BIG Badda-BOOM

And people STILL missing, bless their hearts.

6 Responses to “BIG Badda-BOOM”

1. Mr. Bingley says:

   April 20, 2013 at 6:25 pm

   I’ve watched that video a couple of times and it still chills me to the bone. Hell, I could see myself doing exactly that with Daughter…and that poor dear girl saying “daddy, I can’t hear!”. Oh man….

2. Kathy Kinsley says:

   April 20, 2013 at 8:49 pm

   Yeah. Damn. I want to know how/why – that should NOT have happened. That’s the sort of accident that happens in India or China. (And may it never again there either.)
   Someone messed up.

3. tree hugging sister says:

   April 20, 2013 at 9:02 pm

   From what I’ve heard, the local fire department, to their utter devastation. Spraying water on a chemical fire.

   I canNOT believe that there wasn’t continuous hazmat training for even the volunteer squads, with such a dangerous facility right at the freakin’ edge of town, but somebody just didn’t get the message. Or know what the proper squirt for the fire at hand was. Damn if they don’t beat that shit into you in a Marine Corps squadron. The types of fires and the three types of extinguishing agents, what does what and what most definately DON’T mix, not to mention EVERY extinguisher HAS the damned DOT pictographs on them.

   Godawful man-made tragedy.

4. JeffS says:

   April 21, 2013 at 9:04 am

   Volunteer fire fighters generally get good training, Sis, to include dealing with hazarous materials. And such facilities are required to register their hazardous materials with the county and/or city, for the reasons you mention.

   I suspect that, if water was sprayed on the chemical fire (shudder!), we’ll find that there were extenuating circumstances. For example, I’ve read that the plant had a larger nitrate stockpile than they had reported. Several hundred percent larger. Maybe the fire fighters didn’t know what was in one particular building because it wasn’t properly marked.

   In any case, like the Boston bombings, the information is way too confusing and chaotic. Hopefully, when things settle down, there will be a better accounting.

5. Kathy Kinsley says:

   April 21, 2013 at 7:18 pm

   Still, when dealing with a chemical plant fire, you don’t use water – even on buildings that might not contain chemicals.

   But, you might want to check budgets and such, too – was there anything else available to spray on it?

   I remember a chemical plant fire in Charlotte – decades ago. They ran out of stuff to spray on it. Ended up having to evacuate quite a lot of the area due to the pollution in the smoke.

6. Kathy Kinsley says:

   April 21, 2013 at 7:34 pm

   Oh – and yes, they did use water – tons of it, on the surrounding buildings to keep THEM from going up.