unclesyd
Materials
- Aug 21, 2002
- 9,819
Just happened to have the news on when they broke in with action report on a fire at a Praxair Distribution Center in St Louis, Mo. Really thankful that no one was reported injured.
It was purely amazing as to the descriptions and explanations of what was going on at the scene. On three separate networks not one individual, reporter, safety personnel, or emergency personnel, was correct in their descriptions and explanations of the incident. It was an extensive fire in the storage yard involving many bottles of different gases. Some cylinders did burst and send debris in several directions and cause several collateral fires. Everyone missed the main thrust of the fire as being Acetylene fires burning due to the fuse plug releasing and venting the Acetylene and Acetone. I did see one pallet of MAPP gas burning. You could see pallets of Acetylene cylinders burning at the valve area. The largest fires were either trailer loads of cylinders or manifold racks. A comment was made that the fireman couldn’t tell what was burning, evidently none had a list of cylinder color codes. The pail of black smoke was coming mainly from burning tire rubber. There was a little black smoke initially from the Acetylene due to O2 depravation but that quickly cleared up.
It is bad enough that the big networks don't have someone with an petrochemical or chemical industry on call that could shutdown some of the reporters/commentators. It is even worse when the responders don't know or understand the basic of chemistry and physics and a detailed knowledge of the hazardous material in the area. It looked like their were 4 cryo tanks in the vicinity that no one mentioned.
A incident just happened in our area where one of emergency chiefs was on TV and was reporting on a derailed tank car of "caustic acid" that might blowup.
I appreciate all the people in the fire and emergency groups but sure wish they could have better understanding of what they are facing by learning the basics of the physical science. An be more familiar with the industries in their jurisdiction.
It was purely amazing as to the descriptions and explanations of what was going on at the scene. On three separate networks not one individual, reporter, safety personnel, or emergency personnel, was correct in their descriptions and explanations of the incident. It was an extensive fire in the storage yard involving many bottles of different gases. Some cylinders did burst and send debris in several directions and cause several collateral fires. Everyone missed the main thrust of the fire as being Acetylene fires burning due to the fuse plug releasing and venting the Acetylene and Acetone. I did see one pallet of MAPP gas burning. You could see pallets of Acetylene cylinders burning at the valve area. The largest fires were either trailer loads of cylinders or manifold racks. A comment was made that the fireman couldn’t tell what was burning, evidently none had a list of cylinder color codes. The pail of black smoke was coming mainly from burning tire rubber. There was a little black smoke initially from the Acetylene due to O2 depravation but that quickly cleared up.
It is bad enough that the big networks don't have someone with an petrochemical or chemical industry on call that could shutdown some of the reporters/commentators. It is even worse when the responders don't know or understand the basic of chemistry and physics and a detailed knowledge of the hazardous material in the area. It looked like their were 4 cryo tanks in the vicinity that no one mentioned.
A incident just happened in our area where one of emergency chiefs was on TV and was reporting on a derailed tank car of "caustic acid" that might blowup.
I appreciate all the people in the fire and emergency groups but sure wish they could have better understanding of what they are facing by learning the basics of the physical science. An be more familiar with the industries in their jurisdiction.