Bob Wright said:
Bob Wright said:
You ought to try working around a grain elevator or soybean oil extraction plant!
Bob Wright
I have done so every working day since July of 1989.
Then you are aware of the explosive force grain dust can produce. I inspected one plant, a pet food manufacturing facility, that had had an explosion. And saw photos of several others. One, at Logansport, Indiana, was especially destructive.
Bob Wright[/quote]
You mean like these??????????????
1947 Texas City Disaster
April 16 & 17, 1947
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The First Explosion
The fire on the S.S. Grandcamp produced a dense, brilliantly colored smoke that could be seen all over town. Fires around the docks were a fairly common occurrence in Texas City; it was not unusual for residents to travel down to the docks to watch the fires and the firemen working, which may explain why there were so many bystanders present — and subsequently so many casualties — at explosion of the S.S. Grandcamp.
The ammonium nitrate onboard the Grandcamp detonated at 9:12 a.m., rupturing the ship and sending the cargo of peanuts, tobacco, twine, bunker oil and the remaining bags of ammonium nitrate 2,000 to 3,000 feet into the air. Fireballs streaked across the sky and could be seen for miles across Galveston Bay as molten ship fragments erupted out of the pier. The blast caused a fifteen-foot tidal wave that crashed onto the dock and flooded the surrounding area. Windows were shattered in Houston, 40 miles to the north, and people in Louisiana felt the shock 250 miles away. Most of the buildings closest to the blast were flattened, and there were many more that had doors and roofs blown off. The Monsanto plant, only three hundred feet away, was destroyed by the blast
1977 Initial Blast Devastates Explosion Site GRAIN ELEVATOR WALLS SHATTERED Bv Blast at Galveston Wharves • SUffPtotoByBettyTfchfcii STORAGE TANK AT FARMERS EXPORT Damaged in Grain Explosion on Wharves SUBPWo By Betty TWA* United Press International's Account Of Explosion CALVESTON, Texas (l/Pl) - A series of expiations that "sounded like the end of the world" ripped through a grain elevator Tuesday night, burning and lulling workers in the second grain elevator explosion in the United States in the past week. A Galveston police spokesman said at least seven persons were killed in the explosion and subsequent fire. "We have seven dead," said police I,t. O.K. Lack. "We're still looking for bodies and injured now." There was no indication of what caused the blast. The explosion occurred at Pier 33 at the Farmers' Export Elevator, which former!v was known as the Cook Grain Elevator. The elevator is a cluster of 40 silos and has a capacity of 3.5 million bushels. "It sounded like the end of the world." said police spokeswoman Sandra Onova. who was off duty at the time of the explosion. "It shook the building where I was at. and I was about a half block away." A fire investigator said the explosion and fire started in a tunnel where a boxcar load of grain was being unloaded. He said after the first explosion there were several smaller explosions which traveled up the length of the 21>foot elevator lift until they reached the Head House, where grain is measured and weighed before being stored in silos The investigator said an office near the tunnel, the lift machinery in the Head House and several nearby grain silos were destroyed by the blast. At least 12 persons working at the elevators were hospitalized with serious burns. Ambulances, police and fire trucks from several surrounding cities also were called in to assist. The Coast Guard was searching the waters off the wharves, looking for anyone who may have been blown into the "water. The Coast Guard also said it assisted a Russian grain ship in moving away from the wharves. Authorities said the blast shook buildings for several blocks around and several windows in the city were broken. Police said they had some reports of looting. The Department of "Public Safety said all troopers in the county had been dispatched to the city to assist local police. Officials said the blast ripped out the side of at least one elevator bin. They said, however, none of the 150-foot tall structures had toppled. In Westwego. La., last week an explosion in a grain elevator on -the Mississippi River left 35 dead, several injured and did more than $100 million worth of damage. Last year an explosion at the Goodpasture Grain Elevator in Houston killed nine persons.
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