A FAILED boiler joint in the early hours of Thursday, October 27, 1949, led to a massive explosion that laid waste to much of York Power Station in Foss Islands Road.
Six of the nine staff on duty at the station were injured, supplies to large businesses across York were cut, and the road and site were left covered in debris.
Parts of the boiler, some of which weighed over 20 tonnes, were found dozens of metres from the blast, and nearby buildings were destroyed.
Within the next two years the older power plant was demolished and the station rebuilt, with the power station converted from coal to gas-oil in 1973.
But the station, built in 1892, was closed permanently in 1977 after being used by the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) as a stand-by station for two years.
The 165ft-high cooling tower, built in 1942 for £42,000, was demolished at a cost of £100,000 after being sheathed in scaffolding.
In 1980 the site was sold by the CEGB to demolition contractors Ogden's, of Otley.
They sold it to building contractors William Birch & Sons, of Spen Lane, York, who planned to use part of the three-acre site as a building yard and to develop the remainder for a mystery client.
Updated: 12:52 Friday, October 18, 2002
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