The old television mast, originally built as a radio mast, was erected in 1955 by specialists from Leningrad. The mast stood 180 meters tall. It was dismantled in 1985 after the construction of the Tallinn TV Tower in 1980.

Today, four concrete bases remain from the old mast, each weighing approximately 150 tons. Dynamite was used to demolish the bases, with 35 charges placed into drilled holes. These charges were connected with delay detonators.

"It has a very precise burn rate, which allows us to control exactly when each charge detonates," said Teele Tuuna-Lootus, a demolition expert from Spark & Stone Concept.

The 35 charges are set to detonate in sequence, with the entire process lasting about a second. The key to the operation is careful calculation.

"Basically, we take a cubic meter of concrete and know roughly how much explosive is needed to demolish it. We double- and triple-checked our calculations and developed a so-called reduced-explosive demolition method. Since we are in a populated area, we want to ensure maximum safety," Tuuna-Lootus explained.

Finally, the concrete structures were covered with sand and blasting mats to direct the blast wave properly. The sequentially connected charges were detonated using a non-electric method.

"There are a lot of different transmitters, antennas and frequencies moving through the air here. We use an ignition device that gathers a small impulse. It has to be precisely the right strength, and everything is encrypted," said Tuuna-Lootus.

Beneath the television mast once stood the ETV film archive. Its former director, Peeter Vets, recalled the storage room, which was located six meters underground and lined with shelves filled with film reels. He also noted that the radio mast — and later, the television mast — generated a powerful magnetic field.

"At the time, the director of the technical center, Leiger Põldma, suggested an experiment. He gave me a magnetic tape and we placed it on the archive window. A week later, the tape was completely erased. The mast had such a strong magnetic field, but no one really talked about it," Vets recalled.

Tuuna-Lootus has been working in demolition for ten years, handling projects in both quarries and residential areas. What led her to choose this career?

"It all started when I helped out at a demolition site. I decided I wanted to learn more about it. Plus, I had a really cool physics teacher," she said.

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