SEARCH IS SET TO RESUME AT DIDCOT
SEARCH efforts for the three men killed in the Didcot power station collapse are set to resume. Demolition worker Chris Huxtable, 34, from Swansea, and his colleagues Ken Cresswell, 57, and John Shaw, 61, both from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, were trapped under 20,000 tonnes of rubble when the structure unexpectedly crumbled on February 23.
Four people died in the disaster, but only one body, that of Michael Collings, 53, has been recovered so far. It is still unknown what the caus- es of the tragedy were.
A remote demolition was due to bring down the remainder of the decommissioned site shortly before 6am today, in a unique operation that will make use of 10 remotecontrolled robots.
Roland Alford, who is the explosives contractor at the power station, said the four-month delay in completing the demolition was necessary on safety grounds.
He told the Press Association: “There has been quite a lot of criticism about delays, questioning why it has taken so long to get to this point, but the fact is nothing like this has ever been attempted before and this is not a simple demolition.
“We have been working on it night and day since March and built up quite a sizeable team of very expert people to work on this, to come up with the charges, the methods of doing it and training.”
He added: “It was almost unthinkable to send people to work underneath there and place charges, given the fact the building could come down at any moment – you legally can’t justify that.”
Currently the building – which was due for demolition when it partially collapsed – is too unstable to be approached. A 50-metre exclusion zone was set up around what is left of the building.
Once the 11 plastic explosives attached to the structure are detonated and the site is considered safe, teams will be deployed to resume searching the remnants of the plant for the first time since May.
Robots of a variety of sizes will carry out some of the work deemed to be too unsafe for humans. A number of them can be controlled remotely using a sophisticated camera set-up.
Roads and trains will be halted in the surrounding area while the demolition takes place.
Speaking earlier in the week, Jade Alli, the partner of Welshman Chris Huxtable, criticised the delay in recovering his body.
She said: “We have an 11-year-old daughter who asks me every day ‘when is dad coming home?’
“What am I supposed to tell her – the police have given up on him?”