Four towers that were part of the Mina Plaza Towers in Abu Dhabi, were successfully demolished in just 10 seconds on Friday morning, reports the Khaleej Times.
Modon, the master developer looking over the demolition, earned the title of the tallest building demolished using explosives in the Guinness World Records, as Modon stated on its Facebook page.
144 floors were demolished using 13,227 pounds (6,000 kg) of explosives — all safely carried out, explained the Gulf News.
The main reason for tearing down the Mina Plaza Towers is to make way for a large tourist destination in the port area, stated the Gulf News.
The Abu Dhabi Media Office made the statement about the successful demolition on its Twitter page, shortly after 08:00 AM local time (23:00 PM EST Thursday) when the demolition happened.
The event occurred with the support of the Abu Dhabi Police, emergency response teams, the Abu Dhabi Civil Defense Authority, the National Ambulance, and the Emergencies, Crises, and Disasters Management Centre in Abu Dhabi Emirate, stated the Twitter post.
Bill Oregan, Modon CEO, told Gulf News that the port area was temporarily closed on Thursday evening, and would remain that way until 16:00 PM local time on Friday, so as to ensure a thorough post-blowdown inspection is carried out.
"This involves checking that all the explosives have detonated, that the structure has fallen exactly where planned, and that there is no debris outside the project boundaries. We will also check that all the dust has settled and that there has been no impact on adjacent utilities," Oregan stated.
The demolition was carried out using 18,000 detonators, all individually programmed, and plastic explosives, explains the Gulf News.