The family of a Pell City, Ala., demolition worker is breathing easier after the demolition of a local landmark, the historic Avondale Mills, almost turned deadly on November 24.
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After the second attempt, they tried to use an excavator to knock over the smokestack.
So Tim Phifer, the excavator operator, did some risky digging to get the landmark to finally come down, at a unsafe cost.
But drone footage captured the perilous moment the smokestack fell towards him.
“I remember being halfway across the field just looking at him”, his daughter recalled.
“The cab was made for that thing to turn over on top of it”, he told ABC News.
When the charges didn’t bring the smokestack down, Phifer moved in with his excavator to dig away at the base.
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The Alabama smokestack wouldn’t budge, so Tim Phifer went in for another go, with near disastrous results. “At that point, I had brick hanging”.
