Hamilton says goodbye to its last Stelco blast furnace
Steel company had sold bayfront land to asset company
HAMILTON Goodbye Big “E” — it was a blast.
The last Stelco blast furnace in Hamilton was demolished Wednesday using a controlled explosion that cut out the supports under the towering steelmaking relic that dominated the western bayfront skyline for more than half a century.
A massive boom that echoed around the harbour — and was reportedly felt on the escarpment and as far away as Greensville — was followed by a slow collapse of the roughly 60-metre-tall “E” blast furnace built in 1968 on Pier 16.
Hamilton police warned the public Wednesday morning to expect a “very big and very loud” explosion, and Stelco sent out a notice to members of its community liaison committee the previous night.
At least one citizen member, Jochen Bezner, raised concerns about the lack of broader public notice and the risk of blast furnace dust floating into nearby residential areas — as happened during an infamous demolition at the former Slater Steel property in 2019.
Stelco did not respond to Spectator requests for comment, but the company’s email to community liaison members said the demolition contractor had a “fugitive dust management plan” for the explosion.
A few Stelco workers gathered at the park on Pier 8 to watch the demolition and resulting dust cloud.
Retired steelworker and past union president Rolf Gerstenberger did not want to watch.
“I think it’s sad,” said Gerstenberger, who fought for his shrinking workforce in 2010 when the blast furnace was first idled, later to be shut down.
“When they blow it up, it’s really a symbol for me of how you can wreck an economy.”
The blast furnace was controversially shut down forever in 2013 by then-owner U.S. Steel when that company ended iron and steelmaking in Hamilton.
The demolition is a “reminder of a tragic loss for the city,” said Steve Lechniak, a former steelworker who keeps Stelco history alive online. “The writing was on the wall (in 2013), but today it really sinks in, with the explosion and bringing down the last of ‘E’ furnace,” he said. “As retirees, we used to wonder if there would ever be a time that steelmaking would come back to Stelco (in Hamilton). Clearly, the answer is no.”
Rescued out of creditor protection and rechristened as Stelco in 2017, the company now manufactures iron and steel exclusively in Nanticoke but still runs steel finishing operations and makes coke on leased land in Hamilton.
This year, Stelco sold its historical bayfront land — about 800 acres — to would-be redeveloper Slate Asset Management for $518 million. Demolition of former steelmaking buildings has been happening gradually for years.
Back in 2004, Stelco’s demolition of its older “D” blast furnace was an unofficial viewing event — although the public was not allowed on the Hilton Works property or within 1,000 feet of the blast site.
Big “E” is the last of Stelco’s alphabetically named furnaces, with earlier incarnations demolished decades earlier as technological needs evolved at the 112-year-old steelmaker.