2-2-2014, Frankfurt, Germany:

It was the largest-ever controlled building explosion in Europe: On Sunday, 2nd of February 2014, the 41 year old and 380 ft high Frankfurt university tower "AfE" has been destroyed in a controlled detonation. That was a record-setting project for the tallest building ever to be demolished in this way in Europe. The tower is situated in Frankfurt's financial district and surrounded by other buildings, which didn't leavy any room for mistakes.
2090 lbs of explosive Nitropenta were required, and in order to counteract the dust sent out in the blast 264 US Gal water tanks were blown up as well. Approximately 1000 workers from the Hesse State Police, Frankfurt City Police, Frankfurt FD and Frankfurt VFD, Frankfurt EMS, Disaster Relief Management, Federal Agency for Technical Relief and the Mainova ltd, the local energy supplier, and of course the demolition companies were on scene to secure the project.
The camera angle at 0:25 is probably the closest one set up to the tower: the camera is inside the 820 ft radius exclusion zone, to be precise it is only 300 ft away from the building. Actually, a TV crew set up a camera within the exclusion zone as well, but in contrast to us, as we just let the camera roll for 3+ hours (the time since the exclusion zone was set up until it was opened again), they wanted to switch their camera on with a remote release ... which didn't work.
The original plan was to de-construct the tower bit by bit - but both local residents and university students objected to the prospect of additional months of visual and noise pollution. In the place of the old tower, two new high-rise office towers will be built.