Going out with a bang…

Weekend blast will draw veil over ill-fated power station.

With winds of up to 60 mph still expected, there remains a question mark over the explosive demolition event that is scheduled to take place at the Didcot A Power Station on Sunday.

But, assuming the blast goes ahead, it will fell one of the tallest structures in the UK – 199.5 metre tall chimney that has stood over the power station since it was commissioned in 1964. The station’s cooling towers – the last of which were demolished in August last year – might have been the most iconic structures on the massive site. But it was the chimney that has dominated the skyline.

RWE said in a statement that health and safety for the upcoming demolition remained its “absolute number one priority – we are liaising with the relevant authorities to safely manage the demolition process.”

The blast will be undertaken by power station demolition experts Brown and Mason which has countless successful blasts under its belt including, notably, the iconic double-chimney clash at Cockenzie a few yeas ago.

This will be the final major demolition event to take place at the site which, sadly, is now synonymous with the premature collapse of a 10-storey boiler house that claimed the lives of workers Ken Cresswell, John Shaw, Michael Collings, and Christopher Huxtable.