Video of Waco Fertilizer Plant Explosion

[Plutonic Panda]

This is insane. A few people pointed out in the commentary that this was next to two schools, a playground and a nursing home. If that is true, then, who the hell approved this??? lol Always the video was so intense I thought I'd share it. Enjoy, or not seeing as people died.

[Brownwood]

Wow, as a father I can't understand why you would risk taking your child to film this. If you were from the town, you should know this was a potentially explosive situation.

[SoonerDave]

Wow, as a father I can't understand why you would risk taking your child to film this. If you were from the town, you should know this was a potentially explosive situation.

Yeah, but in all fairness, I don't think most people ever envision or contemplate the notion of that magnitude of an explosion. I mean, that thing rocked seismographs.

[ou48A]

Everybody who was educated by the Texas public school system should already know about the “ Texas City Disaster” and the explosiveness of ammonium nitrate fertilizer. The OKC bombing should serve as a reminder. It's not very smart to be hanging around any fire involving this fertilizer. IMHO better locations and more precautions should be in place for these types of facilities.

This is a good read on the Texas City Disaster

1947 Texas City Disaster

[Plutonic Panda]

wow, never knew about that. Great read thanks.

[RadicalModerate]

wow, never knew about that. Great read thanks.

Dang. I thought EVERYBODY knew about that disaster . . .
(i think i first read about it in an old copy of The People's Almanac . . . one of those old, thick, tree by-product and ink based things you used to be able to buy.)

I think it was mentioned somewhere next to The Peshtigo, Wisconsin and Hinkley, Minnesota forest fires.

[Jim Kyle]

wow, never knew about that. Great read thanks.

Go to the Oklahoman Digital Archives (reachable via the library if you don't subscribe, free on-line if you do) and search for April 16-18, 1947. They flew Wayne Mackey and a photographer down there and had terrific coverage...

[cattleman]

While both are dangerous, I think this West, Texas explosion was from anhydrous ammonia not ammonium nitrate

[ou48A]

While both are dangerous, I think this West, Texas explosion was from anhydrous ammonia not ammonium nitrate

Thanks, I had not specifically heard what type of fertilizer it was.

[Jim Kyle]

While I'm no chemist, my understanding is that anhydrous ammonia is relatively stable; it's not unreasonable to believe that while the plant had a large stockpile of it, this could have been for the purpose of creating the nitrate -- or the nitrate could have been part of the process involved.

The sequence of events pretty closely matched what happened at Texas City in 1947: there, it was a relatively small fire, firefighters responded, soaked everything down, and that soaking caused the temperature of the nitrate to rise quickly enough to detonate it. Yesterday there was a small fire and firefighters responded. It became a larger fire, and apparently nobody survived to say what they were doing when things went out of control -- but this definitely implies the possibility of a large stock of nitrate detonating...

[Plutonic Panda]

Go to the Oklahoman Digital Archives (reachable via the library if you don't subscribe, free on-line if you do) and search for April 16-18, 1947. They flew Wayne Mackey and a photographer down there and had terrific coverage...

I'll do that. I have a school library system that I use and will be able to provide me with that info.

[kelroy55]

Everybody who was educated by the Texas public school system should already know about the “ Texas City Disaster” and the explosiveness of ammonium nitrate fertilizer. The OKC bombing should serve as a reminder. It's not very smart to be hanging around any fire involving this fertilizer. IMHO better locations and more precautions should be in place for these types of facilities.

This is a good read on the Texas City Disaster

1947 Texas City Disaster

Interesting article

[bluedogok]

While I'm no chemist, my understanding is that anhydrous ammonia is relatively stable; it's not unreasonable to believe that while the plant had a large stockpile of it, this could have been for the purpose of creating the nitrate -- or the nitrate could have been part of the process involved.

The sequence of events pretty closely matched what happened at Texas City in 1947: there, it was a relatively small fire, firefighters responded, soaked everything down, and that soaking caused the temperature of the nitrate to rise quickly enough to detonate it. Yesterday there was a small fire and firefighters responded. It became a larger fire, and apparently nobody survived to say what they were doing when things went out of control -- but this definitely implies the possibility of a large stock of nitrate detonating...

It is when kept relatively cool, when heated it can become unstable in the presence of another catalyst, which the plant no doubt had and was unable to keep it contained when exposed to the original fire. No telling what valves, piping and such were compromised by the fire and pressure due to the heating.

I have driven through there a bunch with all the trips between OKC and Austin. Pulled over there once on the motorcycle in a torrential downpour, those kolaches are good.