Implosion old Union Carbide building causes huge dust cloud

SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. --It took less than 15 seconds for the old Union Carbide building to come down this morning. Hundreds of people crowded 8 Street, MacCorkle Avenue and surrounding streets in South Charleston about 9 a.m. to watch the implosion of the historic Building 82. "It's an end of era," University of Charleston Ed Welch said prior to the detonation. "It's all in the name of progress," George Weissert, of South Charleston and retired engineer with Carbide. UC officials had originally planned for the implosion to happen at 8:56 a.m. The detonation was delayed by about 5 minutes because police had to move people who had stepped over the perimeter set up by O'Rourke Wrecking, the Ohio demolition company hired for the job. Walt Mitchell of Cross Lanes won a raffle Friday evening for the chance to push the button to implode the building. His granddaughter, Shannon Cash, 12, did the honors at about 9:05 a.m. this morning. The first set of explosions went off with a deafening boom that shook the ground. The 106,000-square-foot building remained standing for about 5 seconds then a second round of explosions went off causing the building to fold onto itself and collapse in a cloud of brown dust. U.C. brought in its student band and cheerleaders for the event. Members of the school's student council were selling commemorative bricks for $10. The building is the last remnant of Union Carbide and its part in this community, Welch said. Its implosion is the start of a new chapter for further development in South Charleston, he said. Dow Chemical Co. donated the structure, known as Building 82, to the university in 2006. University officials plan to sell the 6.8-acre site once the remains of the building are removed. UC is paying about $1.6 million to demolish the building. The land is priced at about $3.5 million. About 5 groups have shown interest in the site.

LiveLeak | March 28, 2009

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