Explosives experts combine to fell 54 metre PET Polymers building.
Yesterday morning, when most Brits were still pawing over the latest newspaper reports of the horsemeat in burgers furore, the joint forces of InDex, SES and Libra Demolition were taking down a 54 metre concrete-encased steel column and beam structure that stood on the site of a 1974 disaster that will live long in the memory of those in and around the town of Flixborough.
On 1 June 1974, a chemical explosion ripped through what was then a Nypro UK plant with the 60 gigajoule force of 15 tonnes of TNT. The blast killed all 18 employees in the nearby control room. Nine other site workers were killed, and a delivery driver died of a heart attack in his cab. Observers have said that had the explosion occurred on a weekday it is likely that more than 500 plant employees would have been killed. Resulting fires raged in the area for over 10 days. It was Britain’s biggest peacetime explosion until the 2005 Buncefield fire.
Explosives veteran and IndEx main man Dick Green says the team used 45 kg of explosives to fell the building.
