Posted on 01/14/2005 8:35:39 PM PST by Buddy B
ANDERSON, Ind. -- A magnesium fire at a recycling plant burned out of control Friday night, spewing wind-driven toxic fumes and forcing the evacuation of several thousand people from their homes.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbc4.tv ...
Wow. Magnesium fire. That's a bright fire!
Magnesium Fire near Cleveland, December, 2003.
-Eric
I live about 4 miles from the plant. It is a former General Motors plant. 8000 people have been asked to voluntarily evacuate. I am north of the plant, not in the affected area. I can see the glow in the sky out the back door. News helicopters are circling the area even now. There are warnings about inhaling the fumes from magnesium. Approximately 300,000 lbs of magnesium were in the plant at the time.
I worked at the Delco Remy plant in the summer of 1954. A whole two weeks...that was enough assembly line work for me.
So, I told the foreman, bye!
I have family that worked there over the years. Also at Guide lamp.
Every now and then, I can see flashes like lightning. They said on the local news that magnesium is used in camera flashes, among other things.
If I remember my chemistry properly, magnesium makes its own oxygen as it burns so trying to extinguish it with water is futile. The only thing to do is to let itself burn out.
Thats right. The fire dept. is going to let it burn itself out. They were using foam and sand to try to contain the fire.
"flashes like lightning" "300,000 lbs"
Sit back and watch the show.
counting the posts until someone implies this is terrorism related...and that any attempts to deny it is a coverup.
CNN report claims 30,000 evacuated. That cannot be correct. That would be about half the town.
I'm a fireman and went to a truck fire one time. I didn't know about wheels and stuff in a car being made from magnesium. I had the hose and started to hose out the fire in the engine area. I then turned it in the interior and man did it flash. Something in the interior was made of magnesium. It was kind of cool. I hit it with water a few times and then someone else finally used a dry chemical extinguisher to put it out.
Scary. 30,000 sounds like a lot. Sounds like you're upwind.
I am upwind of the site. The correct number of evacuees is 8,000.
WOW
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