Ohio Smokestack Demolition Sends Spectators Scrambling

The demolition of a 275-foot smokestack at Springfield’s former Mad River Power Plant went awry last week as the tower collapsed in the wrong direction. Instead of landing in an empty clearing in the east, the tower fell southeast, knocking out 12,500-volt power lines and smashing a building that held backup generators.

No one was hurt, but power plant staff, demolition crews, and members of the media filming the event were forced to scatter as the live lines hit the ground around them (video). About 4,000 customers in the Springfield area, about 26 miles northeast of Dayton, were estimated to have lost power because of the incident.

"Everything was just in slow motion … I thought, ‘This can’t be happening,’" Fire Chief John Roeder of Springfield Township Fire Department told the Columbus Dispatch. "It was an amazing sight. I hope I never see it again."

FirstEnergy hired Advanced Explosives Demolition (AED) Inc. to demolish the 83-year-old plant. Despite a lot of preparation that went into the project, and though the explosives detonated correctly, an undetected crack in the smokestack’s side pulled it backward, Lisa Kelly, president of the family-owned demolition company said.

"Nobody’s happy with things that go wrong in life, and sometimes it’s out of our hands and beyond anybody’s prediction," she told the Dispatch.

AED, a company once featured in a six-part television series on TLC, The Imploders, and touted as the “world’s greatest demolition experts,” say on their website that the company has a stellar record of safety, with no accidents in 27 years.

Sources: POWERnews, Columbus Dispatch