Embarrassment for demolition company as attempt to bring down the nurses' home at St Vincent's hospital fails.
The best-laid plans do not always go according to plan, as was evident at St Vincent's Hospital in Dublin.The former nurses' accommodation block should have been reduced to rubble as part of the hospital's £170 million re-development programme, but the building constructed in 1969 has defied the laws of physics by remaining for the most part in one piece.
Spokesperson for Controlled Demolition Group Ltd. Darren Paylon confirmed that all the explosives had been detonated, but,
The building is a lot stronger than we've actually anticipated.
A new exclusion zone around the building has been created, and there is no danger to patients currently in the hospital. It will eventually come down however, as Controlled Demolition Group Ltd. is reverting to its second option for the site,
A traditional demolition which will involve a crane and a ball and chain.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 21 January 2001. The reporter is Deirdre McCarthy.
