All Accounted For After Explosions Rip Through Tavares Gas Plant

OrlandoSentinel.com ^ | July 30, 2013 | Susan Jacobson,Lauren Ritchie

[Biggirl]

Roads near a gas plant in Lake County were littered with twisted pieces of propane canisters early Tuesday, hours after explosions that injured at least seven people and forced the evacuation of residents up to a mile away.

[Hardraade]

Amish being restless again?

[Lockbar]

[ican'tbelieveit]

From the article:

The three bulk tanks on the property — which hold 90,000 gallons of propane each — did not ignite in the fire, he said.

"The fact that those things didn't explode, that's the reason I go to church on Sunday," said Eric Wages, the battalion chief for the Tavares Fire station closest to the Blue Rhino plant.

and

Wages, the Tavares battalion chief, said the first blacked (bad editing, what is blacked) knocked firefighters' radios off their chairs.

"We're just kind of like...Well, we had no idea until we walked outside," Wages said. "and the only words that came to me were, 'Oh, [expletive]."

[thackney]

I’ve been on the design team for bulk propane storage and loading facilities. Part of the Fire Code back then made a lasting impression on me. It spent a significant amount of time on when NOT to fight a propane storage fire.

A 60,000 gallon tank, half full, if ruptured due to a fire outside the tank causing a rapid rise in tank pressure, will like create a fireball/explosion 1,000 feet in diameter and 300 feet tall. If you are fighting the fire when the tank ruptures, you will likely die.

It went on to give lots of warning signs of when to abandon the effort to fight a smaller fire, like a grass fire underneath. Tanks bulging, relief valves first screaming then beginning to rise in pitch, etc.