A LANDMARK Selby building was demolished by a series of explosions this weekend.

Demolition at the former Rigid Paper site in Denison Road has been ongoing for several months, and the tallest chimney at the location was the last piece of the building to go, when it was demolished on Saturday.

The 40-metre tall chimney has stood at the Rigid Paper site since the early 1940s, and was originally built to serve the coal-fired boilers at the paper mill.

Chris Jackson, managing director of CAJ Services, who was responsible for the demolition of all the buildings on the site, said.

“The chimney came down absolutely perfectly. It was a relatively straightforward operation to lay over the chimney, it was never meant to come straight down.

“The preparation work had been taking place all week so all that needed to be done on Saturday was to charge the explosive, which was a nitro-glycerine material, and detonate. The crowd enjoyed it, but we’ve gotten used to that sort of thing.”

In later years, when new gas and oil boilers were fitted, the chimney was part of a backup system for a newer gas turbine system which used another chimney on the site, also demolished earlier this year.

The chimney had been packed with explosives in the days before the final demolition.

A protective cordon was placed around the structure to ensure no one was hurt when the tower fell after demolition, which took just seconds.

Chris said although the highest structure on the site had now toppled, his company’s work was still not finished.

He said: “We have been responsible for the whole site and now we’re down to sub-structures.

“We will be taking apart the remaining structures and sorting the materials for recycling – about 90 per cent of the material will be used as hardcore and road base.”