July 28, 1998

"All right, gentleman, everything is go," said the voice over the radio at 4:47 p.m. "On three, give it everything you’ve got."

Thirty seconds later, churn and mix building No.2 at the Avtex fibers Superfund site crumpled forward slightly and collapsed in a boiling cloud of thick, reddish-brown dust.

Because of worries that the dust would be contaminated by various industrial chemicals, a continuous spray of water was directed over the wreckage to keep the dust to a minimum, Michael T. Towle of the Environmental Protection Agency said.

But the force of Monday’s demolition drove some dust past the curtain of water.

Early indications from monitoring stations around the site showed that the dust that made it through the spray fell harmlessly to the ground, Towle said. The dust had settled in about three to four minutes, he said.

"We had no hits off site, EPA spokesman Patrick Gaughan said when data from the agency’s air monitoring stations was available. "There was no dust off site."

The normal background level for dust at the site is 1,270 micrograms per cubic meter of air, he said. After the demolition, levels peaked at 980 milligrams per cubic meter, he said. A microgram is one-millionth and a milligram is one-thousandth of a gram.

In about two weeks, lab results showing whether any contaminants were detected will be available, he said.

"We do believe nothing went off site," he said.

Towle said crews spent most of Monday wetting down the building inside and out to suppress the dust. Much of the dust that was visible came from the building’s brick facade as it collapsed, he said.

Churn and mix No.2 was on of about 35 acres of contaminated structures on the Avtex site slated for demolition. Buildings totaling about 740,000 square feet have been razed at the former rayon plant.

The churn and mix building was left for last because it was filled with so much contaminated material including carbon disulfide and phenol, Towle said.

After having been canceled Friday, the demolition was to have taken place at 4 p.m. Monday.

As local firefighters, at the scene to extinguish any fires, completed their preparations, eight pieces of heavy equipment- bulldozers, excavators and dump trucks- waited, attached to the building by heavy cables tied to window frames and holes punched in the walls.

A man in a white protective stood among the machines. He was the"conductor," orchestrating the procedure.

At his signal, the cables were pulled taut.

"No. 2, slack back, track back a little," the man in white radioed to the drivers. "No 7, roll your stick a little bit."

The machines stained forward, tugging at the walls of the building. One excavators rear tilted slightly off the ground as it backed away from the building.

In seconds, it was over. The building lay in what Towle called a "jumble of tangled steel."

Before the demolition, the bottom there floors had been gutted, he said.

Through the skeleton of girders on the second floor, large tanks could be seen.

There were other tanks on the upper floors, but they couldn’t be seen from the outside the building. All of the tanks had been emptied of the chemicals the once contained and filled with water.

After the demolition, part of the lower tow floors still stood. That was part of the plan, Towle said.

It was decided to pull down the six story, 105 foot tall building rather that blow it up or knock it down with a wrecking ball because "it’s fast, it’s relatively safe," Towle said. "We thought it would be the best way to minimize fugitive emissions"of dust.

As for the postponement of Friday, Towle said, "It was a tough call in the end, but there were a number of factors. The company responsible for dropping the structure wasn’t fully prepared."

Besides that, firefighters had been in their protective gear for too long, he said.

"Fifty pounds of weight and your body can’t breathe," he said.

On Monday, one firefighter was overcome by heat exhaustion after being suited up for about 20 minutes and was taken to Warren Memorial Hospital, Towle said.

The demolition debris will be sorted, treated, if necessary, and taken to a hazardous materials landfill, salvaged or

placed in a on-site landfill expected to be completed next spring.

The on-site landfill, which won’t contain hazardous materials, is expected to be filled and capped by the end of next year.