Supplier of detonators blamed for failed implosion issue denial statement.
When a chimney failed to implode at Kirby Muxloe in Leicestershire just over a week ago, the finger of blame pointed quickly at what was said to be a faulty batch of detonators.
However, having received numerous phone calls disputing this explanation, Demolition News can exclusively reveal that the supplier of the detonators in question has now issued a statement to many of its largest UK customers, denying that their products were to blame.
Issued by EPC’s technical service manager Rob Farnfield, the statement says:
There appears to be a rumour going around the demolition industry suggesting that the problems with the Kirby Muxlow demolition were due to a bad batch of detonators supplied by EPC-UK (formerly Exchem) and I would like to make the following observations.
- EPC-UK provided explosives and detonators for the Kirby Muxlow project.
- The problems with the demolition are still under investigation by the demolition contractor, with help from EPC-UK, and it would not be professional to speculate on causes until this process is completed.
- At this stage we do not suspect that there is a issue with a batch of detonators as no problems have been reported from the firing of several thousand of the same products over the last few weeks.
EPC-UK is committed to providing the best possible products and technical support to customers and is proud of its relationship with the demolition industry. When problems do occur it is important for the problems to be fully investigated in a proper manner with input from all parties so that such problems can be avoided in the future.
At the time of writing, Demolition News is trying to contact EPC for further comment.
