Alabama smokestack collapses on excavator

After two demolition attempts this morning, a smokestack at Pell City’s historic Avondale Mills collapsed on a trackhoe.

The long-shuttered mill’s final smokestack, which may date back to the 1890s, was hit with a 32 pound explosive charge at 9 a.m., according to Tim Tim Phifer of Alabama Phoenix Services.

The smokestack was supposed to fall away from Phifer; instead, it came crashing down on his excavator.

A drone flying above captured video of those harrowing moments. “I had to stop and I was like, ‘I don’t know if he made it and I can’t make it that much closer'”.

“The cab was made for that thing to turn over on top of it”, he told ABC News.

Tim Phifer shared what went through his mind as things quickly went dark. “It was safer inside the cab than coming out of it”.

When the charges didn’t bring the smokestack down, Phifer moved in with his excavator to dig away at the base. “At that point I had brick hanging – it was going to have to come down one way or another”, said Phifer.