https://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/20...itnesses-describe-texas-explosion-horror?lite
What a horrible tragedy. Thoughts and prayers to the many affected.
What a horrible tragedy. Thoughts and prayers to the many affected.
West, Texas Fertilzer Plant Explosion
- Thread starter nightmare3983
- Start date
I have not seen anything on what caused the blast. Was it an accident or something more sinister?
I ask this based on all the other crap in the last 48 since Boston. Ricin letters, American Airlines computers going down and the 2 universities going into lock down from gunmen.
I ask this based on all the other crap in the last 48 since Boston. Ricin letters, American Airlines computers going down and the 2 universities going into lock down from gunmen.
It sounds like an accident:
“It was a small fire and then water got sprayed on the ammonium nitrate, and it exploded just like the Oklahoma City bomb,” local hotel clerk Jason Shelton told the Dallas Morning News.
Paging babe.
We have a plant that produces ammonium nitrate in Orem. I doubt the federallies allow such a volatile reaction to happen without controls against typical fires. I also question if water would make it explode since part of the production process is removing water to increase the purity). Shouldn't adding water just dilute it back down?
Also, ammonium nitrate is only one part of an explosive used in mining, and the explosive experts don't mix it with the other ingredient(s) until on site and ready to get paid for doing the coolest job in teh world.
Unless there is evidence in the ashes that would prove the original fire was arson, and there's an evidence trail leading to someone with an agenda, it's just an accident, and a stupid firefighter who didn't know what the fire was, or how to try to fight it.
Some fires can be fueled by water. magnesium fires, for example, are often turned into explosive infernos by stupid firemen with their water hoses. Explosives of some types can be the same. water is hydrogen and oxygen. . .. and while it will put out wood fires by excluding oxygen and cooling the fuel, it won't do the same thing for any material that is reactive with, or fueled by, water.
So I looked up Ammonium Nitrate just in case there's something I don't know about it:
https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ipcsneng/neng0216.html
I don't have info on the facility in regards to their storage methods or handling precautions. Ammonium Nitrate is sometimes mixed with other things for special applications. These are proprietary formulas sometimes. It is conceivable that powdered magnesium might be included, but not likely. some mixtures are just too dangerous to handle.
first theory here is that some barrels of Ammonium Nitrate got hot and the firemen were just too late getting there to try to contain the fire.
https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ipcsneng/neng0216.html
I don't have info on the facility in regards to their storage methods or handling precautions. Ammonium Nitrate is sometimes mixed with other things for special applications. These are proprietary formulas sometimes. It is conceivable that powdered magnesium might be included, but not likely. some mixtures are just too dangerous to handle.
first theory here is that some barrels of Ammonium Nitrate got hot and the firemen were just too late getting there to try to contain the fire.
I doubt it's stored in a couple barrels at such a plant. You're talking more on the scale of something like a large onsite fuel tank for the liquid ammonium nitrate within the process before it's purified into a solid state.
The one in Orem uses anhydrous NH3 + O2 => + H20 => Nitric acid + NH3 => NH4NO3 + heat => water evap => sprayed as droplets through air => cools to a solid state => coat for anti-dusting/caking => store in piles or bins.
Going to wiki it looks like the process is very similar:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Fertilizer_Plant_explosion
Stifle Tower
Punch Bowl Re-Filler
Terrible tragedy, but city planners should be fired and prosecuted. Why are homes, apartments, a senior center and a SCHOOL so close to this plant? There should be a safe zone around the plant with NO development allowed. Certainly there are experts who could have consulted on what the blast radius would be if one or two of their tanks exploded.
The Thriller
Well-Known Member
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROrpKx3aIjA
Unbelievably horrifying. His daughter freaking out... Understandably so...
Unbelievably horrifying. His daughter freaking out... Understandably so...
There seems to be a lot of refinery explosions in Texas.
around 1986 I was hired by a plastics manufacturer to find out why their process was failing. I kicked around the place, asked some questions, and took some samples of a material classed as explosive as TNT to another lab for some tests. The story was they had bought two freezers' full of the stuff to save some money. A storm reportedly an incipient tornado had passed by, knocking the power off for some hours. the stuff gets unstable as it warms up, hence its storage in the freezers. I found it had partially decomposed. . . . .
the "plant" was in a row of business offices, and across the road out back was a children's dance studio. We had to dispose of the whole lot. I had to call the fire dept. I was on the news that day, calmly telling reporters we were taking every precaution.
The manufacturer said it would burn safely if left in a parking lot in the one gallon containers. I took some out into the middle of nowhere, and did that with a few gallons. Can't do that in the city though. The fire department got big dump trucks filled with sand and transported them a few gallons at a time to an old quarry, and used dynamite to blow them up. well, that's the right way to dispose of TNT, but not this material. If it doesn't burn, it will decompose if scattered in small drops of particles in a way that will just release two toxic components without burning them. . . . .
well, the fire dept wouldn't listen to the manufacturer, or me, and did it that way. Some West Jordan folks got some headaches they didn't know why.
The horror of this story is that if the power hadn't come back on when it did, the material in those freezers could have exploded like TNT. Think about 1000 pounds of TNT. In the middle of Murray, two hundred feet from the University of Phoenix, about four hundred feet from the freeway, and with about 1000 people in the blast zone.
about the explosion in Texas, the authorities have been saying how grateful they are it happened at night, because there are a couple of schools nearby that would have been filled with children during the day
The Thriller
Well-Known Member
Well... Was it worth it? This company has repeatedly been cited for cutting corners. Was it worth it? Time to put this company out of business. Kill this company. Eventually, these "free market" capitalists have got to learn that cutting corners just isn't worth it.
I noticed that fact in the first reports. I believe in God and angels.. .. . . .
not sure what this world would amount to if left entirely to human stupidity.
well the company I spoke of was a Japanese-owned venture dedicated to technological piracy and leaving American creditors holding the bag. . . ..
tort liability is something most businesses consider, in some degree. . . . maybe not as much as they need to. . . . .
major corporates carry umbrella catastropic coverage for events like this. If this is a small company it might be just a pile of dust and worthless stock now. Hating companies is no answer to the ills of society. Having a climate of justice is.