Redcar's blast furnace set to be brought down in explosion

The relic of steelmaking on Teesside, which has dominated the Teesside skyline for decades, is expected to be demolished in about five to ten seconds. Credit: Tees Valley Combine Authority

An icon of steelmaking on Teesside for more than four decades is set to come down in seconds.

Redcar’s Blast Furnace – ranked the second largest of its kind in Europe - will be brought down by explosive demolition at 9am on Wednesday 23 November.

The relic of steelmaking on Teesside, which has dominated the Teesside skyline for decades, is expected to be demolished in about five to ten seconds.

People are being warned to watch from a safe distance.

A 250-metre exclusion place will be put in place for the demolition, with access along Gare Road closed from 8am.

Among the structures to come down are the Casting Houses, the Dust Catcher, Charge Conveyors, and the Blast Furnace.

Four gas stoves which heated the furnace are set to be demolished separately in the next month.

What can onlookers expect?

Roughly five to six minutes before the demolition, a single air horn will sound for 10 seconds.

Another horn will also sound 20 seconds before the demolition takes place.

The structures to come down are set to fall, roughly, in a westerly direction – away from the coast. People are being warned dust created from the explosion could travel towards South Gare due to the direction of the wind.

While the prevailing wind tends to blow in a westerly/south westerly direction, the forecast is for a low-pressure system to move in towards the west of the UK overnight Tuesday into Wednesday. This will likely see the wind blow from south/south easterly to north/north easterly on the morning of the demolition.

Members of the public are urged to be aware of the wind direction on the day.

Staff will be patrolling the area and the beach to make the public aware of the exclusion zone – and to advise them regarding any dust on the day.

The demolition exclusion zone will remain in place for at least 30 minutes after the blowdown.

Redcar's blast furnace is set to be demolished seven years after it was closed for good. Credit: ITV Tyne Tees

Redcar's blast furnace was commissioned in 1979 and could produce 10,000 tonnes of iron a day.

The furnace was first mothballed in 2010 before being restarted by SSI UK when they took over its ownership from Tata Steel in 2012.

It ceased operation for good in October 2015, when SSI entered liquidation, sparking the loss of more than 2,000 jobs overnight.

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