DFW - Huge Explosion near Reunion Arena

[dfwgator]

I am watching a huge fire and explosions near Reunion Arena hear in Dallas.

[milford421]

I do agree with many of your points. True, the news media’s job is to get people to watch...However, in the absence of an investigation, it is prudent to keep from jumping to conclusions. Ruling out terrorism quickly sans investigation makes me suspicious.

We are at war.

I too dislike the politically correct term, “war on terror”...we do need to know and name the enemy we are fighting. Radical islam.

“you don’t wage war on a concept, you wage war on a specific people.”

Or more accurately, you defend against and aggressively pursue the specific people who have openly, vocally and pointedly stated they want you to convert or they will kill you...violently. Tolerant western civiliations seems to have great difficulty with this concept.

“we are going to turn into a nation of sheep as well as continue the move to more and more government control (because they have to protect us from everything!)”

This is the second front of the war, is it not? Rather than allow ourselves to be cowed into politically correct submission, we need to start thinking for ourselves, don’t we?

No, the government cannot protect us from all.

I prefer the truth...even with the unpleasantries.

[milford421]

Left this one out but you make an excellent point:

“this “war” is one without end, and if we spend the rest of our lives jumping every time there is an accide”

War without end...until one side or the other in annihilated...

Point is, I don’t want to be afraid, jumping at incidents, accidents, attacks, etc.

We must lose the fear.

[milford421]

We’ve been attempting to document many of these “incidents” on the TM thread and also here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/under-investigation/post

[Quix]

Sure seems like some preliminary tests to me . . . or else . . . tying up, depleting, exhausting our first responders and medical institutions and resources with moderate disasters just before the huge ones???

[af_vet_rr]

I don't consider us a nation of sheep just yet, but I think we are headed in that direction, and considering that every generation relies more and more on the government to hold their hand in everything they do, a few generations from now, this country will not be recognizable to you or I, just as the country we live in now would not be recognizable to somebody who was born in late 1800s.

The tools are in place - the government loves to scare us every now and then, or rather try to get us thinking about things that would scare some (the Ready.gov billboards, etc., that's what I'm referring to).

We also have a media that would rather either scare us talking about terrorism when they don't know, or they distract us with crap about some spoiled little druggie in California (it helps that many Americans apparently care more about Paris Hilton than our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan).

[Quix]

Good points.

Sigh.

[milford421]

Latest update on this explosion:

Investigation At Gas Facility Could Take Year To Complete

KXAS-TV
Updated: 4 minutes ago
DALLAS - U.S. Chemical Safety Board agents sifted through rubble at a gas facility near downtown Dallas a day after flaming debris rained onto a busy highway during a series of explosions, injuring three people and rattling windows and buildings blocks away. Investigators want to know if the Southwest Industrial Gases Inc. facility was following all of the regulations. Investigators said its investigation could take a year to complete. They will remain in Dallas for at least another week.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19981357/

[_Jim]

Idiocy and jihadism are synonomous, aren't they?

Never underestimate what can happen when things go wrong: after all we loose about 50,000 people a year due to traffic accidents.

Back to this event - this event was not unlike what happened in St. Louis in 2005 and more about that in a bit.

Here then is a brief synopsis of what transpired Wednesday:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/072607dnmetinvestigate.3822dd6.html

The fire started on a loading dock on the back side of the company's complex, said Lt. Joel Lavender, a spokesman for Dallas Fire-Rescue. It spread into the building, where tanks of oxygen, helium and acetylene began blowing up.

Fire officials said two employees were filling canisters with acetylene using a series of connecting tubes in what is known as "pigtailing."

A connection malfunctioned, apparently creating enough pressure for one of the canisters to ignite. For safety, pressure in acetylene tanks must be kept below a certain point.

The canisters exploded in a chain reaction, burning two men on their upper bodies. For more than an hour after the incident began about 9:30 a.m., fireballs shot from the company's site at 538 Industrial Blvd., and a column of thick, black smoke rose on a slight northward wind, headed mostly across other business and industrial areas.

Here is an account and analysis of what happened in St. Louis in 2005; take special note of Figure 3 (picture of a cylinder with a flame-plume coming out of it) in the cited document below:

http://www.csb.gov/safety_publications/docs/CSBPraxairSafetyBulletin.pdf

St. Louis was experiencing a heat wave with bright sunlight and temperatures reaching 97 deg. F (36 deg. C) on June 24, 2005.

Praxair operations proceeded normally during the morning and early afternoon; however, about 3:20 pm, a technician retrieving cylinders from an outside storage area saw a ten-foot high flame coming from a cylinder (Figure 3) and activated the fire alarm.

Security camera video from the facility shows the release and ignition of gas from a cylinder in the propylene return area.

As workers and customers evacuated, the fire spread to adjacent cylinders. Security camera video shows nearby cylinders igniting in the first minute.

At 2 minutes, cylinders begin exploding, flying into other areas of the facility, and spreading the fire

After 4 minutes, the fire covers most of the facility's flammable gas cylinder area and explosions are frequent.

[milford421]

“Fire officials said two employees were filling canisters with acetylene using a series of connecting tubes in what is known as “pigtailing.”

Hadn’t heard this before....makes sense.

Glad CSB is investigating...I regularly follow their investigations.

“Never underestimate what can happen when things go wrong: after all we loose about 50,000 people a year due to traffic accidents.”

I never do.

Thanks for the info.

[_Jim]

I don't know how up you are on Acetylene cylinder filling - in case not, here is how Acetylene 'bottles' are normally filled; note that this process by itself generates heat (makes the cylinders warm) and is a cause for going slow during said filling process:

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4556091.html

As is well known, acetylene gas is relatively unstable at high pressures and cannot be transported safely in such open-chambered cylinders as are used to transport other industrial gases. For safety reasons, acetylene is usually transported in elongate steel cylinders of a specialized type, each containing a porous mass within which a solvent for acetylene is absorbed. The porous mass normally fills the cylinder body, and typically comprises a very porous, concrete-like substance such as calcium metasilicate having an admixture of a suitable fibrous material, for example asbestos, to increase its mechanical strength. The solvent is typically acetone or N,N-dimethylformamide.

From the point of view of safety it is important that the porous mass which fills the body of an acetylene cylinder leave no large cavities within the body wherein acetylene gas can collect and be compressed, causing an explosive decomposition of acetylene to take place. Decomposition of acetylene into its elements can be prevented by minimizing the size of the spaces defined (1) within the porous mass, and (2) between the porous mass and the surrounding internal wall surfaces of the cylinder.

The filling of acetylene cylinders involves problems beyond those normally encountered in filling cylinders with gases other than acetylene. When an acetylene cylinder is returned from a customer, it contains an unknown quantity of residual acetylene gas, and an unknown quantity of solvent. The quantity of solvent remaining in the cylinder is almost always less than the desired nominal amount due to discharge of evaporated solvent from the cylinder as acetylene gas is used by the customer.

The only information which can be ascertained about a returned cylinder by physically inspecting it is whether or not the cylinder appears to be damaged, and such cylinder data as is stamped or otherwise inscribed on the outside of the cylinder or on a cap affixed to the cylinder. The cylinder data carried on the outside of an acetylene gas cylinder normally includes a cylinder type designation (which defines the cylinder's internal volume), and the cylinder's "tare weight," i.e., weight of the cylinder together with the weight of the porous mass and the weight of a proper nominal charge of acetone solvent. By weighing a returned cylinder, it is possible to determine the total weight of the cylinder and such solvent and residual gas as remain in the cylinder. By measuring the pressure of the contents of the cylinder, and by taking into account the temperature of the cylinder, the exact quantities of residual gas and solvent which are present in the cylinder can be calculated readily.

In a conventional acetylene cylinder filling process, each cylinder is first physically inspected for possible damage. The contents of the cylinder are then checked with reference to the cylinder's tare weight, pressure and temperature, to determine the quantities of solvent and gas which remain in the cylinder. A calculation is then made to determine the quantities of solvent and gas which should be supplied to refill the cylinder.

In accordance with conventional filling procedures, an acetylene cylinder which has been checked in the manner described above is refilled first by charging it with the requisite amount of missing solvent, and then by introducing the requisite quantities of acetylene gas. The gas is fed into the cylinder at a relatively low pressure during a period of time which extends for many hours. While cylinders are charged on an individual basis to supply them with the requisite quantities of solvent, a plurality of solvent-replenished cylinders are connected together or "ganged" for simulateous filling with acetylene.

While a cylinder is being filled with acetylene, the temperature of the cylinder is caused to rise due to the high heat of solution of acetylene. Stated in another way, as acetylene gas is dissolved by a cylinder-carried solvent such as acetone, a substantial amount of heat energy is released, causing a marked elevation in the temperature of the cylinder and its contents. As the temperature of the cylinder's contents rises, so too does the pressure within the cylinder. When the pressure within the ganged cylinders reaches approximately 25 bar (about 360 psia), filling is halted because, from a safety point of view, this is considered to be about the highest pressure to which acetylene should normally be compressed. The partially filled cylinders are then left standing to cool.

After a sufficient period of cooling time, the cylinders stabilize in temperature, and can then be further charged with acetylene to complete the filling procedure. The filled cylinders are then disconnected from the filling apparatus and individually weighed to make certain that they contain, within certain tolerances, the prescribed quantity of acetylene. Any cylinders showing excess weight are slightly emptied. Any cylinders which have been insufficiently filled are given an additional filling.

In temperate climates, about seven hours is a normal time for the initial filling of a solvent-charged cylinder with acetylene gas, followed by about a twelve hour pause for cooling, whereafter a final filling with acetylene usually requires about an additional two hours. In hotter climates these filling and cooling times are considerably longer.

In order to diminish filling time, it has been proposed to cool acetylene cylinders during filling by spraying their outer walls with a liquid coolant. The coolant is discharged onto the cylinders from overhead nozzles, and typically comprises either cold water, or a cold antifreeze solution such as a mixture of water and alcohol. The overhead arrangement of spray nozzles causes coolant to flow along the full lengths of the outer walls of the cylinders. Cooling the cylinders during filling not only serves to reduce cylinder filling time, but also enables larger numbers of cylinders to be processed through a filling station, and minimizes the need for extensive banks of filling equipment. Moreover, the cost of labor per filled cylinder is reduced.

Where cylinders being filled are cooled along their entire length, the temperature of the contents of the cylinder is substantially uniform, and acetylene tends to be disolved substantially uniformly throughout the cylinder by the acetone carried in the cylinder. From a safety standpoint, it is undesirable to have a high concentration of acetylene near an upper end region of the cylinder because, in the event that the upper end region of the cylinder is exposed to a sudden increase in pressure, as occurs in a "backfire situation," the high concentration of acetylene in the upper end region of the cylinder may begin to decompose. Stated in another way, the previously proposed approach of cooling cylinders along their full lengths during filling with acetylene does not provide an optimum type of cooling, from a safety point of view, for it tends to provide an unduly high concentration of acetylene in the upper end regions of cylinders being filled, and does nothing to discourage this undesireable condition.

[_Jim]

Okay, you’re welcome; and I’ve got to bail. Nite.

[milford421]

That’s quite an explanation Jim.

Heard about 5 different explanations from news outlets...your post was the first that stated anything about filling the cannisters. Appreciate that latest update.

I hope you’ll follow the investigation with me...with can discuss it again as more information becomes available.

[milford421]

Good night.

[Barnacle]

Give that guy, gal or whatever a medal!

Maybe one for bravery, but not for smarts. No Fireman is his right mind would be standing there.