BRINGING down the final part of the boiler house at Didcot Power Station was an "emotional" task said the managing director of the company who supplied the demolition robots.

In the weeks before the "unstable structure" was brought down in July, Mick Madden's drivers sent in robots with the Army in a bid to clear the wreckage.

Mr Madden, from MTF Diamond Drilling & Controlled Demolition, said: "It was quite strange and a bit emotional, knowing that we were part of a recovery operation.

"When we stood there, knowing that we were not far from where they would be, it was quite strange.

"There is a little memorial inside there and it was great to be a part of it because the operation had so much meaning to it."

The boiler house at Didcot A partially collapsed on February 23 - six months today - killing Mick Collings, 53, of Teesside and leaving demolition workers Chris Huxtable, 34, of Swansea, Ken Cresswell, 57, and John Shaw, 61, both of Rotherham, trapped under 20,000 tonnes of debris.

But the recovery operation to find them was halted in May as the team reached a 50 metre safety exclusion zone.

Site owners, RWE, said the "quickest and safest" way to continue the operation would be to bring down the remaining half of the boiler house.

Mr Madden added: "We were called in because we have specific infra-red remote controlled machines.

"The problem with the Army's remote controlled operated vehicles was that if they were sent in and got caught in a hole it would stay there.

"Our Brokks are designed to cope with rough terrain and if they get stuck they have mechanisms to get themselves out again."

Two machines worth £290,000 in total - the Brokk 120 diesel and Brokk 330 - were sent down to the site with two drivers.

Mr Madden said: "We worked together with the Army's vehicles which had cameras on them.

"They taught our drivers to go in blind, they went in with their cameras and they spoke to us through ear pieces and we went in on their instruction - we have never done anything like this before.

"We pulled out gas bottles, forensic items for the police and even some large generators."

After clearing the site, the Brokks were then used to place magnetic charges around the boiler house and were operated more than 80 metres away from the structure.

Explosives were detonated at 6.01am on Sunday, July 17 to bring down the remaining half of the boiler house.

Connie Primmer, a spokeswoman for Thames Valley Police, said: "The recovery operation at Didcot power station and the joint Thames Valley Police and HSE investigation is ongoing.

"The absolute priority of the multi-agency response remains the recovery of the missing men so they can be returned to their families and to understand what caused this incident.

"Our thoughts remain with the families affected by this tragic incident and specialist officers from TVP continue to support them during this difficult time."