The chimney at Fawley Power Station – often described as looking like a giant cigarette – has been demolished by means of a controlled explosion this morning (Sunday).
At 07:00 on the dot, the 650ft chimney crashed to the ground as demolition crews set off a chain reaction of explosions to safely raze the chimney to the ground. The remaining southern end of the Turbine Hall was also demolished.
Crowds gathered at East Cowes Esplanade to see the demolition for themselves, but wet and windy conditions meant it was almost impossible to see the chimney. A slight rumble could be heard as the sound waves from the explosion echoed out.
An official video captured the moment of explosion up close, with lsland Echo live streaming from East Cowes. Isle of Wight Webcams also videoed the historic moment…
Said ‘Goodbye’ to it yesterday – such an iconic structure, should have been saved.
I said goodbye on Thursday early evening from E Cowes, had a quiet moment with hardly anyone about, until some trashy types with their kids turned up and decided to stand about by the wall right in front of me looking towards me and talking a load of rubbish loudly. completely spoiled the moment. I walked away crying with the sadness and frustration of it all, and rage and anger. I hate them. I hate the way the world is now. I hate the way this country is now. And destroying an iconic landmark and many more as they have been doing all over the country is just one more thing to hate about this country. I wish I could leave.
Find a better place! There will always be something to hate if you really want to. The only thing you should not do: don`t hate yourself. Other people do that for you anyway.
I know. And I don’t hate myself. If only there were more people like me in the world, then the world would be a far better place than what it is right now.
I have a photo of a huge smoke ring above the chimney. Good old polluting days.
Why not post it online? There’s not many pictures of it when it was actually in use. People always like to see them, more so now since it’s not there any more.
Bl**dy ridiculous. Now the country is even more reliant on imported energy. So shot sighted to close down reliable coal fired stations before the green alternative has really proved itself. After all we have tens of thousands of tons of coal under our feet. Hate to think what will happen if Russia decides to attack us, all they have to do is cut off the gas.
Just checked on Gridwatch currently 38%of our electric is coming from wind -not bad eh?
That of course is if the wind is blowing. Wind is far too unreliable to use as a main power source. Because we have had weeks of calm weather, we have had to burn our gas reserves to provide cover for wind turbines which aren’t producing due to light winds hence our current energy crisis. At the moment we have strong winds but if they get too strong, the turbines have to be shut down.
It wasn’t coal fired it burnt oil from the refinery
And heaven help us. It probably won’t be long before they’re picking on that next. I’m all for saving the planet but shutting down and then destroying all our power stations and probably be picking on the refinery next is not the way to do it. If, or rather when, the refinery goes, there will be thousands more houses there in some god awful soulless development. So much of our industrial landscape has a beauty all of its own and is just disappearing. They saved Battersea power station and I can’t really see why when it’s hardly attractive, unlike Fawley and many more,like the Longannet one in Scotland which they just destroy when they were landmarks and the people wanted them to remain.
A good navigational landmark, by air or sea. Strange not to see it on the skyline today, dont miss the pollution. Another giant housing estate that will add to the light pollution at least, our night sky is now aglow with all the light from Southampton.