Thread for talking about industrial explosions, accidents/craziness of the past

Crumbling dam situation in Oroville, CA

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/02/13/not-a-drill-thousands-evacuated-in-calif-as-oroville-dam-threatens-to-flood/?utm_term=.d45ab689432a

Not the same thing, but made me think of the St. Francis Dam disaster, which has not been mentioned yet on this thread:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Francis_Dam#Prelude_to_disaster

always assumed the st francis dam was the inspiration for the van der lip dam that hollis mulwray built and then collapsed in chinatown

Ah, it's been years since I've seen that movie. I knew it was about those water issues, but I'm fuzzy on the details.

Not to pile on, I know you said you realize the 2 are different but for my own panic avoidance:

St Francis was a complete dam *collapse*; Oroville we're talking about an eroded spillway, but the dam is still in tact. Still a legit scary situation & a fuckton of water - thankfully situation has dialed down from last night - but i gotta mega underline that this was waaaaaaaay WAY removed from the horrors of St Francis

Oh yeah, it just made me think of it.

Here's where I really sound like an idiot, but

This weekend was the first time that I really understood what a spillway was. I've read about them before, but only formulated in my mind that they were a type of "runaway ramp" for the water or a temporary reservoir. I didn't "get" what they actually did though.

I think my problem stems from the fact that the dam in my hometown has the spillways on the other side of the dam itself. There's never been some sort of water chute off to the side used to relieve the lake elevation.

http://i.imgur.com/OmXyHlr.jpg

I mean, I would identify this as a dam, straight up, but still, in my mind's eye, I want to call it a levee.

http://i.imgur.com/nFNQZ20.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUowiNeF_Rw

Whoa.

Epic

Presenting the YouTube channel for the Chemical Safety Board investigations

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg7mLSG-Yws

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdDuHxwD5R4

The commentary makes it a candidate for the Real England thread but Buncefield has already been mentioned here upthread.
Buncefield fire: 'Idiotic' teens capture fuel depot blaze on film

A truck full of ammonium nitrate exploded near Camden, Ark., on Wednesday. Only one person, the driver, was killed.

Here's the road from Google Street View:

https://i.imgur.com/SXmioE2.jpg

Now here's the road as it looked yesterday:

https://i.imgur.com/c8YIP5E.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/T0ASbFJ.jpg

Crazy part is this: Camden's way down south of here, closer to Louisiana than anything I see on a regular basis. Despite that, my NextDoor app is filled with posts asking "What the hell was that noise?" Even I heard thunder even though in hindsight, it hasn't rained here like that since last week.

It wasn't thunder. It was the goddammed fertilizer truck!

NEW: A deadly chemical truck explosion in Camden was heard nearly 100 miles away. @KATVToddYak explains how the sound waves traveled that far: https://t.co/eLZ3t2FqwM | #arnews pic.twitter.com/6EI79pze6q

— KATV News (@KATVNews) March 27, 2019

Some spooky shit!

https://i.imgur.com/C9rKKjJ.jpg

holy fuck

I haven't ever been able to really picture how a moving truck could take out the Murrah Building. Maybe it's for a lack of trying. (I don't really want to picture it.)

But those pix help put it into a little perspective.

otm

umm yeah. goddamn.

My favourite is Mariner 1 crashing shortly after launch due to a single character error in a software program.

― Meine Damen und Herren, ein grosse sh*tstorm! (snoball), Thursday, July 11, 2013 3:28 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Copyediting: SRS BZNESS.

(Thanks for the name; I remembered the story loosely and have been known to cite it when explaining the importance of proper spelling, punctuation, and grammar.)

― Word Salad Username (j.lu), Friday, 12 July 2013 16:46 (five years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LJz-TWV3so

Video of spectacular shockwave from explosion at military unit in Krasnoyarsk Krai of Russia pic.twitter.com/0yeg3hIb5F

— Liveuamap (@Liveuamap) August 5, 2019

Yipes

Although technically off topic for this thread since that appears to be ongoing

fair

I'll take it.

https://www-m.cnn.com/2019/11/27/us/port-neches-plant-explosion/index.html

Also that fertilizer truck blast...damn. I guess if a truck can be heard 100 miles away it makes it much more believable that Krakatoa could be heard blowing its top 3000 miles away across the expanse of the Indian ocean.

"The black stuff floating, don't touch it," said Troy Monk, who is the director of health safety and security for the TPC Group.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RFDKpwdbEA

Knew I recognized the narrator from somewhere.

Definitely an older one: pier collapse at 1883 church picnic in Baltimore kills 63.

https://anengineersaspect.blogspot.com/2010/05/the-tivoli-maryland-pier-collapse-july.html

Aerial footage of Exeter bomb exploding

Welp, I'd hate to be going to work in Dresden next week.

gerry having the last laugh there

Extruded aluminum factory goes from zero to full incineration in just over 30 seconds (video on Reddit)
https://www.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/comments/v48rnt/extrudedaluminium_factory_jun_22/

Basically, if there's an industrial fire in an enclosed space - GTFO immediately.

New USCSB video on the 2019 Philadelphia refinery explosion. Super-informative and recommended if you bookmark this thread.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc8qXTh6tTY

That is the sweetest YouTube channel

TIL what a dead leg is and why popcorn polymer is incredibly dangerous

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-3BFXpBcjc

O_O

holy shit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhRlm0yQ2ZU