Fawley Power Station demolition goes ahead but live-stream viewers disappointed

THIS was the moment the final stage in the demolition of Fawley power station took place on Sunday morning.

The station's 650ft chimney and the remaining southern end of the turbine hall were demolished by contractor Brown & Mason at 7am, with the noise of the explosion heard for miles around.

The event was due to be streamed live on YouTube and the Fawley Waterside website, but the promised video coverage failed to materialise due to the poort weather conditions.

An apology was written on the Fawley Waterside site, where it was due to be live-streamed: "Unfortunately due to poor weather conditions, we were unable to live stream this morning's demolition event as planned.

"Originally we we're due to capture this event via drone but following the appalling forecast we switched to a back-up camera.

"Moments before the live stream was due to begin we encountered unforeseen technical difficulties.

"We sincerely apologise to everyone that had tuned in to watch the event live.

Those watching in anticipation left comments on YouTube expressing their disappointment.

Kay Ash-Lee said: "I'm so sad... I heard it but no live stream."

Another commenter with the user name LineSync added: "​Presumably the live feed was either prevented by the weather or the BST-GMT time change."

An exclusion zone had been enforced around the site and surrounding area from 5.30am. There was a 20 second continuous warning siren at 6.55am, a bird scarer at 6.58am to warn off any birds in the local vicinity, followed by a 10 second continuous warning siren at 6.59am.

It was the final explosive event for demolition of the Fawley power station site. The first occurred in October 2019 with demolition of the turbine hall roof and deaerator building, the second in November 2020 with demolition of the southern section of the boiler house and the third in July 2021 with demolition of the northern section of the boiler house.

The remaining structures will be demolished by Brown & Mason using machinery in the coming months. Full demolition of the Fawley power station site is estimated to be complete in 2022.