I missed that last week investigators released a
report on the West Fertilizer explosion:
Investigators think the wooden fertilizer bins caught fire, and the
heat caused the fertilizer to create flammable gases. The gases
accumulated under pressure in the tall column of the bin, and falling
equipment and debris created the shock necessary to set off a portion of
the fertilizer that had become “highly sensitized,” Assistant State
Fire Marshal Kelly Kistner said.
The first blast set off another portion of the
ammonium nitrate a few milliseconds later, a sequence confirmed by
seismic readings miles away at Lake Whitney.
Kistner said 28 to 34 tons of ammonium nitrate
exploded, leaving 20 to 30 tons that did not explode. Another 100 tons
were sitting in a boxcar nearby that did not explode.
The total amount of ammonium nitrate fertilizer
on hand was significantly less than the 270 tons the company reported in
late 2012, according to
Kistner.
The bin that exploded was about 20 to 24 feet
tall, 10 feet wide and 30 feet deep, said Daniel Horowitz of the U.S.
Chemical Safety Board.
He said national firefighting organizations
recommend fire codes that require explosive materials to be stored in
nonflammable containers, but he said it appears neither the state nor
the county have adopted those codes.
The safety board is doing its own investigation
of the incident to determine what safety measures are needed to prevent
incidents like this elsewhere.
“This is the worst amount of damage to a
community the Chemical Safety Board has ever seen,” Horowitz said. “We
simply can’t have explosions like this happen again.”
Also, there was
this:
The amount that did detonate had the explosive power of 15,000 to 20,000
pounds of TNT. It flung bits of buildings and vehicles up to 2.5 miles,
though most of the debris fell within 3,000 feet, more than a
half-mile.
In the end, they figure the fire was started by a golf cart, an electrical fire or arson. I'd guess golf cart or electrical fire.
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