Lawmaker's gun room explosion likely 'spontaneous combustion' (ID)

BURLEY, Idaho -- Fire officials believe it was spontaneous combustion that made a gun room explode at the home of an Idaho state lawmaker last weekend.

The blast sent Representative Fred Wood's wife to a burn center in Salt Lake City on Saturday night.

Burley Fire Chief Keith Martin believes a gun room below Fred and Amy Wood's house exploded after rags with gun cleaning chemicals on them sat in a garbage bin and slowly produced enough heat to ignite on fire.

“He cleaned his guns, and we are thinking maybe the cleaning solvent and the rags that he used sat there over the week and slowly generated enough heat, where it finally spontaneously combusted,” said Chief Martin.

I dunno. I still can’t get “explosion” from oily rags, gunpowder, primers, loaded rounds, etc. I could understand fire, but not explosion. Unless there was something in the room that I don’t normally keep.

Solvents evaporating, rags ignite, a small fire ensues. The door is opened, more oxygen is allowed into the room, a flash-over occurs. Not an explosion as such but close enough to a "low explosive" so as not to matter. A flash fire would also explain how the wife burned her face and hands.

Regards,
GtG

Just read the complete story at the media web site. Flash fire only makes sense if someone opened the door. Given the injuries that would have had to have been the wife, he was not injured.

Something does not smell right, a small bottle of powder solvent is not going to blow down half a house and move a concrete patio slab. Wife was outdoors, he was inside when something very energetic let loose. Sounds like the fire marshal is busy shoveling "horse byproduct" over the unlikely event.

a small bottle of powder solvent is not going to blow down half a house and move a concrete patio slab.

Powder solvent is probably pretty close in energy density to gasoline. Dynamite has an energy density of about 7.5 MJ/kg. Gasoline has an energy density of 44.4 MJ/kg. So, pound for pound gasoline has more than 6 times the energy of dynamite. However, gasoline is not an explosive and dynamite is not a fuel, so they serve purposes that are mutually exclusive for the most part.

So, pound for pound gasoline has more than 6 times the energy of dynamite. However, gasoline is not an explosive and dynamite is not a fuel, so they serve purposes that are mutually exclusive for the most part.

If your car/truck engine ever "knocks" the gasoline is detonating as an explosive. Smooth combustion as a fuel is only a few degrees of spark timing away from explosive combustion. The nitroglycerin in dynamite is not detonated by burning thus if you don't mine the expense, you can burn dynamite in a nice cheery fire in a wood stove.

Under the right conditions flour, dust (grain, sawdust, coal), and finely divided metal particles as well as various hydrocarbon vapors can be made to explode (Ie: detonate where the flame front achieves transonic velocity).

In general vapor media must be evenly dispersed in a containing volume with enough oxygen to completely burn the vapor. Too rich (more vapor then O₂) and the flame front will not achieve maximum velocity. Too lean (not enough vapor to react with the O₂) and the flame front will extinguish prematurely. The correct mixture is referred to as the "stoichiometric mixture" and is dependent on the quantitative relationship between reactants and products so that all of the reactants are converted to end products with a maximum release of energy by the chemical reaction.

Dust explosions are not overly fussy about stoichiometric conditions and are therefore more likely to occur under everyday conditions such as a flour/grain mill or a coal mine. You can also use "dust" to greatly boost the power of a small bit of conventional explosive.

Regards,
GtG

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