Demolition crew uncover homemade “bomb” prior to home demolition.

Demolition crews arriving to take down a Dade City house discovered a pack of fireworks neatly placed on a cardboard box top set on a stack of papers on the floor. A jar of some sort of fuel was next to it.
“Coming out of the fireworks was a green fuse,” said Dade City Police Capt. David Duff.

The fuse stretched from room to room connecting the same sort of explosive devices in five or six small rooms, he said. Police, the state Fire Marshal and the Tampa Bay Regional Bomb Squad were called and responded to the home at 38030 Church Ave. shortly after the devices were discovered at about 8 a.m.

The bomb squad worked for about two hours dissembling the incendiary devices. Meanwhile, yellow crime scene tape cordoned off the front of the property, but residents were asked to stay inside their homes rather than evacuate.

“Somebody was going to burn the house down,” said Police Chief Ray Velboom. “We just don’t know who.”

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A Manchester pub facing demolition ahead of local regeneration causes us confusion.

Here is an object lesson in the need to read a whole article and NOT just the headlines.

A story just popped up on our news feed suggesting that Manchester’s Mark Addy pub – a riverside establishment famed for its food – was facing demolition in advance of local regeneration.

Now we saw the words Mark Addy and the mention of food and immediately assumed that the pub was named after or possibly owned by the rotund actor and national treasure from movies such as The Full Monty. Which just goes to show how little we know about North West of England history. For the pub was, in fact, named after named after a 19th century publican famed for rescuing over 50 people from drowning in the River Irwell.

Unlike us, YOU can read the full story here.

Detroit mayor not close to demolition goal

Mayor Dave Bing fell well short of his ambitious goal of razing 3,000 vacant structures in 2010, tearing down 1,850.

Even so, Bing spokesman Dan Lijana said the city expects to reach the target of Bing’s federally funded $20 million demolition blitz — nicknamed “Bing 3000” — by March.

That’s one year after Bing made the promise in his State of the City speech and pledged to tear down 10,000 vacant homes by the end of his term in 2013.

“Mayor Bing’s commitment to take down 10,000 dangerous and vacant structures this term is iron-clad,” Lijana said in an e-mail. “Because this effort is more ambitious than any in the city’s history, it took time to develop the capacity and procedures to take down so many dangerous structures in such a short period of time.”

Of the 1,850 structures demolished last year, Wayne County tore down 460 houses.

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Workers evacuated from fire-hit Crossrail site.

Thirty-one demolition workers had to be evacuated from site after a fire broke out at the Moorgate Crossrail job last Monday.

According to Construction Enquirer, a demolition gang working for contractor J F Hunt had been soft-stripping 91-109 Moorgate when the alarm was raised.

Firefighters were called to put out the fire in the building, which is due to be demolished in several weeks.

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Demolition company logo features Star of David being smashed by a hammer.

Here at DemolitionNews Towers, we have made an unconscious decision that all our stories follow the same basic rules as polite dinner party conversation: no sex, religion or politics. But we have just picked up a story from the Associated Press that forces us to break one of our own unwritten rules.

According to the story, the town of Jamel in Germany has been taken over by neo-Nazis. And one of the key reasons is the presence of Sven Krueger, a representative of the far-right German National Democratic Party who also runs a demolition company from home near the town, its logo featuring a man smashing a Star of David with a sledgehammer.

Officials say Krueger has been known to authorities for small-time criminal activity, but had stayed off the radar in recent years after turning to politics. That changed this a week ago, however, when Krueger was arrested on charges of receiving stolen property and weapons violations after a five-month investigation.

In a search of his home, authorities confiscated power tools they believe stolen and a submachine gun with 200 rounds of ammunition.

A few days before the arrest, a pit bull and a German Shepherd roamed the fenced yard of Krueger’s home in the middle of town, and an NPD poster with the pledge “we keep our word” hung from a blue industrial trash bin out front, filled with waste from his demolition work. A woman smoking a cigarette in the yard said she didn’t know where Krueger could be found.

His demolition company’s main building is about six miles (10 kilometers) away, and doubles as the regional NPD headquarters.

It is set behind a six-foot (two-meter) wooden fence topped with razor wire; a guard tower shines a floodlight at night, and dogs bark incessantly through the padlocked steel gate. The black-white-and-red German imperial flag used in the last years of the Kaiser flies overhead — a common neo-Nazi substitute for the outlawed swastika banner. Through the fence on an inside door the smashed Star of David logo can be seen.

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Four unique finials on Bellaire Bridge could add $320,000 to salvage profits.

Until now, the battle between Lee Chaklos of Delta Demolition and Eric Kelly of Advanced Explosive Demolition has been a public spat over who owns the Bellaire Bridge and, therefore, who gets to press the button to fell the structure when the US Coast Guard gives the green light.

But a new discovery is set to make the fight now taking place in a US court even more bitter. On the top of the bridge are four finials that are unique to this bridge. Some say there are no others like them in the world. And they are the hottest commodities in this project.

“I’ve had over 30 inquiries about it,” Chaklos said. “Anywhere from ‘Can we get them donated to us?’ to ‘We’ll pay you thousands of dollars for them.'”

From the ground, the finials don’t look that big. But Lee Chaklos, of Delta Demolition, said each one probably weighs a ton. And there’s no one left who knows about them.

“No one’s touched them since 1924, or probably 1926 when they were put on top of the bridge,” he said. “They’re located about 103 feet above the surface of the bridge. We believe they’re about 7 feet high and about six and a half feet around.”

If they’re metal, Lee Chaklos said they’re valuable as antique ornamental pieces, but if they’re copper, they’re off the charts. “If they’re solid copper, which we think they are, they’re probably worth about $80,000 apiece,” he said.

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New video game turns demolition into carnage.

In the past, we have reported on a number of highly addictive demolition-related video games. In fact, Demolition Master for the iPad continues to make train journeys bearable while the Demolition Company simulator is for sale in our demolition-specific online store.

But we won’t be playing Collapse It, a new online video game. Unlike the games mentioned above which aim for a degree of realism (with varying degrees of success), the object of Collapse It is to fell buildings onto pedestrians.

According to the advertising blurb: “What could possibly go wrong while standing around unstable buildings during a live demolition? Lots of death, that’s what. Carefully demolish each building to ensure maximum carnage of hapless bystanders…”

For those of a murderous disposition, you can check out the game here.

Pair of silos set to fall next Saturday.

The redevelopment of the Block 46 area in North Wilkesboro will kick off with a bang Saturday 12 February with the implosion of two silos that stand side-by-side on the former American Drew property.

The “Ground Shaking Ceremony” is scheduled for 2 p.m. The public is invited to the implosion. There will be viewing areas in the parking areas behind the Wilkes County Public Library. The implosion will be a tactical demonstration by the bomb squad of the Wilkes County Sheriff’s Department.

“Block 46” is the former American-Drew Furniture Company property in downtown North Wilkesboro, adjacent to the CBD Loop. The 29.33-acre tract was purchased by Block 46 Development LLC, a partnership formed by Shepherd Real Estate LLC of North Wilkesboro and The Crown Companies LLC of Dobson, from La-Z-Boy. The Block 46 partners plan to develop the property with a variety of structures for businesses and, perhaps, residences.

The Town of North Wilkesboro has agreed to clear the property and remove all structures, except the former American Drew office building at the corner of D Street and the CBD Loop. Town officials have awarded a $298,000 contract to Nelco Recycling and Aggregate Company for demolition, salvaging and recycling services on the Block 46 redevelopment project.

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Efforts to scrap floating barge lead to sinking and environmental concerns.

The ugly demise of the beached and broken Davy Crockett, now the subject of a multimillion-dollar federal recovery effort, unfolded only after years of neglect.

The former Liberty ship has languished for almost two decades along the north bank of the Columbia River between Vancouver and Camas. At one point, a former owner warned the U.S. Coast Guard that the 431-foot vessel appeared to be at risk of coming loose from its mooring and careening into the nearby shipping channel.

However, little changed except the vessel’s ownership. And, By the end of last year, benign neglect evolved to active dismantling.

Now, dozens of Coast Guardsmen and cleanup contractors are swarming the converted barge. State authorities have attributed the sad state of the Davy Crockett — beached, broken and leaching PCB-tainted oil into the river — to owner Brett Simpson of Ellensburg. They said an apparent effort to scrap the vessel while it was afloat weakened the Crockett to the point that its midsection buckled and sank.

There is nothing inherently illegal about scrapping an old ship, according to Kim Schmanke, a spokeswoman for the Washington Department of Ecology. However, it is illegal to do so without a permit or in a way that pollutes a river or waterway. Simpson had no permit, she said.

“From our perspective, it’s doubtful ship demolition could be done in water or along a shoreline without some kind of solid or liquid waste material getting into the waters of the state,” Schmanke said in an e-mail.

Read the full story here.

Work stalled until US Coast Guard gives green light.

It is a story that is threatening to run as long as the bridge it features has stood. But the ongoing battle to demolish the Bellaire Bridge has hit another stumbling block: The general contractor on the demolition job said the U.S. Coast Guard will not issue a notice to proceed at the current time.

KDC Investments recently won a battle in court, after a judge sided with the company confirming KDC had the title to the bridge. The company that contested that ownership, Advanced Explosives Demolition has filed an appeal which ties up the case in court again. Because of that, a Coast Guard representative says they will wait until the court case is resolved before issuing the notice to proceed.

Lee Chaklos of Delta Demolition said the Coast Guard’s decision doesn’t bring the project to a standstill. Chaklos said he has a subcontractor from Shadyside — R & D Concrete — taking core samples of concrete and steel. He said those samples will help determine if the bridge is structurally sound enough to hold the equipment needed for demolition.

Chaklos said he found out around 9 a.m about the Coast Guard holding the notice to proceed. However, he said it won’t stop him from applying for a permit from the city of Benwood and there are several tasks the company can handle in the near future.

“To the best of our knowledge, we don’t need a permit to work on the bridge over the water. As long as we take out the approach ramp, as long as we excavate the concrete and not do any structural damage to where the bridge would fall in the water, I don’t believe we would need a Coast Guard notice to proceed,” Chaklos said.

Read more here or view the news video below.