RSA demolition 'a nightmare'

stuff.co.nz

EMOTIONAL ENDING: The Sumner-Redcliffs RSA building, which was destroyed in the February 2011 quake after a large boulder from a cliff face crashed through it, has been demolished.

The demolition of the Sumner-Redcliffs Returned and Services' Association (RSA) building is ''like a nightmare'' for its president Bev Salter.

The Wakefield Avenue site was destroyed in the February 2011 quake after a large boulder from a cliff face crashed through the building.

In 2011, a few hundred people commemorated Anzac Day for the last time at the red-stickered building.

Salter said she had been emotional all week knowing the demolition would soon take place.

''I knew it was going to happen, but it's a bit different watching it. It's like a nightmare.''

She said if the Sumner-Redcliffs RSA had a new ''home we could call our own'', then things would be easier.

On the day of the February quake, Ian Caldwell was securing rocks above the RSA building when the cliff broke away and he was buried beneath it.

A Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority spokesman said the demolition was risky and remote-controlled excavators were being used for some of the work.

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RSA demolition 'a nightmare'