2,000 Visit on Day They Broke the Bank

With a series of thunderous booms, a six-story bank building exploded at Anaheim Plaza early Sunday, collapsing into a jumble of concrete and metal and throwing a dust cloud hundreds of feet in the air.

And about 2,000 destruction enthusiasts oohed, aahed, gasped and broke into cheers.

They hauled themselves out of the sack before 6 a.m. to watch the California Federal Bank building on Euclid Street be demolished in a big way. With rumpled hair, not-so-hot coffee and children in tow, they waited for more than an hour behind red tape for a sight--and a sound--that would awe Hollywood’s most jaded special-effects artist.

“I’ve never seen such a thing in my life,” said Orli Moses, 27, of Cypress, scrambling toward the wreckage with her camera minutes after the building blew up about 7 a.m. “It was scary as hell.”

“Awesome!” said Weldon Green, 58, of Midway City, with the verve of a high schooler.

“Better’n the Fourth of July,” offered Anaheim resident Jeannette Kibbe, 45.

Four-year-old Roger Childs of Westminster, from his perch on his father’s shoulders, was all but dumbstruck.

“It was funny,” he said, after a long, bewildered pause.

Teenage boys were predictably abundant. But the spectacle drew a wide range of gawkers--mothers with strollers, video and photography buffs, a little girl in tiger slippers, a fast-moving elderly woman dragging her less-than-thrilled husband by the hand--even a poodle.

“I’m going to cover his little ears,” the dog’s young owner said in response to concerned inquiries before the explosion.

The impressive showing gave one entrepreneurial-minded woman an idea.

“You know, with the county going broke, they could’ve sold tickets,” said Darlene Cronin, 52, of Fountain Valley, with a wink.

The explosion was intended to clear the lot at Euclid Street and Crescent Way before construction begins Oct. 1 on a new CalFed building at the same site. The structure is part of a 93,000-square-foot expansion at Anaheim Plaza, which will include an Office Max, Orchard Supply Hardware and a fast-food restaurant.

Before the building was reduced to a dusty heap, the bank removed all hazardous materials. The blasts, created by electronically controlled explosives, crippled the building’s steel columns, causing the structure to cave in on itself.

“I liked that boom,” a boy confided to his sister as they gazed upon the building’s remains. “That was worth the wait.”