Smokestack tumbles down in Lorain

LORAIN — The skyline of Lorain continues to evolve as a local landmark came tumbling down yesterday. The large brick smokestack was knocked down yesterday at FirstEnergy’s Edgewater power plant, 200 Oberlin Ave. The bricks from the smokestack, more than 250 feet tall, will be recycled as fill on the site, FirstEnergy spokesman Mark Durbin said. “Obviously, with a stack that’s 250 feet high, you’re going to have a lot of bricks involved in the construction of it,” he said. http://media.vmixcore.com/core-flash/UnifiedVideoPlayer/UnifiedVideoPlayer.swf The decommissioned coal-fired power plant has been on the site since 1919 and is visible for miles from Lake Erie. It also was FirstEnergy’s oldest operating power plant until it stopped generating power in 2002. The demolition is part of the continuing tear-down of the plant, and could be finished by the end of the year. The western silver building that once had the power plant’s boiler remains standing with a water tower on top, but could come down as early as next week. For decades, the smokestack withstood elements from winter blizzards to summer thunderstorms. But it was no match for an excavator equipped with a jackhammer that chipped away at the smokestack’s base for at least 30 minutes late yesterday morning. The sun was shining and the wind was light from the southwest as the sound of the jackhammer was audible from Oberlin Avenue. A half dozen workers wearing hard hats clustered around the site, but there were few spectators, mostly just workers and people paying bills at Lorain’s Utilities Department, 1106 First St. At about 12:10 p.m., the smokestack fell and crumbled, apparently in a north-northwesterly direction. Black dust rose up and blew out over the water. FirstEnergy defers to contractor Independence Demolition for scheduling parts of the tear-down, Durbin said. Weather conditions were ideal yesterday to try to take down the smokestack, he said. No explosives were used in the Lorain demolition, Durbin said. About a month ago, FirstEnergy made national news on Nov. 10 when cameras captured demolition at its Mad River power plant in Springfield. A contractor used explosives in the base of the smokestack there. The smokestack, reportedly 275 feet high, fell in the wrong direction and crashed through two 12,000-volt power lines and a building with backup generators, according to the Associated Press. Preliminary reports attributed the mishap to an undetected crack at the base of the tower. No one was hurt, but an estimated 4,000 customers lost power because of that incident, which remains under investigation, Durbin said. The Mad River smokestack was made of concrete with metal rebar inside, Durbin said. The explosives were used to knock down that structure, but the Edgewater stack was made of stacked brick without metal reinforcements inside, he said. That made it easier to knock over, Durbin said. The giant smokestack was one of two that towered over Lorain’s shore. The Edgewater plant also had another stack, silver in color and sitting on top of the power plant building, and located to the west of the brick one. The silver smokestack apparently was knocked off the building earlier this week, according to footage posted on YouTube on Tuesday.