Major "Oops" - Demo'd Smokestack Falls The Wrong Way

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http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/n...-tower-demo-fails-falls-wrong-way-999527.html


Updated 10:02 AM Thursday, November 11, 2010
“Oh no.”

Those were some of the last words heard before shouts to get back as the old Mad River Power Plant’s 275-foot tower toppled in the wrong direction about noon Wednesday.

The blasts should have sent the stack onto a cleared area directly to the east, but instead the tower crashed to the southeast.

No one was injured but the tower knocked down two 12,500-volt power lines and smashed a building housing back-up generators.

The electrical lines came crashing down as a crowd of about 25 media members, FirstEnergy Corp. employees, demolition crews and their family members scattered to avoid the live lines.

“It just started leaning the other way and I thought, ‘Holy cow’ ... It was terrifying for a little bit,” Springfield Twp. Fire Chief John Roeder said.

About 4,000 customers on the west side of the city lost power for more than two hours and traffic lights in at least nine intersections went down.

The explosives detonated correctly, but an undetected crack on south side of the tower pulled it backward, said Lisa Kelly, president/owner of Advanced Explosives Demolition Inc.

“It’s property damage and it’s not life,” she said. “That’s the most important thing — that no one was injured.”

Demolitions are a highly technical process.

“(But) it’s not without some uncertainty,” said Tim Suter, FirstEnergy manager of external affairs.

All of the debris landed on the FirstEnergy property and none of it went into the Mad River or onto the nearby railway tracks. An estimate of the cost of the damage wasn’t available Wednesday.

Suter said he hasn’t seen anything like it before.

“Fortunately no one was injured,” he said.

FirstEnergy has worked with the demolition contractor, Advanced Explosives Demolition Inc., on other jobs, Suter said, and a lot of preparation went into the project.

“They’ve taken other towers twice the size of this one down without anything going on,” he said.

The Idaho-based, family-owned company has been featured in a series on TLC, according to its website. They travel the country with their children doing demolitions.

The AED website says that Eric Kelly has “a perfect safety record of no accidents in 27 years.”

AED President/Owner Lisa Kelly said the crack in the tower pulled it in the wrong direction.

The most important fact is that no one was injured, Kelly said, because property can always be reconstructed.

Cleanup will be handled efficiently, she said.

“Nobody’s happy with things that go wrong in life, and sometimes it’s out of our hands and beyond anybody’s prediction ... We’re all extremely thankful no one was injured or hurt,” she said.

The plant dates to the 1920s and was late used nearly 30 years ago. FirstEnergy began razing it this summer as a company-wide effort to cleanup old sites.

Springfield Twp. Fire Chief John Roeder came to observe the tower demolition Wednesday and had fire trucks nearby if needed.

Once he saw the tower heading the wrong direction, Roeder wanted to clear the area under the wires as quickly as possible, and feared it might strike a substation and start a fire.

“It was definitely a sight to see,” Roeder said.

The power lines nearly fell on several news crews staged in the area.

“We just ran,” said Eric Higgenbotham, a WHIO-TV videographer. “We were standing underneath the power lines, it was like the end of the world. We were running for our lives.”

At least nine intersections on the west side of the city lost power, and officers were dispatched to direct traffic, said Sgt. Brian Radanovich, Springfield Police Division.

One minor crash with no injuries at High Street and Wittenberg Avenue was reported during the outage.

Fewer intersections were disabled in past power outages, he said.

“This is probably the most we’ve had in awhile,” he said.
 
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1418565565?bctid=671135421001

http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/news/tower-demolition-another-view-999890.html

Undetected crack caused tower to fall wrong way, demolition company says

Tower demolition: Another view

The former Ohio Edison Mad River Power Plant’s 275-foot tower in Springfield came down on Wednesday, Nov. 10, but the blast knocked it the wrong direction. See the view of the tower falling from on top of the Ohio Masonic Home looking to the east.
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slideshow_1001837087_sns111110ohioedison7.jpg



slideshow_1001837088_sns111110ohioedison1.jpg
 
What in the hell were they thinking having the little girl on site!! Up here no kid under the age of 16 is allowed on a const site let alone demolition!! F'n assclowns....the youngest one is the smartest one of the bunch, she starts to run while everyone else starts pi$$'n their pants

Thats what I wondered, and Google helps.....

http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/n...-tower-demo-fails-falls-wrong-way-999816.html

Ohio Edison tower blasted, falls wrong way

The former Ohio Edison Mad River Power Plant's 275-foot tower in Springfield came down on Wed., Nov. 10, but the blast knocked it the wrong direction. The tower was supposed to fall to the northeast, but ended up falling to the south — knocking down several nearby powerlines.

No one was injured from the tower falling the wrong way.

Children were present because the company is a family-run outfit that travels the country doing this work.

The company was featured in a six-part TLC Network series called The Imploders.



http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010...=Feed:+CBSNewsGamecore+(GameCore:+CBSnews.com)

AP) A 275-foot smokestack being demolished at an old power plant toppled in the wrong direction and sent spectators scrambling Wednesday before knocking down two 12,000-volt power lines and crashing onto a building housing backup generators, officials said.

No injuries were reported after the tower at the unused 83-year-old Mad River Power Plant teetered and then fell in a southeast direction — instead of east, as originally planned — seconds after explosives were detonated.

The falling tower brought down the power lines and sent spectators scrambling to avoid the sparking lines.

Scroll down to watch the video.

"It just started leaning the other way and I thought, 'Holy cow' ... It was terrifying for a little bit," Springfield Township Fire Chief John Roeder told the Springfield News-Sun.

Officials estimated that about 4,000 customers in the Springfield area, about 25 miles northeast of Dayton, lost power because of the downed lines.

Lisa Kelly, the president and owner of Idaho-based Advanced Explosives Demolition Inc., which handled the demolition, told the News-Sun that the explosives detonated correctly, but an undetected crack on the south side of the tower pulled it in a different direction.

"Nobody's happy with things that go wrong in life, and sometimes it's out of our hands and beyond anybody's prediction. ... We're all extremely thankful no one was injured," Kelly told The Columbus Dispatch.

Officials say the debris landed on the FirstEnergy property.

"We had it all planned out. Everything was scoped out ... it caught everybody by surprise," Tim Suter, FirstEnergy's manager of external affairs, told the News-Sun. "Everybody was kind of excited, looking for cover."
 
[Quote: Lisa Kelly, the president and owner of Idaho-based Advanced Explosives Demolition Inc., which handled the demolition, told the News-Sun that the explosives detonated correctly, but an undetected crack on the south side of the tower pulled it in a different direction.]

An undectected crack on the south side? How'd they figure that out. Its all a pyle of rubble now.
 
An undectected crack on the south side? How'd they figure that out. Its all a pyle of rubble now.[/QUOTE]

That's what I was wondering when I saw it on the news....somehow they found an undetected crack in a pile of rubble.
 
That is why you are supposed to take a chunk out of the stack (just like a tree) so it will be induced to fall where you want it.
And the people should not have been standing under the 12.5 kv lines when this took place. Common sense!
 
Mullinax95 said it right.
I think there was more crack than just in the stack!
 
I would imagine that they were bonded/insured....whatever is applicable. But their rates probably went up!
 
This is what happens when you get your explosives at the Swap meet... 8)


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