GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Profile Films, a Grand Rapids plastics company, demolished an old chimney on Ann Street on Sunday. The chimney was for an old coal-powered boiler that used to run Fisher Auto’s metal manufacturing plant on the border of Grand Rapids and Walker.
The 200-foot-tall chimney had been abandoned for more than 40 years.
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Profile Films worked with controlled demolition experts from Maryland and ProTech Environmental from Grand Rapids to make sure that the chimney was brought down safely.
“We loaded about 50 pounds of dynamite into 78 holes,” said Thon Boud, field operations manager for Controlled Demolition Incorporated. “What that did is it created the cantilever by kind of cutting a notch into a tree and we create that notch.”
The chimney was brought down in a span of 2-3 seconds.
With the chimney now gone, Profile Film plans to break ground on a new 180,000-square-foot plant next year. The plant is expected to employ another 35-50 workers.
