The Avondale Mill Smoke Stack in Pell City, Alabama stood tall for over 112 years before it was set to be demolished last week. It’s accompanying mill, which measured 225 by 640, closed in 2006 and was demolished for scrap 2 years later. The smoke stack gave crews a bit of trouble, as it took 3 attempts to take it down, with the last one almost killing the excavator operator in the process.
After two attempts at imploding the 158 foot tall, 2.6 million pound smoke stack, crews had no luck taking the structure down. ON the third attempt, they brought in an excavator to weaken the base to tip it over. That process worked, but the tower fell directly onto the excavator, with the operator still inside. There was a moment of panic as several onlookers rushed to the get the man out of the cabin, but, in the end, the operator escaped without a scratch.
The operator, Tim Phifer, told WIAT news, “the cab was made for that thing to turn over on top of it, I was safer inside the cab than coming out of it.”
The day following the collapse, OSHA launched an investigation to see how the incident could have been avoided.
The video below, uploaded to Youtube by Kevin Anderson, shows drone footage and an amazing view of the demolition.
Full story: VIDEO: Pell City smokestack collapses on excavator | WIAT News
In November of last year, the 546 foot tall Mina Plaza in Abu Dhabi officially broke the world record for tallest demolition by explosion, supplanting Hudson Department Store in Detroit, Michigan, which held the record for 22 years.