Fertilizer plant explodes in West, Texas

Pancreas

Pancreas

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There is a local lumber mill that fuels it's wood kiln boilers using wood-chips mixed with oil. I think they have had two or three incidents where the air became so choked with wood-dust that the boiler flame ignited the dust causing an explosion. It didn't level the building, but it blew parts of the roof off and cracked the foundation.

Wet hay stored in a hay loft can start fires and sometimes explosions from the heat produced by the fermenting hay. Also grain silos can becomes extremely volatile if the air becomes dusty enough.

All sorts of shit you might not think of as dangerous, can become lethal once you start enclosing it.
 
Rombo

Rombo

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Maybe theres an experienced firefighter on the forums who could share his view but heres my 2 cents has one in training right now.

The firefighter on scene were most definately doing search and rescue. You dont see a blaze like this and think 2 or 3 engines will put it out. Even if they were pumping water on that, the heat generated from such fire would evaporate the water before it reaches any chemicals it could react with. They most likely knew the risks associated with a fire in that factory. Volunteer or not, you must have a basic plan of operation for high risks buildings, and in this case, a pretty big safety perimeter to evacuate people out of. Hard to judge from behind a keyboard. On scene, with victims yelling, people screaming at you to do something and a lack of resources / equipement, you do what you can and hope for the best.

Hell, my daily subjects are flash over, bleves, reacting agents and i was still surprised with the violence of that explosion. I would have needed new underwear if i was standing there.
 
Eomer

Eomer

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Pancreas_sl said:
There is a local lumber mill that fuels it's wood kiln boilers using wood-chips mixed with oil. I think they have had two or three incidents where the air became so choked with wood-dust that the boiler flame ignited the dust causing an explosion. It didn't level the building, but it blew parts of the roof off and cracked the foundation.
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Yeah, two lumber mills have gone kaboom in BC in the past couple years because of dust. They were both leveled, whether by the initial explosion or subsequent fire.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/britis...d-sawmill.html

You don't even need a fire or open flame to trigger an explosion in that situation, even static electricity is enough to cook it off.
 
Borzak

Borzak

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I've worked in and around chemical plants and refineries my entire life. Been in probably 75% of the 90 or so between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. I'm assuming that was a small fertilizer plant. Most of the larger plants here they don't even let the civilian firefighters on scene if there is a fire, unless they speficially request it.

I used to live about 12 miles from the Exxon refinery in Baton Rouge and in 1989 when it got down to -2 in Baton Rouge they had a relatively minor "oops" due to the weather and had an explosion. It cracked the plaster in my ceiling. Another thing that used to be pretty common you don't hear much about nowdays is explosions in large grain silos or grain elevators. I guess they finally got the static electricity problem in those sorted out.

I just took my OSHA refresher course today, I feel much safer considering 75% of those there today had to have the attendant read the test to them because they can't read or speak english.
 
Cybsled

Cybsled

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Rombo_sl said:
Maybe theres an experienced firefighter on the forums who could share his view but heres my 2 cents has one in training right now.

The firefighter on scene were most definately doing search and rescue. You dont see a blaze like this and think 2 or 3 engines will put it out. Even if they were pumping water on that, the heat generated from such fire would evaporate the water before it reaches any chemicals it could react with. They most likely knew the risks associated with a fire in that factory. Volunteer or not, you must have a basic plan of operation for high risks buildings, and in this case, a pretty big safety perimeter to evacuate people out of. Hard to judge from behind a keyboard. On scene, with victims yelling, people screaming at you to do something and a lack of resources / equipement, you do what you can and hope for the best.

Hell, my daily subjects are flash over, bleves, reacting agents and i was still surprised with the violence of that explosion. I would have needed new underwear if i was standing there.
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When I was driving home, officials on the news stated that the Volunteer firemen that are MIA were actually trying to evacuate the nearby nursing homes.
 
BrutulTM

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Anderson Cooper is wearing a Carhartt coat. I bet that didn't come from his closet before he left New York.
 
BrutulTM

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There's a fertilizer plant in my town. I don't know if it is as big as the one in Texas but I can say that I didn't know what it was when I was a kid and probably still wouldn't if I didn't actually buy fertilizer there. Even now that I do I doubt I would have thought "oh shit run for the hills" if I saw it on fire, but I would now.
 
K

Ko Dokomo_sl

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I'm glad Rick Perry is in Illinois today trying to get companies to move to Texas. Here's the ad they put out!

OODCr67.jpg


Yes, Illinois is like a burning building, while Texas is full of non-metaphorically burning buildings.
 
Z

Zhaun_sl

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It does make me wonder if this unfortunate incident will bring up things like the value of government safety regulations and zoning laws.
 
Tuco

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I think it's best to wait until we know the facts before we start clowning Texas.

Oh who am I kidding, they built a school across the street from a mountain of fertilizer.
 
Z

Zhaun_sl

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Tuco_sl said:
I think it's best to wait until we know the facts before we start clowning Texas.

Oh who am I kidding, they built a school across the street from a mountain of fertilizer.
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Yeah, they have a nursing home, an apartment building and a school around a fertilizer plant. I think it is a reasonable question to ask.
 
J

Jais

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I know fuck all about zoning and what have you but shit, the only way this could have looked more like shit was if there was a baptist church next door, or an orphanage...for like the legless kids of KIA Veterans.
 
BrutulTM

BrutulTM

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Our fertilizer plant has residential area on both sides of it. I don't think they are typically considered overly dangerous.
 
Lithose

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Lithose_sl said:
Even if he knew it was a plant full of nitrate, they were still quarter of a mile out, easy. There was no way to predict THAT kind of explosion given the distances involved. I'm sure in thecoming weeks we'll find this company violated several storage regulationson how much fertilizer they could store in a single area--every time there is one of these explosions, that's almost always the story afterword.
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Surprise,company had last OSHA inspection in 1985. During inspection, it was cited for storage violations.
 
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