City of Windsor building officials say Jones Group Ltd. will not be charged after the surprise demolition of the former GM smokestack.
Chief building official John Revell says the city has completed the investigation.
“We were provided full access to the site by the Jones Group and shown a video clip of the demolition, and we are now satisfied that no explosives were used,” said Revell. “The building division’s preferred mode of demolition was always by mechanical means in this situation, so we are pleased that they used this method.”
A demolition contractor working for the Jones Group had failed in three previous attempts to bring down the stack by explosives.
The company then switched tactics and used an excavator to push the smoke stack over.
Fire crews responded to a potential emergency when the stacks came down unannounced, but because they were no longer using explosives, prior notification to the city wasn’t required.
“It would have been better if city departments had been notified ahead of time so we could have shared with emergency officials, the media and residents however this was not officially required due to the change in demolition tactics,” says Revell.
He says the very large site allowed ample opportunity to push the smoke stack over and through the strategic placement of truck trailers and large stacks of scrap steel, the debris from the collapse was safely contained within the site.
