Amidst all the fuss and furore surrounding Europe’s biggest-ever controlled explosive demolition, one man stands calm and focused.
I listened to an audio podcast recently in which WWE pro wrestler Triple H was talking about his friendship with boxer Floyd Mayweather. The wrestler said that he’d been invited to Mayweather’s dressing room just minutes before the boxer was about to take part in yet another world title fight. And yet Mayweather, despite all the hype that surrounds him wherever he goes, was a picture of calm serenity. When Triple H asked him how he remained so calm before one of the biggest fights of (and, possibly, for) his life, Mayweather responded: “Why would I be wound up? I’m either ready, or I’m not. Worrying about it right now ain’t gonna change a damn thing.”
Similar sentiments, although delivered with a good deal more eloquence, were shared with me recently by Safedem managing director and blaster in chief, William Sinclair. He was personally charging one of the four tower blocks that made up Glasgow’s Tarfside Oval and which, in just a few days, he was going to convert into so much rubble and aggregate.
“When I leave a building after carrying out my final checks, I know that there’s nothing more I could have done.”
That confidence is well-founded. Over the years, Sinclair has worked with some of the biggest names in the blasting business including Mark Loizeaux, Charles Moran, Dick Green and Mick Williams to name just a few yew. Sinclair himself has notched up an enviable portfolio of successful blasts both here in the UK and overseas, utilising the very best of what he has learned from those giants of the blasting world and adding his own twists and refinements along the way. In addition, he builds in layer upon layer of contingency with each detonator being hit five, six or seven times.
In the world of explosive demolition, even Plan B has a Plan B.
None of this matters, of course, to the thousands that will gather at the perimeter of the Red Road exclusion zone or those that will watch TV pictures of this once-in-a-lifetime demolition event as they are beamed around the world.
In an age of instant gratification, the general public and the mass media do not care about the months of meticulous planning that goes into a blast of this magnitude. They are not interested in how blast floors are selected and prepared. They don’t care about the number of detonators, the type and amount of explosives used, or that the blast holes are stemmed using a round-ended stick known as a “podger”. And they’re not bothered about how the exclusion zone is set and managed, the military-style evacuation plans for people and their pets prior to a blast, the security measures put in place to ensure the exclusion zone is not breached. They want the pay-off; the money-shot; 15 seconds of excitement before they return to their normal lives with a tale to tell their children and grand-children.
Which is why, when the signal sounds just before Europe’s biggest-ever implosion, they will jockey for position and the best vantage point. They will climb walls and trees to see the infamous blocks tumble to the ground. And they will race to be the first to get their shaky camera phone footage onto YouTube for a brief moment of reflected Internet fame.
Amidst all this fuss and furore, William Sinclair will stand focused yet calm. He has just one task to perform; one he has carried out countless times before. And he is ready.
Because, when he is stood alone at the firing point this Sunday, there is nothing more he could have done.
