Train Wrecks for Beginners....

[Bym]

As if the Americans weren't doing a good enough job of blowing big fuck-off holes in the sand, the Iranians have decided to try their hand at it, killing hundreds of their own citizens in the process.


At least they were a little 'imaginative' - rather than using conventional weapons they decided to re-enact the classic movie 'death train'

According to Iranian TV, the train wagons - which included 17 wagons of sulphur, six wagons of petrol, seven wagons of fertilizers and 10 wagons of cotton wool - broke loose from a train station and rolled about 20km (12 miles).

Somehow I think the muppet which scheduled that little lot to go in-transit together might end up receiving slightly more than a strong telling-off.

The blast was so powerful local residents thought it was an earthquake - and Iranian seismologists recorded a quake of magnitude 3.6 at the time of the explosion, AP reported.

Don't think we ever heard that of the conflict in the gulf, so much for "Shock and Awe", Mr Bush!

The blast shattered windows more than 10km (six miles) away and could be heard in the regional centre of Mashhad, 75km from the scene.

295 dead so far, and 5 villages obliterated


Full Text Here

 

[Xavier]

*wonders if Gomez Adams was spotted sneaking away from the scene*

 

[Munkey]

shock and awe? drop some snow onto the buggers, that should scare the shit out of them.

 

[.Wilier.]

Speaking as a former petrochemical emergency team member, it was a classic BLEVE (pronounced Blevvy) explosion.

Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapour Explosion.

Basically, the small fire that started off will have been heating the petrol in the tankers which as it heats expands. There isnt enough room in the tanker for this rapidly expanding gas, so it pops its way out in a rather spectacular stylee. Coupled with the fertilizer and some nice tinder-like cotton, we have a BLEVE of hooge proportions.

Weve had small cylinder fires here before (and the odd LPG explosion), and the cylinders have had to be submerged in water for 24hrs before they are deemed safe.

 

[Mofo8]

Apparently it left a crater 50 feet DEEP.... that's a big explosion innit? Also read somewhere that the explosion was heard 50 miles away and 5 villages were destroyed!!!

 

[Xavier]

aye, it says exactly that in Byms post, in fact. Well, apart from the crater depth.

 

[Mofo8]

aye, it says exactly that in Byms post, in fact. Well, apart from the crater depth.

oops... I thinnk I was just getting carried away by the magnitude of it. Some Yank's probably sitting deep in the bowels of the Pentagon trying to work out if they'll be able to drop trains on people in the next installment of the "War on Terror"

 

[mookie]

Speaking as a former petrochemical emergency team member, it was a classic BLEVE (pronounced Blevvy) explosion.

Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapour Explosion.

hee, my stepdad used to be the safety officer at some big petrochemical(?) plant in Oz, he's still got all the training vids and one of them is about BLEVE stuff, its pretty fucking big stuff, i was amazed when i saw it.

 

[Tom]

http://www.dcfp.navy.mil/mc/video/truckfire.zip

 

[Gef]

Trying to understand the logic of this, if it was a train, twenty odd carriages long. Thats a pretty big distance, now I can understand if one of the petrol tankers caught fire and blew up it would make a pretty big bang. But I fail to see how that would affect all the other containers simultaniously to make one huge bang. Surely it would have been a series of smaller explosions as each container went off?

 

[Munkey]

Lot of heat comes off one of them when they're on fire. So obviosuly the other ones would heat up as well, causing them to explode. Chain reaction or something

 

[Milkshake]

I heard that it started off with a small explosion, hurting very few people. But a whole load of rubber-neckers, firemen and local officials went to have a look, then the big boom went off.

S'why there's so many casualities.