Sparky
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Post by Sparky on Sept 24, 2019 10:38:50 GMT
Remember him doing one in Accrington in the early 1990s .It was crazy the way he did it a fire at bottom then ran as soon as it started moving lol no health and safety there . I worked in a textile factory in Blackburn and he did the chimney next door we were told just to keep working we have a deadline lol Not any lets evacuate the building there's a chimney coming down next door lol that was in the mid eighties . Yes, aparently - it was the safest way to topple a chimney and also the way the Victorians did it.
I remember one, where he had to drop a Chimney which stood about 20ft away from the mill building - which had been refurbished and was used as an office. An insurance assessor visited the site and was quite skeptical so tried to insist Fred demolished the chimney brick by brick. Fred chalked a line across the cleared site and guaranteed that the Chimney would fall no further than this point and he had "bugger all to worry about". Fred had done a scale drawing of the chimney, and calculated the angle it would drop.
To do it, they dug a pit - like a moat round the base of the chimney and took out the bricks below ground level, put in the pit props and then built the fire.
The Chimney fell in the correct place, no further than the line, and the Fire at the base was contained within the pit
The best bit was Fred jibing at the Insurance Assessor after!
Pure genius!
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Three Litre
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Post by Three Litre on Sept 24, 2019 12:00:07 GMT
Mind you I seem to remember he had one that didn't fall quite right and he had to get a hurry-up on to avoid it.
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Cartman
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Post by Cartman on Sept 24, 2019 14:27:22 GMT
I think that was the one on Canvey Island, which was reinforced concrete rather than brick. He went about it in the same way, by knocking a hole in the base, but concrete reacts differently to brick and it collapsed before he was able to light the fire.
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Post by D.C. Burtonshaw on Sept 24, 2019 18:20:44 GMT
Yes I remember the clip of when the base of the old chimney he was demolishing (I thought it was Lancs about the earlier 80's) was set on fire, and he standing waiting, partly honking his comedy klaxon, and then seconds it started falling into smoke and he realised he'd better get out quick! He made it OK and seconds later he was chuckling "You liked that didn't ya!?" (One of his catchphrases!).
Nowadays they'd think he was stark raving mad and Elf and Safety wouldn't allow it as has been said!
Since this thread started I've been watching a number of the old Documentries on tube of you, made me appreciate how an ingenious workaholic he was!
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Three Litre
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Post by Three Litre on Sept 24, 2019 18:26:16 GMT
Yes I remember the clip of when the base of the old chimney he was demolishing (I thought it was Lancs about the earlier 80's) was set on fire, and he standing waiting, partly honking his comedy klaxon, and then seconds it started falling into smoke and he realised he'd better get out quick! He made it OK and seconds later he was chuckling "You liked that didn't ya!?" (One of his catchphrases!).
Nowadays they'd think he was stark raving mad and Elf and Safety wouldn't allow it as has been said!
Since this thread started I've been watching a number of the old Documentries on tube of you, made me appreciate how an ingenious workaholic he was!
That's the one.
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Sparky
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Post by Sparky on Sept 24, 2019 20:48:18 GMT
I think that was the one on Canvey Island, which was reinforced concrete rather than brick. He went about it in the same way, by knocking a hole in the base, but concrete reacts differently to brick and it collapsed before he was able to light the fire. I remember that! It started to collapse when they were still working on it.
Fred just got to the pub earlier!
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Three Litre
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Post by Three Litre on Sept 24, 2019 21:32:36 GMT
I think that was the one on Canvey Island, which was reinforced concrete rather than brick. He went about it in the same way, by knocking a hole in the base, but concrete reacts differently to brick and it collapsed before he was able to light the fire. I remember that! It started to collapse when they were still working on it.
Fred just got to the pub earlier!
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Three Litre
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Post by Three Litre on Sept 24, 2019 21:42:26 GMT
Could do with him now. One or two institutions that could do with toppling.
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Sparky
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Post by Sparky on Sept 25, 2019 6:09:47 GMT
Could do with him now. One or two institutions that could do with toppling. We could just give him a print out of the "Room 101" thread, buy him a few pints of Guinness and ask him to get to work... It'd make a great TV series.
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