TodayDown in Smoke 
Residents say goodbye to the last of Carlisle Hospital.
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Explosives experts detonated 20 small charges 25,000th of a second apart to disassemble the old Carlisle Hospital smoke stack.
(Mike Bupp/The Sentinel)
Bystanders, Kate and John Kauffman of Carlisle watch and photograph the explosion of the old Carlisle Hospital's smoke stack.
(Mike Bupp/The Sentinel)
There was a thrill of excitement in the air as people braved the cold Saturday morning to watch as the last part of the old Carlisle hospital -- the 167 foot tall smokestack -- fell to the ground.
Gathered on street corners a safe distance from the demolition site, most carried coffee to stay warm on the cold, sunny morning. Others brought their children. Some brought their dogs. Throughout the crowds there was excited chatter as people guessed what the explosion would be like.
A slightly past 8 a.m. they got their answer.
Two minutes before demolition time, police rang there car sirens in unison. Then there was a moment of expectant silence before a blast broke the air and the towering smokestack tipped toward South Street, breaking in two before hitting the ground and throwing up a cloud of gray smoke.
The crowd cheered and clapped. Like many others gathered on the street, Bill Harkey had been looking forward to the demolition for weeks.
"I just wanted to see something blow up," he says with a laugh.
Others showed up for more sentimental reasons. A nurse, Jeanne Shevlin worked at the old hospital for several years.
"This hospital has been here a long time and this is the last part of it," she says.
Pam Krumb, who attended the demolition with her husband, Len, and their dog, Ollie, gave birth to her daughter there.
"I guess we thought this would be a salute to her," she says of her reasons for coming.
Joan Bower and her husband, Dick, were both born at the old hospital. For weeks, Bower carefully has been documenting the demolition of the hospital with her digital camera. Sorry to see the old hospital go, on this day, she carefully positions herself at the best angle to capture the smokestack for the last time.
"I was very unhappy," she says of the hospital's destruction. "I just thought they could have saved it and used it for something else."
Still, before the blast, she made sure to grab a few stones from the building for herself and for her sister. She plans to put the photos from the event in an album.
"This is where I started my life," she says.
Mayor Kirk Wilson also was saddened to see the hospital go. Like the Bowers, he was born at the hospital and was disappointed when the hospital moved to its new location on Alexander Spring Road.
"I guess it was a sign of the times," he says with a shrug.
Some, of course, were too young to have many memories of the old hospital.
David Erfle, 10, came to the demoliton because he wanted to see an explosion. He wasn't disappointed.
"I thought it was really cool because it exploded and then it tipped over and there was a big whoosh," he says.
His friend Victor Otto also thought the demolition was cool, but he was disappointed the smokestack landed with on a soft, neat thud.
"I expected the bricks to explode out and then make a huge pile all around where it fell," he said.
As they begin to walk away with the rest of the crowds, Steve Erfle, David's dad, admits he thought the demolition was as cool as his son did.
"It's not every day that you get to see something like this."
