DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. – A controlled demolition took place for a 199-foot chimney at the Deerfield Beach Waste Management landfill on Friday.
‘BG group’ demolished the Wheelabrator Refuse Plant Boiler House and 199-foot Chimney, located at 2600 Wiles Road.
Employees at BG Group engineered an explosive sequence to carefully bring down the structures.
Waste Management, Inc. said it was executed perfectly and crews are now preparing to takedown the remaining structure, separate and remove the remaining debris.
“It happened very fast. In about five seconds because there was such good planning,” said Dawn McCormick, Waste Management Director of Communications & Government Affairs.
Broward Sheriff’s deputies set up an exclusion zone with detours on Wiles Road from Lyons Road to Powerline Road early Friday with detours going into effect 30 minutes before the implosion scheduled for 10 a.m. and 30 minutes after the implosion.
Waste Management officials said it was time to take down the former waste to energy plant at the landfill between Coconut Creek and Deerfield Beach. It was almost a staple off the Florida Turnpike for several years and stopped operations in 2015.
The landfill has been around since 1965.
90 percent of the trash taken in at the facility was construction and demolition debris.
It became a transfer station until 2023, ultimately shutting down because of dwindling use over the years.
According to Waste Management, the company is working with Broward County to decide the future use of the location. McCormick said use for the 24-acres could change from electrical generation to a commerce or industrial site.