Symbol of Sparrows Point set to be imploded today
“Expect a loud noise and rumbling” between noon and 2 p.m. today as the L blast furnace is toppled
Above: And Down It Came: The L blast furnace as it crumbled to the ground today.
UPDATE: It came down quickly, in a matter of seconds, at 1:17 p.m. today – what was once the largest iron-making structure in the Western Hemisphere.
Bill Goodman, who started work at Sparrows Point in 1999 in the furnace department, was an eyewitness to the implosion of the L blast furnace.
“There was a loud bang and rumble. I couldn’t believe how quickly it came down,” he said.
The explosives are set off at the blast furnace. (Photo by Bill Goodman)
A wrecking crew had disassembled the pipes, chutes, elevators and footings of the immense building over the past month, leaving a 200-foot-high vessel standing bare and exposed for today’s final explosion.
A cloud of angry black dust covered the collapsing structure that quickly dissipated into the sunny sky over Baltimore’s Outer Harbor. What followed, Bill said, was a long eerie silence where he stood at Jones Creek.
The so-called “Beast of the East” – the iron-clad L blast furnace that both symbolized and dominated the former Bethlehem steel plant at Sparrows Point – is scheduled to be demolished this afternoon, weather permitting.
Sparrows Point Terminal, owners of the property southeast of Dundalk, said the towering furnace – which for nearly 35 years smelted iron ore, coke and limestone into as much as 8,000 tons of pig iron a day – will be imploded sometime between noon and 2 p.m. today.
The company, controlled by Anne Arundel businessman Jim Davis, is tearing down the one-time-largest steel mill in the world to make way for environmental remediation and eventual redevelopment into port-related industries and transportation uses.
The L furnace made its last “heat” of pig iron in June 2012 shortly after then-owner, RG Steel, declared bankruptcy. The 3,000-acre site was then sold in bankruptcy court to Midwest liquidators who, in turn, sold the property to Sparrows Point Terminal last September. The plant’s demise resulted in the loss of nearly 3,000 jobs.
The L furnace at work at Sparrows Point in 2011. (Photo by Mark Reutter)
Residents and businesses in Edgemere, Lodge Forest and elsewhere around the closed mill have been notified of the pending implosion. Here is part of the telephone notification message sent by the Baltimore County Police and Fire Departments:
“Expect a loud noise and rumbling. The building is being demolished to make way for new development at Sparrows Point. For your safety, there will be no access on or near the demolition site. Thank you.”
Here’s WBAL Radio 1090 footage of the implosion today: