Such an emotional last few days, thoughts and prayers to the people of West and the first responders.
Texas Fertilizer Plant Explosion
- Thread starter bdc30
- Start date
bdc30
BoM May '11
scanner audio from first 5mins after the blast. as a 911 dispatcher it gives me goosebumps.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G2upxAUk3Q&feature=youtu.be
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G2upxAUk3Q&feature=youtu.be
Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of the FBI's assault on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco. Coincidence? Maybe.
I seriously can't handle anything else this week...Boston Bombings, Anniversary of VT shootings (I was a freshman), and what appears to be a terrible accident in West. Honestly I've been an emotional wreck and just want this week to end without anything else terrible happening. My prayers go out to everyone in West and I hope more people are found alive.
It doesnt just explode.. it takes quite a bit of help (or negligence)...
ANFO (ammonium nitrate fuel oil) was what was used my McVeigh in OK City.. back then, many commercially used fertilizers (stuff you would get at a co-op that farmers used) was heavily laden with ammonium nitrate.. you could get similar stuff at Home Depot, etc.. but in much smaller quantities.. ammonium nitrate by itself will not go "boom" however....
there is a process (that I will not go into detail on the internet with) where other substances are added to it... you dont have to be super accurate with the mix.. but the better you are at it.. the bigger the boom.. an absolute amateur (like McVeigh) could build a serious device out of just a couple of bags of ANFO.. with very little practice..
Ammonium nitrate based fertilizer is almost impossible to get your hands on these days.. it has largely been replaced by Urea Nitrate.. which CAN NOT be used in the same way as ammonium nitrate to make an ANFO bomb.. federal law enforcement very closely tracks the small amount of ammonium nitrate that is still manufactured and sold in the US these days (it is still used in other products, to include commercial explosives such as kinepack, and other items)... In short, it is VERY EASY to make something go "boom" with Ammonium Nitrate...
you can make something go boom with Urea Nitrate as well.. but it is a bit more difficult.. and the resulting boom is not as powerful as ANFO.. It is considerably harder to get it to go high order than ANFO as well..
you get several tons of it confined to a small space (like a fertilizer factory).. and dont treat it with the respect it deserves however.. and the results can be devastating (obviously)...
It is not a very good option however for wanna be McVeigh copycats for a variety of reasons (again.. no need to put details on the internet).. which is why the fed gov has all but removed ammonium nitrate based fertilizers from the shelves as an option for joe average in the US to use on his lawn/garden, etc.. and why urea nitrate can be bought in 50lb bags at every wal-mart in north america..
Roughly 4000 pounds of ANFO was used at OK City in an outside, open environment.. and put in the back of a truck that was parked approximately 40 feet from the front of the building... the amount of devastation created was incredible..
By comparison.. roughly 1350 pounds of Urea Nitrate was used in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.. the device was placed in the back of a truck (similar to OK City).. and parked in the garage (contained environment), directly underneath the building, against support pylons.. while the results were horrific.. they are negligible by comparison with OK City..
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I know many of you probably dont know about the Texas City, TX explosion that happened on April 16, 1947 but two ships the Grandcamp and the High Flyer caught on fire both carring over 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer killed 581 people and leveled half of Texas City. Most of the causalities occur from people like the man filming this explosion watching the fire an from the fire fighters fighting the fire. Still considered on of the worst industrial accidents in US history. Im from Texas City, TX so this is why I know about it.
OSHA is going to shit a chicken
In defense of them they could have just been driving by when they saw something was on fire. Who knows if they knew what building was on fire. Also UIS wasn't aware above, he may not have known something like that could explode in the manner it did. They are relatively a decent amount away from a fire, that was a massive explosion that happened unannounced. Its not like they were outside of their car and walking towards it. I am not trying to be rude here but I don't think he did anything anyone else might have but pulling over and taking a look, we all rubber neck at accidents all the time, its human nature.
Any first responders that are interested in learning more about this should attend one of New Mexico Tech's EMRTC, FEMA sponsored courses (meaning you don't pay a dime for literally anything, including airfare and lodging)
I would highly recommend anyone who could potentially respond to one of these, or other types of explosion/bombing incidents, seek out information starting with the IRTB (Incident response to terrorist bombings) class.
Here is the link:
http://www.emrtc.nmt.edu/training/
Nothing better than free training!
I would highly recommend anyone who could potentially respond to one of these, or other types of explosion/bombing incidents, seek out information starting with the IRTB (Incident response to terrorist bombings) class.
Here is the link:
http://www.emrtc.nmt.edu/training/
Nothing better than free training!
http://www.emtinc.net/
these guys do a pretty decent 2 week long accelerated EMT-B program.. they offer housing, discounted meals, etc.. in addition to a very inexpensive training program that puts you through the entire EMT-B certification program (to include testing and getting you on the national register) in a short period of time (works well for college students, people that cant take a whole lot of time from work, etc..)...
I used to send all of the people that worked for me at a previous job I worked through this program... I was pretty impressed with the quality of training and the outcome considering everything is so compressed... (every person I sent passed the NR test, got certified, etc..)...
I might look into instructor level courses as well ...thanks for that class info guys
http://www.redcross.org/take-a-class/program-highlights/instructor-training
The Red Cross does a First Aid/CPR/AED instructor class that is decent.. pretty inexpensive.. etc..
They used to do one in the DC area 2 or 3 times a year... not sure what they schedule these days.. but it should be pretty convenient for you as opposed to some of the guys that live in more rural areas...
I used to send a couple of my guys to the red cross program every year as well (kept a couple of instructors on the team at all times so that we could keep our CPR/AED certs up to date, offer CPR/AED training to the security staff and others in the building, etc.. it was a good outreach program and kept us in the good graces of other groups within the organization..
The Red Cross does a First Aid/CPR/AED instructor class that is decent.. pretty inexpensive.. etc..
They used to do one in the DC area 2 or 3 times a year... not sure what they schedule these days.. but it should be pretty convenient for you as opposed to some of the guys that live in more rural areas...
I used to send a couple of my guys to the red cross program every year as well (kept a couple of instructors on the team at all times so that we could keep our CPR/AED certs up to date, offer CPR/AED training to the security staff and others in the building, etc.. it was a good outreach program and kept us in the good graces of other groups within the organization..