Going, going, er... Workmen left red-faced when 175ft chimney refuses to collapse

By Daily Mail Reporter

Published: | Updated:


The demolition of a 175-foot-tall chimney stack on the former Peninsula Plywood mill site in Port Angeles, Washington, didn't exactly go smoothly.

The 1,000-ton smokestack was tougher than it looked.

The Peninsula Daily News reports that nothing happened when a crew detonated explosives at 3.30pm Monday.

Scroll down for videos of demolition

Smokestack
Smokestack
Smokestack

Oops! The demolition of a 175-foot-tall stack on the ex-Peninsula Plywood mill experienced an embarrassing snafu when the tower remained standing, with only a small halo of smoke at its base (center and right)

The newspaper says engineers decided the stack was being held up by a web of reinforcement steel, or rebar, inside the tower. So the next plan was to use huge electrical saws to cut through the rebar.

Finally, at 6.15pm, the resilient smokestack fell, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Wallace Technical Blasting of Woodland is in charge as part of a $1.6million contract for Rhine Demolition to clear the 19-acre Port of Port Angeles property for new marine development.

WATCH VIDEO OF FAILED DEMOLITION: 

PenPly stack bluff cam from Peninsula Daily News Video News on Vimeo.

Some 2,000 spectators took up positions in the west side of downtown Port Angeles to see the smokestack come down Monday afternoon.

Jason Williams, 5, and Thomas Reynolds, 12, won coloring contest to press the button to set off the countdown to detonation.

The big event was preceded by 15 minutes of presentations by city and state officials.

Finally, after a five-minute warning horn sounded at 3.25pm followed by a one-minute warning horn at 3.29pm.

Timber! The smokestack of the former Peninsula Plywood mill in Port Angeles falls to the ground after a nearly three-hour delay

Timber! The smokestack of the former Peninsula Plywood mill in Port Angeles falls to the ground after a nearly three-hour delay

At exactly 3.30, the detonation button was pressed, with thousands of spectators waiting for the metal smokestack to fall north in a cloud of smoke.

Instead, the hardy 72-year-old chimney remained stock-still, with only a small halo of smoke surrounding its base.

One onlooker described the scene to PDN as 'very anticlimactic.'

Most of disappointed spectators waited for 15 minutes and then took off after realizing that nothing is going to happen.   

It took engineers nearly three hours to cut through the web of rebar inside the concrete tower using electrical saws before the smokestack finally came down to the ground, kicking up a huge cloud of dust.

One of the shareholders of the original PenPly, Vernon Reidel, 70, said he was not surprised that the tough concrete chimney withstood the blast. 

Penply stack from Peninsula Daily News Video News on Vimeo.

Hard day's work: Engineers had to cut through a web of rebar inside the concrete tower using electrical saws

Hard day's work: Engineers had to cut through a web of rebar inside the concrete tower using electrical saws

Chimney
Chimney

Gong down: With the rebar inside the 72-year-old structure cut, the stack fell like a tree

End of an era: The resilient 1,000-ton smokestack finally fell hours after the planned demolition, kicking up a huge cloud of dust

End of an era: The resilient 1,000-ton smokestack finally fell hours after the planned demolition, kicking up a huge cloud of dust

'There was one just like it, the same design, in Hiroshima, and the atomic bomb didn't take it down,' he told the paper.

Since 1941, the mill was used by Peninsula Plywood, ITT Rayonier, KPly and a rebooted PenPly until it finally closed its doors in 2011, marking the end of an era.

The stack — containing 4 inches of concrete — was the last remaining structure at site.

The pile of debris left in the wake of the blast will be broken up and hauled away by Friday, but the rebar will be salvaged. 


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