Follow Us 
Related News
Current Poll
| ‘Explosive’ career begins by chance |
 |
 |
 |
| News | |||
| Written by Brandon Steinert | |||
| Friday, 05 February 2010 08:00 | |||
A complex mixture of destruction and creation defines a typical day in Dustin Schooley’s shoes.  Schooley, a blaster for PEXCO LLC, has recently been busy blowing holes in the ground for Miami County’s railroad overpass project on 223rd Street near Spring Hill. The process starts with a large drill digging dozens of holes in stubborn rock formations. Schooley then lowers explosive charges, wired to go off one after another, into each hole. After several hours of preparing the site for detonation, Schooley and his crew get to witness the fruits of their labor. After sounding five minute, three minute and 30 second warning sirens, Schooley shouts through his megaphone, “Fire in the hole!” and activates a chain of explosions which, if done correctly, will rip apart rock layers for easy removal. “We work all day for one second of glory,” he said. Blasting was not a life ambition for Schooley. It came to him. “They were blasting near my house one day about seven years ago,” he said. Formerly, Schooley was in the concrete business. He said a friend of his with the company helped him get the job. Schooley has since been doing what every 10-year-old boy dreams of, blowing things up for a living. Schooley has been in charge of blasting operations for about four and a half years. He said the actual work he does isn’t as exciting as what might be inferred by his title. “I enjoy it, but it’s not as much fun as some people think,” he said. “It’s a different scenario every day, and it keeps you on your toes.” The explosives the company uses are very stable, and there’s little chance of things going wrong, he said, and there’s just as much danger getting in the car and driving to work. “You can’t get too comfortable though,” Schooley said. “You’ll stand too close, and it’ll jump up and bite ya.”  The difficult part, he explained, is avoiding damage to nearby structures caused by the vibration in the ground. During his tenure as a blaster, he said job sites have gotten closer and closer to buildings. “If anyone ever tells you they’ve mastered blasting, they’re lying to you,” Schooley said. He said his crew did some blasting at the intersection of Donahoo Road and Interstate 435, which he said was challenging because there were fuel-lines supplying a nearby military base with jet fuel near the work site. “That got nerve-racking,” he said. Other than that experience, though, he said it’s usually nothing too terrifying.
Set as favorite
Bookmark
Email This
Hits: 202 Trackback(0)
Comments (0)
 Write comment
You must be logged in to post a comment. Please register if you do not have an account yet.
|
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
