Attilio Berdusco was recognized for engineering a mammoth pillar blast in the Helen Mine in 1955 and he was a pillar of his community
Some men gain recognition for building their communities. Some get notoriety from destroying things. Attilio Berdusco got to do both; in the best possible way.
He finished high school in Sault Ste. Marie at Sault Collegiate in 1948 and upon graduation received a prestigious scholarship from none other than Sir James Dunn, the President of Algoma Steel Corporation. Tillio was one of two recipients of a four-year scholarship to Michigan College of Mining and Technology. Beneficiaries of these prizes not only had to have excellent grades but also had to pass a special exam to prove their competence.
On Sept. 24, 1955, Tillio flicked the switch to initiate the blast, which unearthed a million tons of rock. The lead-up to the explosion would have been extremely stressful. Not only was he working with an enormous amount of dynamite, which was putting everyone in and around the mine at risk, but being given such a high level of responsibility could make or break his career. The dynamite itself had required a whopping ten freight cars to transport it to the mine and once the loading of the drilled holes started, smoking had been forbidden in the mine as a precaution.
The Sault Star expressed that, “People in Wawa, 2 ½ miles from the mine, said that if it had not been for the huge column of smoke and dust they would hardly have known that the blast had been set off.”
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