[Sir Napsalot]

Note: This article is written by a professor of Occupational Health and Safety in Mining at Univ of Queensland in Australia, later part of the article then went on a discussion of mining in Australia.

[cripplecreek]

Texas city disaster. Something like 580 killed.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

ANFO is much safer to handle and use vs. other explosives. When I was a open pit coal mine manager, we would routinely use 250 pounds of ANFO in each hole drilled in the dragline bench. 7 inch diameter holes were 50-60 feet deep, on a 10 foot by 10 foot pattern. 40 or 50 holes ignited via a blasting box would really move your mortgage !

[tired&retired]

This is just stage III of the Obama administration trying to control: I.Guns II. Ammunition III. Explosives

Watch out as stage IV is to Control the People

[metmom]

Because explosions near where lots of people are tend to do that.

[USMCPOP]

From Wiki: The Oppau explosion occurred on September 21, 1921 when a tower silo storing 4,500 tonnes of a mixture of ammonium sulfate and ammonium nitrate fertilizer exploded at a BASF plant in Oppau, now part of Ludwigshafen, Germany, killing 500–600 people and injuring about 2,000 more.

---

They used to use small charges of dynamite to loosen up the pile when it got compacted...

[MD Expat in PA]

I’m by no means an expert in such matters, but I have to wonder why, when the plant was fully engulfed in flames by the time the local fire department got there, why they decided to battle the fire rather than focusing all their efforts on evacuating the area?

I also read something that said that spraying water on the fire might have actually contributed to the explosion. I get that firefighters will spay water on tanks to keep them cool and prevent an explosion but from what I understand the fire was already so hot and intense, that spraying water on it was rather futile as they couldn’t even get close enough to spray water on the tanks holding the ammonium nitrate. There have been some questions raised as to the level of training in dealing with HAZMAT situations the members of the volunteer fire department had.

I also have to question the intelligence of people close to the fire, including the guy in the car with his daughter who was videoing it with his cell phone and others in the neighborhood who stayed around to watch the fire when the place went BOOM!

You would think that people living in that area might have been more aware that a fire at a fertilizer plant was not something to stand around and watch but something to get as far away from as quickly as possible.

[TribalPrincess2U]

My question is WHY would anyone build houses anywhere near a fertilizer factory to begin with?

[alloysteel]

There was a precedent for this huge explosion, which also took place in Texas, when a freighter in the harbor on Galveston Channel. The Texas City disaster of April 16, 1947 is the deadliest industrial accident in U.S. history, and one of the largest non-nuclear explosions. Originating with a mid-morning fire on board the French-registered vessel SS Grandcamp (docked in the Port of Texas City), its cargo of approximately 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate detonated, killing at least 581 people and setting off a chain of explosions and fires that spread to other ships and the oil storage facility there.

[Wings-n-Wind]

Sooo....??

This disaster is the dry-chemical version of a BLEVE??
(Boiling Liquid Expansion Vaporization Explosion)

Why don't these fertilizer manufactuers use several smaller underground tanks in bunkers for storage....
...like an ammunition depot??

***********

With the right plumbing and fail-safe (underground) material transport systems...
If a single bunker/tank was compromised by fire-- the remaining storage could be quickly isolated from the others.

Any resulting breach or explosion would be smaller and more manageable than this 2.5 earthquake that killed too many and devastated West, TX.

[MacNaughton]

Must be something "in the water" regarding big explosions and French ships ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion
The Halifax Explosion occurred on the morning of Thursday, December 6, 1917. SS Mont-Blanc, a French cargo ship fully laden with wartime explosives, collided with the Norwegian vessel SS Imo[2] in the Narrows, a strait connecting the upper Halifax Harbour to Bedford Basin. Approximately twenty minutes later, a fire on board the French ship ignited her volatile cargo, causing a cataclysmic explosion that devastated the Richmond District of Halifax. Approximately 2,000 people were killed by debris, fires, and collapsed buildings, and it is estimated that nearly 9,000 others were injured.[3] The blast was the largest man-made explosion prior to the development of nuclear weapons[4] with an equivalent force of roughly 2.9 kilotons of Trinitrotoluene (TNT).

My paternal great-grandfather was a fire chief in Calais, ME. He answered the call for disaster relief and went to Halifax.

[WalterSkinner]

..prayers for all the families who lost loved ones and suffered injury in our country this week,

BUT

it has been strange to see that very little discussion has occurred about a horrible blast that killed at least 35 with over 200 injured being placed on the back burner to the Boston bombing.

Ceremonies, athletes giving profane tributes, and lots of celebration, as if all terrorism has ended--I suppose we must wait to grieve for West, Texas until Boston deals with their feelings...