Tuesday 14 April 2009

Steel Chimney Emergency Callout

A steel chimney located at Eastwood Comprehensive School in Nottinghamshire fell victim of the strong winds that hit the county during the earlier hours 23rd March 2009.

Churchills received an emergency call out request from the school who feared the chimney was in imminent danger of falling over, Churchills dispatched a three man team to site together with a mobile crane and successfully dismantled the chimney just in time to preventing it falling into classrooms below.

Once the chimney had been successfully dismantled Churchills then set about arranging for the manufacturer and installation of a temporary smaller chimney section to be fitted to the remaining base section of the chimney to ensure the school could continue to provide hot water and therefore remain open.

From receiving the emergency call all of the aforementioned work was safely completed within a 12 hour period.

This was possible due to Churchills possessing in house Crane Appointed Persons who were able to plan and manage the lifting operations with minimum notice coupled with our fabrication capacity.

These photographs depict the chimney in it's precarious position upon our arrival to site.

The importance of the inspection and maintenance of this type of insulated steel chimney has been recognised by the Health & Safety Executive who together with the steeplejack federation A.T.L.A.S have issued guidance notes detailing a thorough inspection criteria. Unfortunately whilst this particular chimney had been regularly inspected it would appear that the inspector had not completed the survey in accordance with the aforementioned recommendations.



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