What a blast furnace looks like when it blows up

Stelco Inc. demolished its D blast furnace in Hamilton Sunday.

The 76-metre-high (250 feet) structure was brought to the ground around 11 a.m.

"The demolition was conducted with explosives, on schedule, as planned and without incident," Stelco said in a news release.

To see a photo gallery of images of the demolition, please click here.

Stelco expects to recover 12,000 to 15,000 tonnes of steel from the demolished furnace.

It was built during the early 1950s, but hadn't been used for the past four years.

From 1,000 feet away (the closest members of the public were allowed to today's demolition), the sound of the explosions was expected to reach as high as 128 decibels.

By comparison, last night's Sum 41 concert at the Roberta Bondar Tent Pavilion was probably less than 115 decibels.

In any case, Stelco spokesperson Helen Reeves tells SooToday.com that the explosion appeared to be less noisy than expected.