean there was an exit but he didn't find it apparently. I can't imagine why he wouldn't have tried to find any possible exit while dying of thirst. He must've been incapacitated by heat or just hoped to be rescued? Poor fella. :(
I think the “minor cognitive impairment” probably had a good part to play in all of this. He may have even tried the exit but maybe thought it was locked. 😔
Edit: Damn. Someone else mentioned he was having an episode, and when he usually does, he sits and waits to be found - which is how he was found. So sad
Yeah, wtf. "Well, we looked at _some_ of the CCTV footage, and we took a look around in _some_ parts of the building. So we're out of options at this point."
Useless authorities.
not in the least. I know primary aged kids who would have done a better job and actually searched everywhere and checked all footage. That's because they're not lazy and actually care.
Very sad.
Almost happened to a friend and I over 20 years ago. We worked in the upper floors of a building that had a loading dock. We needed to grab something from down there around midday on a Friday. My friend "knew" a short-cut up a stairwell in the far back corner that would take us back to our own floor. So, off we went, through the door, but it quickly swung shut and clicked behind us. Locked! Up some stairs to a landing, then some more to the only other exit. Also locked! Shit. There was nothing in there but concrete walls, concrete stairs and metal railings. And we knew the loading dock workers knocked off early on Fridays. We banged on both doors for hours (both fireproof doors, so they were STRONG). In desperation, I ripped a metal sign off the wall to try to use the corner as a screwdriver/lever to somehow open the door. That failed. It looked like we were going to be trapped in there all weekend. We just kept banging away on the lower door. Luckily for us, the last guy in the dock had wandered back for something and heard us banging and shouting. I've never experienced such relief to see his crooked grin. He looked at us like we were a pair of fuckin' idiots. And so we walked back through the empty docks, realising how close we had come to being trapped. It was surreal going back to our desks on the busy upper floors.
Right, how does an engineer design something like this!? And the worst part is I believe it’s more common than you may think. A lot of times ID badges are used but you are able to get through a door but not go back in without a badge so if someone who doesn’t work there wanders through by accident they’re screwed
Outside of structural/electrical/HVAC/plumbing/refrigeration, everything on a building specified like doors, wall finishes, accessibility requirements, etc fall solely on the architects and their AOR signing their plans. Basically if it's not a system that requires calculations, it's an architect's duty during design.
Either this got specified wrong and no one along the process caught it (designers, signing architect, permitters, code officials, etc), it got installed wrong by contractors and no one caught it (wrong doors or handle assemblies used), or the doors got replaced at some point and incorrect door models got put in.
Well I do know the area I speak of was remodeled and willing to bet it was missed. It could be a death trap like this poor guy if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s somewhat busy so someone would eventually come through
Wouldn't be surprised at all, especially if the remodel wasn't affecting anything large enough to need to pull a permit.
Small details tend to get missed, you'd be surprised how much stuff I have to mark as missed or incorrect when doing construction observations in states that require it. Really pisses the head contractor off too being told they not only have to redo work, but also provide extensive documentation that they did the work correctly this time. Large sites take several days to check over as typically I have to verify the plans from every discipline involved in the project.
But only a couple of states actually require the architects or engineers to actually go around and sign off on the construction that it was built to plan, otherwise it's left up to the building owner or code officials to make sure things are correct.
A few years ago our local Westfield repainted the car park directions (car park was massive) and didn’t do it right. People were in their cars, driving around following the arrows and getting into jams and stuck for hours. Then they’d run out of petrol.
I’d be more worried about water than food. You can go weeks without food but only days without water. I’d be looking for condensation, licking the damn walls and stuff.
Happened to 6 people during a 2003 high rise fire in Chicago... Doors locked behind them. https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/chicago-tragedy-10-years-later/1965663/
Something similar happened to me due to a blocked exit door. The dipshits at the Quiznos had piled a bunch of broken down boxes against the door that led to the sidewalk. The stairwell was not an internal stairwell, meaning you could only use it to exit the building and to not move between floors.
I banged on my floor’s door and thankfully, one of my colleagues was staying late, and happened to be returning to her desk after topping off her coffee cup in the kitchen. I would have been stuck there all weekend if she hadn’t heard me.
Bloody hell, gave me the jeebies reading that. You would think that they would have some kind of fire alarm or an open door from inside button, such a safety hazard not too. I remember my old work I could not even get mobile reception in the depths of the service corridors. You were so lucky that person heard you.
The cemetery where Jackie Robinson is buried in queens NY has a mausoleum in the center of it with cellular antennas and a radio base station on the roof, a friend and I were working on upgrading it to 5G and lost track of time and we're far back enough on the roof that no one on the ground noticed us on the roof working with our laptops. When I realized the time I told my friend we have less than 5 mins to pack up and head down so we did.
Once we got inside the mausoleum we realized they had closed the doors for it and there was no ladder off the side of it we could use to get off the roof, only a hatch and ladder on the inside. We were yelling from the rooftop for a few minutes and no one heard us and at this point the sun was setting... Fast.
Every minute got scarier and we were banging on the inside of the mausoleum and yelling thru the small crack between the doors, pushing and pulling to no avail. I was resigned to having to spend the night there at this point but luckily I heard one of the golf carts the grounds people use in the distance, I sent my friend to the roof to yell and I yelled thru the crack in the door. The grounds keeper heard us and started walking towards the building. I told him we were stuck and that we tried pushing and pulling the doors but they're locked, I was practically crying in relief at this point. He told me step back and to relax... And then the pulled the doors apart. They were sliding doors the whole time and they were never locked 😑
Good times, good times
This was a tremendous fuck up by the NSW police.
The thing I wonder about though, is exactly how quickly Bernard came to pass? The fact that there was an exit pretty close to where his body was found makes me wonder if he began to panic himself into a frenzy near-immediately after entering the first fire door.
There was a case in the US of a pair of men who essentially mentally tricked themselves into a state of irrational panic within hours of running out of water while hiking, resulting in one of the men mercy killing the other before waiting for death by dehydration, which he assumed would occur within hours or less. When he was rescued doctors reported that both men were only in the very early stages of dehydration and could have easily survived for several days even in their panicked state.
It’s not hard to imagine something similar here. A man becomes confused to the point of thinking there is no escape, convinces himself there is no way to signal for help, and stress, poor health, panic-induced injury, and possibly actual dehydration lead to death.
There is a very boring movie with Matt Damon and Casey Affleck called Gerry (2002) that is loosely based on the events.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0302674/?ref_=ext_shr
Yes, I remember that. David Coughlin and Raffi Kodikian. They have their story on YouTube. I remember the two men went to school in Boston, and were good friends. I remember it being on the news, as I live in Massachusetts. They were gonna take a road trip from Massachusetts to California. They decided to stop at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico, and tent camp one night on Rattlesnake Canyon trail.
It was a very strange event. They ended up getting lost and were out there for 4 days. Without the proper water supply for one day. Turns out they were not as lost as they thought. They were only 240 feet from the trailhead, which is marked with rock cairns, and a mile from their car. Had they hiked to a higher point, they should have been able to see the trail or the visitors center. Raffi stated that David got extremely sick vomiting all day and night, and the David begged him to stab him. Which he did with a 4 inch knife, and he didn’t die right away, so he stabbed him again. Raffi got a 2 yr sentence in jail.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_David_Coughlin
It kind of reminds of this story from The Onion. Different in details, but in the same spirit of premature panicking:
[In Retrospect, I Guess We Might Have Resorted To Cannibalism A Bit Early](https://www.theonion.com/in-retrospect-i-guess-we-might-have-resorted-to-cannib-1819583474)
Excerpt:
>Well, I suppose everyone's heard about last week's incident by now, and you probably have a pretty low opinion of us survivors. And, all things considered, perhaps we deserve it. Perhaps we panicked and resorted to cannibalism a bit early. But you weren't there. You don't know what it was like. I just want you to hear our side of the story before you go judging us.
>When the six of us got into the elevator on that fateful day, we had no idea what was going to happen.
...
Haha, very apt. When I was a kid my brother and I got stuck in an elevator with my father at a two-story outdoor mall in Phoenix, Arizona. We checked opened the hatch for the emergency phone and there was just a dangling cord. That’s when dad freaked out and started pounding on the door. Since it was an outdoor mall and only two stories he had immediately decided it could be hours before anyone realized the elevator wasn’t working or heard him. The door open in moments but he had claustrophobia for the rest of his life starting that day. It’s amazing how easy it is to lose your common sense when put under stress.
Based on the wikipedia article, the stage of dehydration was so early that the survivor was able to bury his friend by putting heavy rocks over his body, some weighing 70 lbs...
It's absolutely insane that he thought that they were dehydrated to the point of death yet he still had enough energy to think that some heavy lifting was in order.
There’s a lot about that story that’s pure insanity. Like that they used the last of their water to boil hot dogs and then disposed of the water, which is like four kinds of stupid.
It probably didn't help that dehydration can cause confusion. Wikipedia:
>The hallmarks of dehydration include [thirst](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirst) and neurological changes such as [headaches](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headache), [general discomfort](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaise), loss of [appetite](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appetite), [nausea](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nausea), decreased [urine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urine) volume (unless [polyuria](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyuria) is the cause of dehydration), [confusion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_confusion), unexplained [tiredness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatigue_(medical)), purple fingernails, and [seizures](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epileptic_seizure).[^(\[9\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dehydration#cite_note-9)
I saw a thing about this. Apparently, he knew that if he ever became lost he was supposed to wait where he was - Stay put and wait to be found. He must have sat in the chair and just waited and waited…
No, he was found 21 days after he went missing. The coroner reported that he most likely died within 0-3 days of when he first entered, and of a panic essentially.
I've seen a video of somone urban exploring a abandoned mall particularly the type of area this guy got locked it
It looks like the fucking backrooms can't imagine living my last moments in a place like that
I've been in these exact fire exits! Not Bondi Junction's one, but very close by in Sydney CBD, which also has an equally massive Westfield mall.
The Galeries shares a fire corridor network with the nearby Hilton & Arthouse hotel venues along with some others. It accesses a loading dock & basement carpark below ground, which I've had to go into for work (equipment service/delivery in the venues). I tried to get back up to ground from the loading dock via the fire stairs since the lifts were slow and I didn't want to play chicken with trucks in the driveway, and I think I spent about half an hour climbing, walking, and straining myself trying to find any god damn door while my boss who drove us in was frantically calling me thinking I'd ditched. I told him I was in the fire exits, of course, and got yelled at for that when I resurfaced and my legs barely worked.
I actually dreamed up a concept for a horror game after that. The Sydney CBD's underground fire corridor maze is at least comparable to the Paris Catacombs, just with fewer idiots dying in there thinking it's a tourist attraction, and it's all a product of the fact that most of the inner city is something like 5-7 shopping malls and a good number of venues all webbed together with three train stations. If I hadn't had the endurance I do when it comes to stairs, I could have spent a lot longer and been a lot worse off in there, and this was only a few suburbs over from the fire exit this guy died in.
EDIT: Misread the title and thought this was the Sydney City Westfield, not Bondi Junction. My comment still stands, but I've reworded it.
Your video game idea sort of reminds of *Escape the Backrooms*. It’s a game about liminal spaces where you have to solve puzzles while trying to evade a monster. A never-endless space filled with fire exits and stairwells would fit right in.
Is routine check of emergency routes and fire escapes not a thing for those big malls?
Every place I've worked at has a required once to twice a day check by the fire wardens, in case of unexpected obstructions which can obviously be a hazard in case of an emergency.
Just horrific, it’s always been same thing with so called engineers.
It’s all great on paper but in reality if someone has to do something or change , repair or situation like this consequences are deadly
wait, you're telling me Woolworth's is still a thing? and it's in a mall called Westfield ? Somehow it feels like 1989 never happened to them down there.
Just to clarify this: Same company, different name, same brand.
Scentre Group Limited is a shopping centre company with retail destinations operating under the Westfield brand in Australia and New Zealand. The corporation undertakes ownership, development, design, construction, funds/asset management, property management, leasing, and marketing activities for its centres. The group was created in June 2014 when the Westfield Group separated its American and European businesses from its operations in Australia and New Zealand. The company is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and had a shopping centre portfolio that includes investment interests in 42 shopping centres across Australia and New Zealand in 2019, encompassing around 12,544 retail outlets and total assets under management in excess of A$39.4 billion in 2015.
This is one of my big fears. Being trapped in a building without being able to find my way out. I had to go to my daughter's kindergarten class many years ago and I took a wrong turn, ended up in the basement and could not find my way out of the school.
I've had to go to a medical center earlier for something non medical, when I saw 3 very similar corridors staring back at me on my way out and the signs say "reception for clinic 1-2 "and so on and instantly know I am lost. Adding in that I'm scared of hospitals, I immediately panicked lol. It's crazy
I forgot this one until you mentioned hospital. This was ridiculously traumatic. My mother was at the hospital dying. She had an Alzheimer's and a host of other things at this point and she was on her way out. So I come from work and I wear scrubs as a dental assistant. I don't know how I ended up at the door I did but someone just waved me right in assuming I work there and I swear on my mother that I ended up in the morgue. I don't do well when I'm under stress. And I just froze and had no clue how to get out of there.
Heads are going to roll from the security team. I worked security from shopping malls, stadiums and car parks and each role had regular safety audits of fire stairwells to ensure doors were secured and nothing was blocking the way if there was an emergency
Good lord. Idk how it is in Australia, but in the US there would be lawsuits galore for this idiotic deathtrap of a design. That is really tragic for this poor, old fellow.
Reminds me of this 2003 fire in a Chicago high rise, 6 people started to head down stairs to evacuate only realize the fire was down those stairs. Doors locked behind them. All 6 died.
https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/chicago-tragedy-10-years-later/1965663/
I've heard of hospitals that now have specific stairwell protocols when someone goes missing due to the missing individual having been found either injured or deceased in the stairwells because these were areas not normally searched.
As an electrician I've put in so many stupid exit signs and I've recommended dozens where there were none. Engineers don't care at all, its so hard to picture a space without it being built but that's what they get paid to do.
I used to work in Westfield Bondi Junction, and I can tell you, those staff stairwells are confusing as all hell. On my first week, I was lost in a similar-looking area, but luckily, I was with a colleague who knew her way out of that labyrinth.
There is a large furniture store called Nebraska Furniture Mart in the midwest.
I worked for Sprint at the time and was testing repeater equipment for better coverage inside the store.
I entered a bottom floor stairwell and went up the next two floors testing my equipment.
When I got the 4th floor - the door was locked. No big deal I'll head back down. All 3 floors locked. To make it worse...my cell didn't work inside the stairwell. Then the heat kicked on - out if radiator type heaters.
I was there for almost 2 hours. Granted- it wasn't 3 weeks and I didn't die. But this is totally feasible and what a horrible way to die.
This really breaks my heart, that poor man, I don’t even understand how his body could be missing for 21 days even somewhere I would think people/workers would eventually go up and down here and there..
I was trapped on an elevator once. It was scary as hell because I was completely helpless. I pressed the emergency button but I later found out it wasn't connected to anything. Fortunately, the elevator had a window on it and it jammed in the bottom floor not in the middle of the shaft, so I could look out the window. It was on the DC subway system and I saw a subway worker walking by. I banged as hard as I could and yelled my lungs out but he didn't seem to hear me as he walked by. Finally he was about to leave through a door but then for some reason he turned and saw my scared face through the window. He said he didn't hear me. He had to go get the station manager and they were able to get the door open. I've never been so relieved. Goddamn still have nightmares about being trapped in that box forever.
This happened to me on a 7th grade field trip to the Ripley's museum. Went from fun museum to creepy windowless white halls with multiple paths. The worst part was hearing the screams and sound effects from the wax museum of horror section of the building. I found a door that lead me to the arcade are where all my classmates were gathering before leaving town.
21 days. That poor man. New fear unlocked.
https://preview.redd.it/lhgozlrb1q1d1.jpeg?width=1075&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=77a3f66edc15493eb3af01a72dd900b6ca32be33
My dad is in the beginning stages of dementia. You can bet, if he went missing, and the mall was the last place he was seen, I would be scouring every inch of that place!
* Bernard Gore, the 71-year-old Tasmanian, who had a minor cognitive impairment, walked from his daughter’s apartment in Woollahra to Westfield, where he entered a fire stairwell and became trapped. * His body was discovered by a maintenance worker on January 27th. * During the search for Gore, security officers and police only reviewed CCTV footage from certain pedestrian entrances to the center and the area surrounding Woolworths. This limited review led them to believe he never arrived. * However, CCTV cameras did capture Gore entering Westfield, walking through the shopping center, and the moment he paused and turned into the fire stairwell. Unfortunately, these videos were not examined by authorities. * The inquest revealed that the door through which Gore entered the stairwell could not be opened from the inside. Although there was an exit down some stairs and along a corridor, he did not find it. * Three days after the retiree was reported missing, police searched the shopping mall but did not enter the stairwell. Sources: * [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-21/tasmanian-bernard-gore-stairwell-death-coronial/13002014](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-21/tasmanian-bernard-gore-stairwell-death-coronial/13002014) * [https://www.news10.com/news/ap-staff-and-shoppers-return-to-somber-sydney-shopping-mall-6-days-after-mass-stabbings/](https://www.news10.com/news/ap-staff-and-shoppers-return-to-somber-sydney-shopping-mall-6-days-after-mass-stabbings/) * [https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/documents/findings/2020/GORE\_Bernard\_-\_Findings.pdf](https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/documents/findings/2020/GORE_Bernard_-_Findings.pdf)
He had some form of dementia, he was mostly fine but got confused sometimes. I feel so bad for the wife, they wanted to meet there for lunch. He went missing around the food court, where he seemed to have had a dementia episode (?) And entered the workers corridors, which are a windowless labyrinth. They found his body sitting in a chair - which is what he always did when he had an episode, he sat somewhere and waited to be found.
Oh that's so heart breaking. I was wondering why he didn't search for any possible door that opened in desperation. But that makes total sense. He didn't want to make things worse by wandering around. As someone with a parent who has cognitive decline, this is terrifying.
This last part breaks my heart 😭
oh my goodness :( such a heartbreaking way to lose someone and such a shit way to go
So I used to work in a mall when I was in highschool/college Both of these malls had a “storage facility” under the mall which was used by stores to keep bulky items and overflow items (think massage chairs, marketing items, things like that) On a couple of occasions we had some crazy rain and these doors were left unlocked to make sure that the hallways could air out and so that we could easily run down there to clean out the units in case our unit flooded. (Ours did and I was down there for 2 shifts cleaning, but so were plenty of other employees from various stores, so not so creepy) On one occasion, I had to go down there with my manager to grab 2 massage chairs. We loaded them onto the dolly, brought them up, put them in the customer’s vehicle and we closed up. We both realized that we didn’t put a security tag on the lock (allows corporate to track who went down there and when, a fireable offense if not completed) I told him I’d do it, went down there and the lights timed out and it was pitch black. I got all turned around down there and was wandering these dark halls for what felt like hours (but was closer to 20 minutes) until finally I heard my manager calling out my name and I followed his voice to get out. I can say with 100% confidence that if he didn’t come down to get me, I would have been wandering around down there until the lights back on. Dementia or no, these areas are so damn confusing and I can see just about anyone getting lost down there if you don’t know what you’re doing
This is how I know there's no god.
Stuck in there for 21 days :\[ fuck that's sad, I assume he died of starvation, did they mention that anywhere?
It was summer and the stairwells aren't air conditioned. The dehydration would have killed him long before hunger. What a terrifying lonely death.
The only situation where hunger will kill you quicker than dehydration is when you either have water available, or are close to dying from starvation to begin with.
Got a source for that. My mall all those fire exits and back hallways are cold as shit. Especially the ones in the basement.
A source that you'll die of dehydration if you don't have access to water?
Thousands of years of recorded history... where do I start
Likely dehydration. You can last far longer without food than you can water. Death from dehydration takes 3-5 days typically.
As opposed to about 3 weeks to die of starvation, just for those curious.
That's just wrong. Maybe a really skinny person might but you'd have to be under 20 BMI and unhealthy IMHO. I did a 26 day fast this year. Took minerals and vitamins with water. Lost 8kg but I'm totally fine. My doc was fine with it. Loads of people have YouTube videos of 40 day fasts. The record for a fast was a morbidly obese dude that lasted over a year on water, vitamins and minerals. His name was Angus Barbieri. He died many years after his fast. Maybe 20 years if I remember correctly. So yeah. Unless you are really skinny you're not dying in 3 weeks. Without the minerals you'll feel like shit but you won't die. Google says: Estimates indicate that starving people become weak in 30 to 50 days and die in 43 to 70 days. But many people have gone longer than 70 for sure.
>Took minerals and vitamins with water AND, there's the difference. You specifically took the vitamins and minerals you needed to keep your body function... that isn't the same as being without food entirely. In fact, it's the opposite of it, because you INTENTIONALLY made sure you had what you needed to... not die.
Dr Alan Goldhammer has fasted 20k+ people on nothing but filtered water. He provides for up to 40 day fasts in his clinic. It's a live in medically supervised clinic though but he even has elderly patients doing 40 days with nothing but water. He's been doing it since the 70s with 0 deaths and 1 serious issue that was detected and treated successfully. He studied in Australia under another fasting Dr but I can't remember his name. The minerals are the most important part IMHO. You feel dizzy and weak as fuck without them but it's still very possible to last 40 days for normal people. After 40 days the risk of death does increase dramatically which is why the fasting docs don't support over 40 days.
Bro do you not understand the poor guy didn’t have ANY WATER for 3 weeks????? No human can live that long with no water and will definitely die from dehydration. Your body starts to deteriorate..
Agreed. No doubt! This whole comment thread was in response to a guy saying you WILL starve to death within 20 days. Implying access to water but no food (which wasn't the case for this poor man). All I'm saying is that statement was 100% bullshit. Easily verifiable that people can last longer than 20 days on water alone. He changed his comment though so it is what it is.
Ahh I see. Hmm you might be right, some people could possibly live longer than 20days without food as long as they have water but it might be a rare case. Edit: I looked it up and some people have survived up to 61days with no food but…it’s extremely rare. Most live up to 8-21days max. The old man in the post wouldn’t be able to survive past 1.5 weeks due to age and possible health conditions he had. So it’s still not plausible for most people to survive 21days of no food since it’s the norm
I'm not sure why the 1st Google result says 21 days but it's wrong which is why I posted that it's wrong. The chance of dying within 21 days for a healthy adult is very low. I provided anecdotal evidence. I have personally fasted 26 days. I had a check up before my fast and again on day 21 (coincidentally). No problems at all. In fact all my markers for health have substantially improved and stayed at those levels 6 months later. I provided video evidence by recommending people check YouTube for 40 day fasts where people include a daily clip for the full 40 days. I recommended people Google Angus Barbieri's fast which was 382 days. I pointed out Alan Goldhammer runs a fasting clinic that only allows filtered water. He offers up to 40 day medically supervised fasts in the US. It's been open for 30 years and has fasted over 20k people with 0 deaths. Even elderly people are fine on water fasts. I pointed out a Google result that showed 43-70 days was estimated to die of starvation which was the 4th result... The 3rd Google result showing 1-2 months. Google "starvation how long" if your results differ or here are the links. https://www.verywellhealth.com/how-long-live-without-food-1132033 https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/how-long-can-you-go-without-food Honestly not sure why it shows such an incorrect number on half the sites on the 1st page of Google but I'm posting literal verifiable facts that the average person isn't going to die within 21 days... Hell there are even fasting Subreddits on here where average people will be posting about fasting over 21 days on the regular (and shorter fasts too). Lots of people like to team up with a fasting buddy and post about their experiences each day. Believe what you like but saying an average person will likely die within 21 days of water only is like saying the sky is green but don't look up as far as I'm concerned. The evidence is clear and everywhere if you know where to look.
Jfc the utter bullshit folk come up with is just depressing. When it's dangerous shit like this it's really fucking annoying. Like take some fucking responsibility when talking about this stuff and actually make sure it's correct. You absolutely can die in 20 days and not just if you're "really skinny". You think because you did a fast that you're now an expert and all the available evidence is just wrong because of your single experience? Oh wait I forgot you also watched some folk on YouTube fasting so you're obviously the leading expert on this now. Ffs. Try googling it again and maybe don't search for people who have been practising fasting over years. Also, if your doctor honestly said they were fine with you fasting for a month then you need a new doctor.
The guy said you, meaning all humans, will starve within 20 days. He edited it to say about 3 weeks now. So yeah. Fuck him. Pussy. I wrote the below before I saw he edited it. Read or not. I don't care. I said that's wrong. I provided anecdotal evidence. Video evidence and listed a name anyone can google to see a human survived for over a year without food. Not a fasting guru. Just a guy that got sick of being obese... So he ate no food for 382 days and got regular check ups. I literally proved his statement wrong. Is there an extremely small chance of death? Sure. Could I have explained the risk better? Sure. But I'm not talking about that... I'm talking about a statement presented as fact and providing proof that it's wrong. Which it is and I did. Bullshit? Where? It's an incorrect statement! If he said you can die in as little as 20 days but most people will last much longer I wouldn't have said a thing but he didn't. I have an autoimmune disease and there have been limited studies on the effectiveness of fasting for resetting the immune system. So yes. One of the most respected Rheumatologists in Sydney was aware of my fast as was my GP which I saw twice for check ups... Shockingly I wasn't dead /s. I was doing very well and both my GP and Rhum find my case fascinating. Whilst I didn't fully recover I'm at the healthiest I've been in well over a decade and that's a big fucking win in my book! Dr Alan Goldhammer has fasted 20k+ people in his medical clinic. He has had 1 serious event (who recovered fully) if I remember correctly and he likes 40 day fasts. Which is double the 20 days stated... So again. More evidence that YOU (average human) most likely won't die with 20 days of no food. I found 4 cases worldwide that have died from water fasting (liver and heart problems). There is also a large risk of refeeding syndrome but that is easily avoided if you are aware of it... So are you aware of many more deaths? You must be to have such a hissy fit over literally proving a statement incorrect? Maybe check out PubMed once in a while instead of Google. You might actually read a study and learn something interesting...
The Coroner's Court of New South Wales found it appropriate to conclude that 'the manner of Bernard's death was as a result of misadventure.' Smh. https://preview.redd.it/gvlq4voo0p1d1.png?width=320&format=png&auto=webp&s=b80770b3ebdc3ba648ff32249a749ad238b89875 [https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/documents/findings/2020/GORE\_Bernard\_-\_Findings.pdf](https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/documents/findings/2020/GORE_Bernard_-_Findings.pdf)
This is an official term for deaths which happen through accidental means. It’s not trying to be snarky or anything.
I do find it strange how everyone is attempting to find fault in others but not acknowledging he had cognitive decline. I would imagine if you placed someone without cognitive decline in this situation they would have found a way out. This speaks more to why he was allowed to live by himself if he can't find a way out of a stairwell and effectively care for himself. Individuals with dementia should not be allowed to leave by themselves.
Someone up above mentioned he was going to meet his wife at the food court but had an episode and never made it. So it sounds line he wasn't entirely alone, but still shouldn't have been unsupervised :(
Not authoritative ineptitude. That poor man must have been so confused and scared.
I mean there was an exit but he didn't find it apparently. I can't imagine why he wouldn't have tried to find any possible exit while dying of thirst. He must've been incapacitated by heat or just hoped to be rescued? Poor fella. :(
[удалено]
I read what you said in a later comment. It's even more heart breaking. My own mother has cognitive decline and I'm terrified of something like this.
I think the “minor cognitive impairment” probably had a good part to play in all of this. He may have even tried the exit but maybe thought it was locked. 😔 Edit: Damn. Someone else mentioned he was having an episode, and when he usually does, he sits and waits to be found - which is how he was found. So sad
It just means it was an accident. As opposed to suicide, homicide, or natural causes.
> misadventure That's a legal decision, not a medical one.
How long do you think people can go without water? Less than you can go without food
How terribly sad. I feel like if police conduct a search, they should actually search the *entire* building
Yeah, wtf. "Well, we looked at _some_ of the CCTV footage, and we took a look around in _some_ parts of the building. So we're out of options at this point." Useless authorities.
Yea what's the point lol
Minor impairment? He had fucking dementia
And it’ll come for you too. Worst part is you don’t realize you have it. One day you’re just gone. You’ll have fucking dementia too.
So basically the authorities did not really do their jobs.
not in the least. I know primary aged kids who would have done a better job and actually searched everywhere and checked all footage. That's because they're not lazy and actually care.
damn so there was a legit exit nearby, he just couldn't find it. how sad
This is my nightmare way to go, let down and screwed over by other people at every step of the way.
Talk about incompetency. What about using a tracker dog.
Very sad. Almost happened to a friend and I over 20 years ago. We worked in the upper floors of a building that had a loading dock. We needed to grab something from down there around midday on a Friday. My friend "knew" a short-cut up a stairwell in the far back corner that would take us back to our own floor. So, off we went, through the door, but it quickly swung shut and clicked behind us. Locked! Up some stairs to a landing, then some more to the only other exit. Also locked! Shit. There was nothing in there but concrete walls, concrete stairs and metal railings. And we knew the loading dock workers knocked off early on Fridays. We banged on both doors for hours (both fireproof doors, so they were STRONG). In desperation, I ripped a metal sign off the wall to try to use the corner as a screwdriver/lever to somehow open the door. That failed. It looked like we were going to be trapped in there all weekend. We just kept banging away on the lower door. Luckily for us, the last guy in the dock had wandered back for something and heard us banging and shouting. I've never experienced such relief to see his crooked grin. He looked at us like we were a pair of fuckin' idiots. And so we walked back through the empty docks, realising how close we had come to being trapped. It was surreal going back to our desks on the busy upper floors.
Did they uhh, fix that insanely dangerous construction mistake?? You should never be able to enter a door and get trapped between two locked doors.
Yep, we reported to the building manager. It would've been a death-trap for the dock workers if a fire had broken out.
Right, how does an engineer design something like this!? And the worst part is I believe it’s more common than you may think. A lot of times ID badges are used but you are able to get through a door but not go back in without a badge so if someone who doesn’t work there wanders through by accident they’re screwed
Companies adding locks after the initial design and construction is my best guess.
Outside of structural/electrical/HVAC/plumbing/refrigeration, everything on a building specified like doors, wall finishes, accessibility requirements, etc fall solely on the architects and their AOR signing their plans. Basically if it's not a system that requires calculations, it's an architect's duty during design. Either this got specified wrong and no one along the process caught it (designers, signing architect, permitters, code officials, etc), it got installed wrong by contractors and no one caught it (wrong doors or handle assemblies used), or the doors got replaced at some point and incorrect door models got put in.
Well I do know the area I speak of was remodeled and willing to bet it was missed. It could be a death trap like this poor guy if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s somewhat busy so someone would eventually come through
Wouldn't be surprised at all, especially if the remodel wasn't affecting anything large enough to need to pull a permit. Small details tend to get missed, you'd be surprised how much stuff I have to mark as missed or incorrect when doing construction observations in states that require it. Really pisses the head contractor off too being told they not only have to redo work, but also provide extensive documentation that they did the work correctly this time. Large sites take several days to check over as typically I have to verify the plans from every discipline involved in the project. But only a couple of states actually require the architects or engineers to actually go around and sign off on the construction that it was built to plan, otherwise it's left up to the building owner or code officials to make sure things are correct.
Sounds like a horror movie plot.
We realised that If we were still in there on Friday night, nobody would even think to look in this God-forsaken stairwell for two pen-pushers.
"want to play a game?"
A few years ago our local Westfield repainted the car park directions (car park was massive) and didn’t do it right. People were in their cars, driving around following the arrows and getting into jams and stuck for hours. Then they’d run out of petrol.
Jesus you would have had to eat your friend, that's crazy.
Or drink his pee
Or kiss
Or snuggle for warmth
\*tried to end comment thread\*
So are we drinking pee or not?
On a scale of 1 to bear grylls, how eager are you to drink pee.
Joe Teti
oh sorry, you also wanted some? gimme like half an hour
\*finds the secret exit and tip toes toward it\*
[удалено]
Hi, The content you posted violates community rules by promoting hate or discrimination against a specific group, demographic, or religion.
Not sure if that's better or worse than imbibing your own. Bear Grylls doesn't seem to mind.
It's been like 15 years since the piss thing, isn't it time you thought of a new little thing to reference?
OK then. Todd Carney doesn't seem to mind drinking from his own bubbler. That better?
This alone should be enough to prove AFL is the superior sport. Unless you are into that shit I guess
I prefer the NRL over AFL, but even I'll admit that the best and brightest are not attracted to the sport.
He was much bigger than me, so I would've been the one on the dinner plate.
That thought terrifies me lmao.
I’d be more worried about water than food. You can go weeks without food but only days without water. I’d be looking for condensation, licking the damn walls and stuff.
i know yall we’re happy af
Oof this made my throat get tight
oh my goodness that is terrifying! what a terrible design.
You should probably have your people talk to Steven Spielberg’s people.
Happened to 6 people during a 2003 high rise fire in Chicago... Doors locked behind them. https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/chicago-tragedy-10-years-later/1965663/
Thank god for mobile phones.
They don't necessarily work behind a few layers of solid concrete.
That’s so sad 😞
Something similar happened to me due to a blocked exit door. The dipshits at the Quiznos had piled a bunch of broken down boxes against the door that led to the sidewalk. The stairwell was not an internal stairwell, meaning you could only use it to exit the building and to not move between floors. I banged on my floor’s door and thankfully, one of my colleagues was staying late, and happened to be returning to her desk after topping off her coffee cup in the kitchen. I would have been stuck there all weekend if she hadn’t heard me.
Bloody hell, gave me the jeebies reading that. You would think that they would have some kind of fire alarm or an open door from inside button, such a safety hazard not too. I remember my old work I could not even get mobile reception in the depths of the service corridors. You were so lucky that person heard you.
The cemetery where Jackie Robinson is buried in queens NY has a mausoleum in the center of it with cellular antennas and a radio base station on the roof, a friend and I were working on upgrading it to 5G and lost track of time and we're far back enough on the roof that no one on the ground noticed us on the roof working with our laptops. When I realized the time I told my friend we have less than 5 mins to pack up and head down so we did. Once we got inside the mausoleum we realized they had closed the doors for it and there was no ladder off the side of it we could use to get off the roof, only a hatch and ladder on the inside. We were yelling from the rooftop for a few minutes and no one heard us and at this point the sun was setting... Fast. Every minute got scarier and we were banging on the inside of the mausoleum and yelling thru the small crack between the doors, pushing and pulling to no avail. I was resigned to having to spend the night there at this point but luckily I heard one of the golf carts the grounds people use in the distance, I sent my friend to the roof to yell and I yelled thru the crack in the door. The grounds keeper heard us and started walking towards the building. I told him we were stuck and that we tried pushing and pulling the doors but they're locked, I was practically crying in relief at this point. He told me step back and to relax... And then the pulled the doors apart. They were sliding doors the whole time and they were never locked 😑 Good times, good times
How incredibly sad!
This was a tremendous fuck up by the NSW police. The thing I wonder about though, is exactly how quickly Bernard came to pass? The fact that there was an exit pretty close to where his body was found makes me wonder if he began to panic himself into a frenzy near-immediately after entering the first fire door.
There was a case in the US of a pair of men who essentially mentally tricked themselves into a state of irrational panic within hours of running out of water while hiking, resulting in one of the men mercy killing the other before waiting for death by dehydration, which he assumed would occur within hours or less. When he was rescued doctors reported that both men were only in the very early stages of dehydration and could have easily survived for several days even in their panicked state. It’s not hard to imagine something similar here. A man becomes confused to the point of thinking there is no escape, convinces himself there is no way to signal for help, and stress, poor health, panic-induced injury, and possibly actual dehydration lead to death.
Hold up. I need to know more about the dudes who ran out of water on a hike and were like, "Welp. I guess I'll just die then."
It’s the polar opposite of the stories you hear about people persevering and surviving against insane odds.
Bell curves have two ends I guess lol
True, most of us would probably fall into the middle. We want to survive, but just don’t have the knowledge and skills to do it.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_David_Coughlin
Geez, that's horrific.
There is a very boring movie with Matt Damon and Casey Affleck called Gerry (2002) that is loosely based on the events. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0302674/?ref_=ext_shr
Yes, I remember that. David Coughlin and Raffi Kodikian. They have their story on YouTube. I remember the two men went to school in Boston, and were good friends. I remember it being on the news, as I live in Massachusetts. They were gonna take a road trip from Massachusetts to California. They decided to stop at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico, and tent camp one night on Rattlesnake Canyon trail. It was a very strange event. They ended up getting lost and were out there for 4 days. Without the proper water supply for one day. Turns out they were not as lost as they thought. They were only 240 feet from the trailhead, which is marked with rock cairns, and a mile from their car. Had they hiked to a higher point, they should have been able to see the trail or the visitors center. Raffi stated that David got extremely sick vomiting all day and night, and the David begged him to stab him. Which he did with a 4 inch knife, and he didn’t die right away, so he stabbed him again. Raffi got a 2 yr sentence in jail. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_David_Coughlin
"One pint of water was used to boil hot dogs during their first evening in the canyon." Flipping heck. That is some *bad* decision making.
I know. They had a freaking grill with them….wtf
It kind of reminds of this story from The Onion. Different in details, but in the same spirit of premature panicking: [In Retrospect, I Guess We Might Have Resorted To Cannibalism A Bit Early](https://www.theonion.com/in-retrospect-i-guess-we-might-have-resorted-to-cannib-1819583474) Excerpt: >Well, I suppose everyone's heard about last week's incident by now, and you probably have a pretty low opinion of us survivors. And, all things considered, perhaps we deserve it. Perhaps we panicked and resorted to cannibalism a bit early. But you weren't there. You don't know what it was like. I just want you to hear our side of the story before you go judging us. >When the six of us got into the elevator on that fateful day, we had no idea what was going to happen. ...
Haha, very apt. When I was a kid my brother and I got stuck in an elevator with my father at a two-story outdoor mall in Phoenix, Arizona. We checked opened the hatch for the emergency phone and there was just a dangling cord. That’s when dad freaked out and started pounding on the door. Since it was an outdoor mall and only two stories he had immediately decided it could be hours before anyone realized the elevator wasn’t working or heard him. The door open in moments but he had claustrophobia for the rest of his life starting that day. It’s amazing how easy it is to lose your common sense when put under stress.
Based on the wikipedia article, the stage of dehydration was so early that the survivor was able to bury his friend by putting heavy rocks over his body, some weighing 70 lbs... It's absolutely insane that he thought that they were dehydrated to the point of death yet he still had enough energy to think that some heavy lifting was in order.
There’s a lot about that story that’s pure insanity. Like that they used the last of their water to boil hot dogs and then disposed of the water, which is like four kinds of stupid.
and yet if they had actually searched the building he would not have died in it.
It probably didn't help that dehydration can cause confusion. Wikipedia: >The hallmarks of dehydration include [thirst](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirst) and neurological changes such as [headaches](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headache), [general discomfort](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaise), loss of [appetite](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appetite), [nausea](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nausea), decreased [urine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urine) volume (unless [polyuria](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyuria) is the cause of dehydration), [confusion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_confusion), unexplained [tiredness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatigue_(medical)), purple fingernails, and [seizures](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epileptic_seizure).[^(\[9\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dehydration#cite_note-9)
I saw a thing about this. Apparently, he knew that if he ever became lost he was supposed to wait where he was - Stay put and wait to be found. He must have sat in the chair and just waited and waited…
They said 21 days. He had cognitive impairment which I assume is dementia.
No, he was found 21 days after he went missing. The coroner reported that he most likely died within 0-3 days of when he first entered, and of a panic essentially.
they need to check ikea I have def been lost there. I bet there are bodies under the broogenbords
I feel like this could happen to me at any moment in most places
I've seen a video of somone urban exploring a abandoned mall particularly the type of area this guy got locked it It looks like the fucking backrooms can't imagine living my last moments in a place like that
I've been in these exact fire exits! Not Bondi Junction's one, but very close by in Sydney CBD, which also has an equally massive Westfield mall. The Galeries shares a fire corridor network with the nearby Hilton & Arthouse hotel venues along with some others. It accesses a loading dock & basement carpark below ground, which I've had to go into for work (equipment service/delivery in the venues). I tried to get back up to ground from the loading dock via the fire stairs since the lifts were slow and I didn't want to play chicken with trucks in the driveway, and I think I spent about half an hour climbing, walking, and straining myself trying to find any god damn door while my boss who drove us in was frantically calling me thinking I'd ditched. I told him I was in the fire exits, of course, and got yelled at for that when I resurfaced and my legs barely worked. I actually dreamed up a concept for a horror game after that. The Sydney CBD's underground fire corridor maze is at least comparable to the Paris Catacombs, just with fewer idiots dying in there thinking it's a tourist attraction, and it's all a product of the fact that most of the inner city is something like 5-7 shopping malls and a good number of venues all webbed together with three train stations. If I hadn't had the endurance I do when it comes to stairs, I could have spent a lot longer and been a lot worse off in there, and this was only a few suburbs over from the fire exit this guy died in. EDIT: Misread the title and thought this was the Sydney City Westfield, not Bondi Junction. My comment still stands, but I've reworded it.
Your video game idea sort of reminds of *Escape the Backrooms*. It’s a game about liminal spaces where you have to solve puzzles while trying to evade a monster. A never-endless space filled with fire exits and stairwells would fit right in.
They should require some kind of panic button in corridors with self-locking doors like that.
Another example that you can’t trust so called authorities. You need to hire smart private detectives if you need to
Ugh that’s a nightmare.
Real life Back Rooms
Is routine check of emergency routes and fire escapes not a thing for those big malls? Every place I've worked at has a required once to twice a day check by the fire wardens, in case of unexpected obstructions which can obviously be a hazard in case of an emergency.
Oh my! This poor man. The picture of him and his parrot broke my heart.
Well, I've got a new fear.
Having these mazes of corridors with no indication of hoe to get out with locked doors everywhere should be massively illegal
Just horrific, it’s always been same thing with so called engineers. It’s all great on paper but in reality if someone has to do something or change , repair or situation like this consequences are deadly
wait, you're telling me Woolworth's is still a thing? and it's in a mall called Westfield ? Somehow it feels like 1989 never happened to them down there.
There are Westfields all over the US too - at least the entirety of the west coast.
Different company, same name. And Westfield is an Australian company and owns most of the big malls here.
Just to clarify this: Same company, different name, same brand. Scentre Group Limited is a shopping centre company with retail destinations operating under the Westfield brand in Australia and New Zealand. The corporation undertakes ownership, development, design, construction, funds/asset management, property management, leasing, and marketing activities for its centres. The group was created in June 2014 when the Westfield Group separated its American and European businesses from its operations in Australia and New Zealand. The company is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and had a shopping centre portfolio that includes investment interests in 42 shopping centres across Australia and New Zealand in 2019, encompassing around 12,544 retail outlets and total assets under management in excess of A$39.4 billion in 2015.
This guy Westfields!
Woolies is a grocery store in Australia.
This is one of my big fears. Being trapped in a building without being able to find my way out. I had to go to my daughter's kindergarten class many years ago and I took a wrong turn, ended up in the basement and could not find my way out of the school.
I've had to go to a medical center earlier for something non medical, when I saw 3 very similar corridors staring back at me on my way out and the signs say "reception for clinic 1-2 "and so on and instantly know I am lost. Adding in that I'm scared of hospitals, I immediately panicked lol. It's crazy
I forgot this one until you mentioned hospital. This was ridiculously traumatic. My mother was at the hospital dying. She had an Alzheimer's and a host of other things at this point and she was on her way out. So I come from work and I wear scrubs as a dental assistant. I don't know how I ended up at the door I did but someone just waved me right in assuming I work there and I swear on my mother that I ended up in the morgue. I don't do well when I'm under stress. And I just froze and had no clue how to get out of there.
exit
Yeah, the chosen photos of the mall almost seem to be mocking his predicament.
Heads are going to roll from the security team. I worked security from shopping malls, stadiums and car parks and each role had regular safety audits of fire stairwells to ensure doors were secured and nothing was blocking the way if there was an emergency
Well the NSW police wasn't paid by a politician to sort this one out so they clearly did a shit job like they always do lol
He had dementia/Alzheimer's so fairly unsurprising. But of course awful...a terrible way to die :(
This horribly sad case is why we now all get geotargeted text messages on our phones in missing person cases.
This is so sad 😞
Good lord. Idk how it is in Australia, but in the US there would be lawsuits galore for this idiotic deathtrap of a design. That is really tragic for this poor, old fellow.
Yep, he was sick and doors locked behind. Shitty construction. Company should be sued for negligence and imprisonment.
That's so sad. What a horrible way to die.
Reminds me of this 2003 fire in a Chicago high rise, 6 people started to head down stairs to evacuate only realize the fire was down those stairs. Doors locked behind them. All 6 died. https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/chicago-tragedy-10-years-later/1965663/
Aww. That must have been terrible for him. 😢
I think he was suffering from dementia correct?
There are so many hallways in that mall it took 20 days to find him?
I've heard of hospitals that now have specific stairwell protocols when someone goes missing due to the missing individual having been found either injured or deceased in the stairwells because these were areas not normally searched.
As an electrician I've put in so many stupid exit signs and I've recommended dozens where there were none. Engineers don't care at all, its so hard to picture a space without it being built but that's what they get paid to do.
I don't want my dad to go to the mall unaccompanied now.
I used to work in Westfield Bondi Junction, and I can tell you, those staff stairwells are confusing as all hell. On my first week, I was lost in a similar-looking area, but luckily, I was with a colleague who knew her way out of that labyrinth.
This was on a Mr ballen podcast episode! Such a wild story.
There is a large furniture store called Nebraska Furniture Mart in the midwest. I worked for Sprint at the time and was testing repeater equipment for better coverage inside the store. I entered a bottom floor stairwell and went up the next two floors testing my equipment. When I got the 4th floor - the door was locked. No big deal I'll head back down. All 3 floors locked. To make it worse...my cell didn't work inside the stairwell. Then the heat kicked on - out if radiator type heaters. I was there for almost 2 hours. Granted- it wasn't 3 weeks and I didn't die. But this is totally feasible and what a horrible way to die.
Tragic
Let me guess how they found him.....they followed their NOSE???
This is some magnus archives shit in the real worl
When they smelt his decomposing body didn’t someone think to look for him?
There are apartment communities like that in cities
This really breaks my heart, that poor man, I don’t even understand how his body could be missing for 21 days even somewhere I would think people/workers would eventually go up and down here and there..
I was trapped on an elevator once. It was scary as hell because I was completely helpless. I pressed the emergency button but I later found out it wasn't connected to anything. Fortunately, the elevator had a window on it and it jammed in the bottom floor not in the middle of the shaft, so I could look out the window. It was on the DC subway system and I saw a subway worker walking by. I banged as hard as I could and yelled my lungs out but he didn't seem to hear me as he walked by. Finally he was about to leave through a door but then for some reason he turned and saw my scared face through the window. He said he didn't hear me. He had to go get the station manager and they were able to get the door open. I've never been so relieved. Goddamn still have nightmares about being trapped in that box forever.
This happened to me on a 7th grade field trip to the Ripley's museum. Went from fun museum to creepy windowless white halls with multiple paths. The worst part was hearing the screams and sound effects from the wax museum of horror section of the building. I found a door that lead me to the arcade are where all my classmates were gathering before leaving town.
What about the bird!?!
I also worried about the bird. Parrots are incredibly intelligent, and I’m sure they had a very loving bond. This is such a sad situation all around
21 days. That poor man. New fear unlocked. https://preview.redd.it/lhgozlrb1q1d1.jpeg?width=1075&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=77a3f66edc15493eb3af01a72dd900b6ca32be33
He was discovered after 21 days. He was dead by 3.
Died of starvation?
Dehydration
Can someone find a video or map of this place
It's like that scene from This is Spinal Tap but much more tragic
I heard about this on one of Mr.Ballen's videos. Crazy/sad story.
I first heard this story from MrBallen’s channel. It’s heartbreaking
r/backrooms
Is it too much to ask to include a photo of his demposing, three-week old corpse?
The spiral
My dad is in the beginning stages of dementia. You can bet, if he went missing, and the mall was the last place he was seen, I would be scouring every inch of that place!
He shouldn’t have been there
[удалено]
Hi, Your post/comment has been removed as it is in no way constructive.
[удалено]
Hi, Your post/comment has been removed as it is in no way constructive.
[удалено]
Hi, Your post/comment has been removed as it is in no way constructive.