• There seems to be an uptick in Political comments in recent months. Those of us who are long time members of the site know that Political and Religious content has been banned for years. Nothing has changed. Please leave all political and religious comments out of the forums.

    If you recently joined the forums you were not presented with this restriction in the terms of service. This was due to a conversion error when we went from vBulletin to Xenforo. We have updated our terms of service to reflect these corrections.

    Please note any post refering to a politician will be considered political even if it is intended to be humor. Our experience is these topics have a way of dividing the forums and causing deep resentment among members. It is a poison to the community. We appreciate compliance with the rules.

    The Staff of SOH

  • Server side Maintenance is done. We still have an update to the forum software to run but that one will have to wait for a better time.

whats happened in waco?

Daveroo

Members +
whats going on in waco tx?..i cant figure it out?...accident or?....i know its massive and nasty..
 
My heart goes out to all involved. Looks like a nightmare right now. CNN picking up bits of the story now. News choppers told to stay clear of area. So sad.

Jim
 
Reply...

Beana51,

Thanks for keeping us informed. My prayers to the families and those working at this factory. God save them.
 
Beana51,

Thanks for keeping us informed. My prayers to the families and those working at this factory. God save them.


Those were Early reports...with day light,more accurate info will be coming..it will take days to get the real answers..Today the Weather is hampering the aftermath ....In any case...It Was Terrible....We will know what happed soon.....Thanx Vin!!
 
Maybe someone here at the SOH can give an explanation to why this fertilizer plant was built to such close residential proximity? Because of it's potential explosiveness of the material,.....I would think it would have been built miles and miles away from homes and buildings. Same thing of course with grain silos.
 
Maybe someone here at the SOH can give an explanation to why this fertilizer plant was built to such close residential proximity? Because of it's potential explosiveness of the material,.....I would think it would have been built miles and miles away from homes and buildings. Same thing of course with grain silos.

I heard on another forum there was a plant there a good 40yrs ago that was a fair way a ways from town, so it might be a case of the town expanding closer to the plant.

Theres also a video of it, looks to have been a big fire to start with .. then it just went .. well ... boom :frown:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQbkt7R834w
 
We've had fairly good coverage of this incident so far I'd say it was a case of the town 'expanding'.
What really makes one think is the magnitude of the blast, 2.1 on the Richter Scale!!
Casualties are rising with a disturbing regularity.
Not good.
:australia: :unitedstates:
 
We've got grain elevators in town, but the grain company has been there in that location since the late 1800s. City Hall is now just across the street from them.
 
That must have been an almighty bang - I saw a photo snapped by someone on the ground in West shortly after the blast, huge grey mushroom cloud rising couple of thousand feet into the air, looks like a tactical nuke went off.
 
google the word "Blevie" sometime and watch the youtubes....what happened in West wasnt technically a blevie..but same sort of explosion....nasty things these....



watching these videos again..i cant believe i went willingly to training to become certified in propane fire management and control......and i accualy got to put that cert to use three times....:icon_eek:
 
Maybe someone here at the SOH can give an explanation to why this fertilizer plant was built to such close residential proximity? Because of it's potential explosiveness of the material,.....I would think it would have been built miles and miles away from homes and buildings. Same thing of course with grain silos.

These type of explosion happen quite regular I'm afraid. In October 2001 a similar explosion took place in Toulouse France causing 29 deaths.

A typical scenario for these type of explosion is airborne Ammonium Nitrate dust (good mix with oxygen) which gets in contact with an ignition source. As there is a lot of oxygen inside the molecule already the substance burn extremely fast (detonation= burns super sonic). Ammonium Nitrate is not only known as fertilizer, but for instance also used as oxidizer in rocket fuel.

There are many reasons why we find hazardous industries close to urban areas. Most reasons have something to do with money. Reduction in traveling costs, cheap groud, shared infrastructure, etc.). We are prepared to spend money on safety, but there is a limit.
In most cases governments try to limit the risks by forcing factories to put strong safety measures in place. These measures will reduce the probability something will happen or the effects. However there was a guy called Muphy..........

Huub

A good example of under estimating risks was the fire works disaster in Enschede. An accident with a few containers containing fire works caused 23 fatalities, 950 wounded and distroyed 200 houses.

 
Back
Top