Gone in seconds: Crowds gather to watch Brayton Point chimneys fall

SOMERSET — Dozens stood at the water’s edge Sunday morning and gazed across Mount Hope Bay.

Standing in Fall River, you had a clear vantage point from which the doomed chimneys of Brayton Point’s now-defunct power plant could be viewed. The demolition was scheduled for 8 a.m. and people had come prepared. Tripods were erected and more than a few expensive-looking cameras were held in shivering hands. The rest made do with their smartphones.

There was a low rumble, a plume of dusty, and the chimneys fell. They were gone in a matter of seconds. Then nothing else happened.

“That’s it!” one spectator quipped before stomping back to his car.

Sunday’s demolition was just one phase of the large-scale demolition ongoing at Brayton Point’s former power plant and just an appetizer for things to come. The two larger, Simpsons-esque cooling towers are scheduled for demolition at the end of April. More than a few of Sunday’s spectators had thought the whole complex would be turning to dust that morning.

Springfield resident Donna Conlogue said she was just happy with the destruction that did take place.

“I was amazed by the boom after it fell. I thought it was cool,” she said.

Indeed, the “boom” was felt not just by the gawkers at Fall River’s marina but by residents in surrounding neighborhoods and towns. Herald News readers in Massachusetts and Rhode Island reported hearing or seeing the blast.

Originally built by New England Power in the early 1960s, the complex on Brayton Point closed in 2017 and was then purchased by the Missouri-based Commercial Development Co. with plans of converting the land into a facility that would serve the wind energy industry. The company’s executive vice president said during a February town hall meeting that Commercial Development Cop. envisions Brayton Point being used to construct components for offshore wind turbines and could possibly serve as an interconnect for the electricity generated by nearby wind farms.

More than half the complex has been demolished thus far. Community Development Co. has said it expects the rest of the work to be completed by September with the site being reopened in January 2020.

The site’s two 500-foot-tall cooling towers will be imploded on the morning of April 27. Those towers were built in 2009 at a cost of $600 million. Early estimates provided Commercial Development Co. indicated that it will only cost $2 million to demolish all of the structures on the property.

While some local residents have voiced concerns at how the demolitions may negatively impact properties on Brayton Point, state officials have assured that the implosions will have minimal effects on abutters. Representatives of the Massachusetts Environmental Protection have gone on record saying that it’s been determined that no contaminants are involved in the tower demolitions. EnviroAnayltics Group, one of the companies consulting on Brayton Point’s redevelopment, has stated that the demolitions will not cause and [sic] flying debris that could hit nearby homes.

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