Meghan Hurley
The biggest blast in Ottawa’s history was over in seconds on Sunday, reducing the 11-storey John Carling Building to 40,000 tonnes of rubble by 420 kilograms of explosives.
Hundreds of people gathered 300 metres away from the federal office tower at 930 Carling Ave. that overlooked Dow’s Lake to catch a glimpse of the $4.8 million demolition.
Denis Lafrance came to the Experimental Farm prepared with fold-up lawn chairs to sit on. Lafrance said he was an avid viewer of a demolition television show and wanted to see it done in person.
“Sometimes the whole building wouldn’t go down the way they thought,” Lafrance said.
Although it was a struggle to get out of bed so early on a Sunday, eight-year-old Zenio Arnone was certainly glad he did. He watched the “cool” explosion with his mother, Tina Arnone, who was most excited to see how the building was going to fall.
The Sir John Carling building implodes as it is demolished in Ottawa on Sunday, July 13, 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
When the explosions rang out and the building began to collapse, Arnone yelled out in excitement.
“That was so cool. It was good. Unbelievable,” she said after the explosion. “I didn’t think it would go that fast. That was neat.”
Twitter was busy with exclamations from startled residents who heard and felt the blast across the city.
Nearby residents were told to stay inside their homes before several warning sirens wailed to warn that the implosion was imminent.
After the last warning siren to indicate the blast was only a minute away, several explosions could be heard and shook the ground as the building began to collapse.
“It was a perfect blast,” said Marc Verticchio, site supervisor for the main contractor, the AIM Environmental Group. “Absolutely no issues.”
While some were disturbed by the blasts, some mesmerized by the event, others — like Nicolas Baird — decided to create something new from the destruction.
The Sir John Carling building implodes as it is demolished in Ottawa on Sunday, July 13, 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
“I was the only person in the crowd facing in the other direction when the building exploded,” he said of his action movie-treatment of the implosion. (Watch the video below.)
The explosion sent a large amount of dust into the air at the Experimental Farm property. Residents tweeted they could hear the blast across the city.
The overwhelming amount of dust sent some people running away from the property to their cars, while others covered their faces with their clothing.
Lisa Kelly with Advanced Explosives Demolition Inc. said they managed to save a one-storey former cafeteria building known as the “West Annex,” which is a heritage site the government wanted to protect.
Smoke rises from the site of the Sir John Carling building as it implodes during is demolished in Ottawa on Sunday, July 13, 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
“That was just such a blessing today that there was no damage to it,” Kelly said. “We had one broken window, that’s minor. The rest of it looks to be in absolutely perfect condition.”
For the past month, six to 15 AIM Environmental Group workers have prepped the building for Sunday.
The workers cut through the rebar that wraps each bundle on those three floors, drilled about 2,000 1.5-inch holes into the columns and wrapped them with two layers of nine-gauge chain link fence, to contain or at least slow down large pieces of concrete from flying away.
— with files from Ian MacLeod
Smoke fills the air along Carling Avenue following the demolition of the Sir John Carling building in Ottawa on Sunday, July 13, 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
People look on as the Sir John Carling building demolished in Ottawa on Sunday, July 13, 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
No comments:
Post a Comment