14 DAY TRIAL // Demolition crews have taken down a cellphone tower that caught on fire in Bensalem Township, Pennsylvania.
Flames broke out as welders were working on the tower, WPVI-TV reported. Works were being performed at 80 feet (24.4 meters) in the air, when a welder's torch came in contact with inflammable materials.
Welders were in the middle of a 10-hour maintenance operation at the time. They tried putting the fire out, but the flames intensified and they wore forced to come down.
The incident took place at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, June 21, but the tower was not brought down until 9:30 p.m. the same day, Action Cam footage shows.
"It was real scary, because flames were just going up for a good 45 minutes," resident Merolene Robinson describes.
The AT&T tower was located behind the Bensalem Public Works building in the 2200 block of Byberry Road. The cellphone signal was rerouted to other towers in the area as workers waited to put the pole down.
A fire squad was dispatched from Bensalem, 20 miles (32 km) northeast of Philadelphia but they were not able to use water or flames for the works.
A 300-foot (91.5-meter) perimeter was established as officials let the tower burn out on its own, in a bid to stop it from crashing.
"There was a lot of hot plastic falling, burning, and I didn't know if it was catching anything on fire," resident Jim Nelson explains.
Bensalem Township Public Safety Director Fred Harran added that demolition crews were brought in to tear down the pole after the fire was out. Demolition works were completed by 9:42 p.m.
"We had some people who were inconvenienced, but no structural damage to anything except the cell phone tower, and no injuries. So it's a good days work here," Harran says.