All the hard work has come down to this. The blasters must prepare the people in the area for the blast, assuring local authorities and neighboring businesses that the demolition won't seriously damage nearby structures. Once the structure had been pre-weakened and fully loaded with explosives, the crew does a final check to insure the explosives are ready, and the building and surrounding areas are completely clear. Blasters can calculate the safety perimeter from the size of the building and amount of explosives used. On occasion, blasters may have misjudged the amount of explosives needed to bring down the building. Too much, and debris fly farther than predicted, possibly injuring onlookers or nearby structures. Too little, the building does not completely fall down, making it an extremely dangerous environment. Once the area is clear, blasters retreat to their detonator controls and begin the countdown. 3...2...1... Typically, the implosion only takes a few seconds. After the building has fallen and the smoke has cleared, the team surveys the scene and reviews tapes to make sure everything went according to plan. It is crucial to make sure all explosives have detonated, and remove the ones that haven't. Most of the time, experienced blasters bring buildings down exactly as planned. Damage to nearby structures, is usually limited to a few broken windows. And if something doesn't work out quite right, the blasters log it in their mental bank and make sure it doesn't happen again. In this way, job by job, the science of implosion continues to evolve.
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