Waco Explosion

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Interesting. I seem to recall you're in industrial chemistry Ogie. How long have you been doing that?

Nope currently work for a engineering firm specializing in nuclear power. Been doing that about 7 years now. Prior to that was in chemical industry for about 24 years doing operations, industrial safety, process engineering, quality control, haz mat response, emergency response, clean air act compliance etc.. By training a chemical engineer.

[Docfeelgood]

It's sort of like a sick joke that the triage had to be set up outside of the hospital because that durned got blowed up for being built too close to a giant ticking timebomb!

Texas. The land that just keeps on giving in the stupidity stakes!

Sh!t, we do everything BIG here, even our explosions.

[Docfeelgood]

My guess is its not the Ammonium Nitrate/water chemical reaction that caused the issue but moreso that water was aborbed into the otherwise inert power form and caused the formation of a Ammonium Nitrate solid cake. Due to it semi-crystaline structure it was susceptible to shock effects and thus detonation wherein an otherwise powder simply dissapates shock vibrations. The change of the physical crystalline state was the precursor, most likely. That and of course the already present ignition source.

YOU THE MAN!

Talking to some firemen here, they speculate that the volunteer firefighters used water instead of foam and this is what caused the explosion. They told me that "water cannot be used on anhydrous ammonia or ammonium nitrate."
They went into more complicated detail about the chemical reaction but that **** just went over my head.

[The Mad Monk]

Criminal in most countries, but I'm guessing business as usual in others?

Indeed.

AZF (French initialism for AZote Fertilisant, i.e. nitrogen fertiliser) was the name of a chemical factory in Toulouse, France, which exploded on 21 September 2001. In Spring 2004, a terrorist group adopted the same name and threatened the French government with bombings on railways.

Toulouse chemical factory explosion

On 21 September 2001, a huge explosion occurred in the AZF fertiliser factory in Toulouse, France, belonging to the Grande Paroisse branch of the Total group.

Three hundred tonnes of ammonium nitrate was stored (the maximum capacity was 2,000 tonnes) in the hangar #221. The whole factory was destroyed making a crater of depth 20 to 30 m (65 to 100 ft), with a diametre of 200 m (650 ft); steel girders were found 3 km away from the explosion. The blast measured 3.4 on the Richter scale,[1] with an estimated power equivalent to 20-40 tons of TNT.[2] The explosion was heard 80 km away (50 miles). Due to the acoustics of the hills and the large sound, the explosion was reported as occurring in multiple places. Police at first believed that at least five bombs had simultaneously gone off. There is still controversy over the exact number of explosions.

The factory was close to the city: one of the most inhabited areas, Le Mirail, is just one kilometre away (0.6 miles). Several schools, one university campus, one hospital and a psychiatric hospital had to be evacuated.
Victims

The disaster caused 29 deaths (28 from the factory, 1 secondary school pupil from a neighbouring school), 2,500 seriously wounded, and 8,000 light casualties. Two thirds of the city's windows were shattered, causing 70 eye wounds and several thousand wounds which had to be sutured. The full environmental consequences of the catastrophe are not yet completely known. The total damages already paid by insurance groups currently exceed 1.5 billion euros.
Aftermath

The results of the official enquiry were that a warehouse of ammonium nitrate had exploded following improper handling of this dangerous material.[3]

Specifically it is believed by mandated official experts that "a mislabeled 500kg bin of sodium dichloroisocyanurate mistakenly thought to be ammonium nitrate was dumped in the off spec ammonium nitrate warehouse. Here under sufficiently hot and humid conditions it could have reacted with the ammonium nitrate to form nitrogen trichloride which is an exceedingly unstable compound. The decomposition of the nitrogen trichloride could have provided the heat and pressure required to detonate the ammonium nitrate which when used as an industrial explosive typically requires detonators."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AZF_%28factory%29

The Toulouse factory, owned by a subsidiary of oil major Total (FP) called AZF, wasn’t rebuilt after the 2001 blast, and in 2003, France passed a law requiring tougher regulation of ammonium nitrate fertilizer production. The law requires a “security perimeter” around factories handling the chemical, lawyer Bisseuil says. But, she says, the law isn’t being fully enforced. Many factories remain in populated areas, and authorities are reluctant to close them or demolish nearby homes, she says. “We can’t easily implement it.”

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-04-18/texas-fertilizer-explosion-recalls-french-disaster

[DaShi]

Now you're just linking wikipedia articles? My god, you are a useless person. Learn how to write.

[MrFun]

I would appreciate it if these goons can make up their minds.

[giblets]

Perry doesn't want to secede. And even if he did, it wouldn't be unreasonable for him to expect something in return for all the taxes Texans pay to the federal government.

[MrFun]

Perry doesn't want to secede. And even if he did, it wouldn't be unreasonable for him to expect something in return for all the taxes Texans pay to the federal government.

Yeah, my bad. He only threatened that a lot of people in Texas want to secede, not that he himself wants to.

[giblets]

Yes, he acknowledged the fact that depending on the circumstances some Texans might want to secede. History has already shown this to be the case.

[Docfeelgood]

Yes, he acknowledged the fact that depending on the circumstances some Texans might want to secede. History has already shown this to be the case.

[MrFun]

I guess a lot of Texans are unpatriotic, and are "American" in name only.

[Docfeelgood]

Texan first

[giblets]

I guess a lot of Texans are unpatriotic, and are "American" in name only.

Oh Texans are patriotic, just not blindly patriotic.

[Docfeelgood]

[kentonio]

I guess a lot of Texans are unpatriotic, and are "American" in name only.

Why would Texans be patriotic? They deserted Mexico so they could keep their slaves then left the US again for the same reason. It seems quite clear that they'd happily sell out any loyalty in return for a fast buck.