The Virginian-Pilot
©
PORTSMOUTH
The old chemical plant was strapped with about 200 pounds of dynamite. Dozens of people looked on. Some had set up tripods as much as an hour early to document the explosion on Sunday.
When it finally happened, and the smoke cleared five minutes later, half the West Norfolk plant was still standing.
"Everyone was very surprised," said Jim Harrelson, a site manager with a company that controls the old BASF Corp. plant. "It's just one of those things where you have to go back to the drawing board."
The head of the Tulsa, Okla.-based demolition company that handled the job said he was not given a full set of drawings. And the standing building, which appeared to be an addition, didn't collapse as planned over the building that was strapped with the dynamite, he said.
"There wasn't enough on the front side to pull the back side over," said Jim Redyke, president of Dykon Explosive Demolition Corp.
Before it was closed in 2007, the plant, at 3340 W. Norfolk Road, manufactured a superabsorbent polymer used in baby diapers and adult incontinence products. Harrelson's company, Land and Marine Remediation, Inc., took control of the property and was clearing the factory so it could seek a new tenant.
The explosion happened around 7:10 a.m. Sunday.
The demolition work Sunday cost about $500,000, Harrelson said. It may take as much as a month to clear away debris and figure out how to get rid of the second part of the building, he said. He doesn't expect it to cost much more.
"It's not a big deal," Redyke said. "It happens in this industry at times. It's part of the nature of the beast."
Mike Saewitz, (757) 222-5207, mike.saewitz@pilotonline.com
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There's none so blind...
...as the saying goes. : -)
WVEC; WAVY; Fox43; VA Pilot...and those are only the information streams of which I am aware!
There's only so much that can be done to notify people.
Not surprising
The scheduled explosion was all over the news and in the news paper since there was controversy over the permit. It is amazing that so many people live in a bubble and are not informed as to what is going on despite living in this age of mass media. And these same people are voters! No wonder we are in a fix.
BASF implosion
What about the possible effects of that thick, heavy smoke on asthmatics and lung cancer victims? I certainly hope that a non-smoky way can be found to remove the rest of that building.
Ka boom, Ka boom, Ka boom
My mom (who lives in Port Norfolk) had told me about the demolition on Saturday, but did not tell me what time it was going to happen. Sunday at 7:15 am, both my husband, and my 3 yo son were woken up from the 5 or 6 consecutive ka booms we heard. It shook our home, and defintely woke up everybody in Waterview. It wasn't until 15 minutes later as I was still sitting in bed when I put two and two together. If it wasn't for my mom I guess I would have been clueless as to what the noise was.
Thanks mom....
Big bang
Live in Port Norfolk, me and the wife were awoke by the huge blasts, shaking house, and large noise. Live probably 3-4 miles away. I thought it was perhaps something with the trains over at the docks. Was certainly a big boom.
BASF implosion on Sunday morning
Maybe there's something about Sunday mornings. When you think of the number of people who complain about church bells on Sunday mornings, why is it a surprise that people will also complain about the noise from a building being imploded at 7 a.m. on a Sunday morning?
It was a shocker for my husband and myself. We had been out of town for the week. We had no way of learning about the implosion until it happened.
We were wakened out of sound sleep about an hour before our regular wake-up time. We thought a tree might have fallen on a nearby house or a vehicle might have run into one.
Friends who had been in town all week and knew about the upcoming implosion checked their furnace in the basement.
Reminds me of the old Ocean View Rollercoaster!
This sort of reminds me of when they were tearing down the old Ocean View Amusement Park! The roller coaster had the last laugh! Things went BOOM! and when the dust cleared, the coaster was still standing. And people had said for years that the thing was dangerous and could fall down any any moment!
I am a little surprised that so many folks claim to have not known about the scheduled demolition. I've been working 60 hour weeks, not watching any TV and I still heard about it.
The explosion could be heard
The explosion could be heard all the way to the old Tower Mall location in Portsmouth. It sounded like a train was rolling down Portsmouth Boulevard.
No warning...
Not only was this event warning missed by many of us in the area, but what mental midget granted a permit for a 7 AM Sunday explosion next to a residential area? Or is it just that there is no oversight at all? It virtually threw me out of bed, thinking something awful was going on.
Shock
I was awakened to the tremendous noise and the pressure wave that followed. My house, across the river, was solidly shook. Reflecting, it reminded me of weapons testing at sea. At first, I thought an aircraft had crashed close at hand. Stepping outside, I met another neighbor that was as shocked as I was. My daughter thought terrorists were attacking. It really scared her. Oddly, I couldn't put my finger on the source but told her I suspected a tank explosion at BASF. Only later did I learn what had taken place. Apparently, there was some announcement on Saterday vut I never turned on the news that day or went on the web. A better means of notification would have been appreciated as I would have liked to witness it firsthand too.