OLD LANDMARK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26969, 3 January 1949, Page 7

OLD LANDMARK

KAIKORAI CHIMNEY FELLED EFFICIENT OPERATION With a dull roar, the 90-foot brick chimney which was erected at the turn of the century to serve the boilerhouse of the old Kaikorai Valley cable car service, crashed to the ground oh Friday afternoon exactly in the manner which the demolition contractors had calculated. An interested group of spectators gathered to seen an unusual operation performed. Once the chimney began to collapse, it was a matter of seconds only before it had been converted into a smoking pile of useful bricks. The method used by the two demolition experts to fell the chimney was simple. Bricks were removed from

one side at the base of the chimney and the structure was supported by balks of wood. Oily motor car tyres and waste were packed round the wooden supports and the material set on fire. Black smoke issued from Ihe top of the chimney for the last time, and within about six minutes the fire had burnt through the supports and the chimney toppled over—directly along the ground at right angles to the boiler-house. An unusual number of cameras were focussed on the squad’s preliminary operations and on the chimney as ‘it collapsed. One photographer who happened to glance away just before the pile began to topple had barely time to take his picture before it was too late. Well over 100 tons of substantial, hand-pressed bricks went into the making of the chimney, and good use will probably be made of these.