In less than 10 seconds, a hospital that served a number of Volusia County cities since 1967 was turned into a pile of rubble.
Crews imploded the former Florida Hospital Ormond Memorial at 7:30 a.m. Sunday as thousands of people looked on.
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Because of changing medical needs, Florida Hospital built a new state-of-the-art facility in 2009, which is only a few miles away.
With a series of booms, approximately 150 sticks of dynamite fired and brought the old hospital to its knees.
Richard Lorenz, the man in charge of the production, couldn't be happier at the end result.
“My pressure's off and I feel a lot better right at this moment than I did half an hour ago,” said Lorenz, who owns Central Environmental Services, Inc. “You get the jitters every time you do this.”
Florida Hospital Memorial Medical Center's Chief Operating Officer Darlinda Copeland was one of the two to push the button starting the implosion.
“It's very exciting,” Copeland said. “Something I've never done before. I couldn't wait to do it. I couldn't sleep last night, thinking about pushing the button.”
But not everyone was giddy with excitement.
Bob Barker used to head up the hospital's auxiliary and calls the day bittersweet.
He knows the new hospital is technologically and structurally better, but wished more former auxiliary members were here.
“We've had some that have been here since the beginning,” Barker said. “They couldn't even come today. It's such a huge memory.”
Once the 14,000 tons of debris are hauled away and the area re-sodded, Florida Hospital hopes to sell piece of land.
“We're still working on a sale. It will be a flat, grassy, build-able field and we think that there'll be a lot of demand for that,” said Daryl Tol from Florida Hospital.
Before a company is able to build on the field, it will take roughly 1,200 trips by dump trucks to haul the debris away.
Approximately 85 percent of the debris will be recycled.
We have not heard of any damage from the implosion, which was muffled by the debris on the bottom floor. The dust cloud also did not go far, thanks to a calm wind.