Explosion in Texas

By up-ten

Date 05-16-2009 03:49

Buddy was lucky that piece hit his vehicle and not him. Whew!

By Cumminsguy71 (*****)

Date 05-16-2009 18:48

Holy cow that guy was lucky...so were the firefighters right next to that blast! That first tank just disappeared! Good thing all the guys/gals were safe out there.

By tigrooter (**)

Date 05-16-2009 20:23

oil fire and they are spraying water?

By dbigkahunna (****)

Date 05-17-2009 00:23

Water till the foamer shows up.
But keep this in mind, the firefighters who are doing this are all un-paid volunteers!
BABRT's

By tigrooter (**)

Date 05-17-2009 01:55

The fire department here has foam on every truck. It's expensive to buy but in the permian basin oilfield where lamesa is located you would think it would be on every truck. I'll never down a volunteer firefighter but after that first tank went flying I would have left with hoses dragn

By CWI555

Date 05-17-2009 02:33 Edited 05-18-2009 00:25

One thing I noticed about the first one, the roof held. Correct me if I am wrong, but are the roofs not designed to go first to avoid just such an occurance?

By tigrooter (**)

Date 05-17-2009 23:15

I can't tell cause the fire was already going it may have blown before the film crew got there. Tanks are made to vent like it did before it blew but we don't know all the things that are going on there. Like how hot the tank was when they started putting water on it and did it make the steel crack. How full it was also has something to do with it to if it was only half full it will take more time to build up the pressure and vent. We also don't know the condition of the tanks. It will take a long time to the puzzle together. I'm sure we'll learn some new stuff from this.

By CWI555

Date 05-18-2009 00:26

The roof held, that much I am sure of. You can see the jet of flame coming out the top of a port just before the whole thing went.

By Kix

Date 05-18-2009 15:12

I agree with you. The PRV let go, but it wasn't enough, the pressure was to great and the roof held creating a rocket. The next tank that lets go, the roof doesn't hold, you can see it rolling away. Crazy stuff. I'm Glad no one was killed and I hope something was learned out of that accident.

By FixaLinc (****)

Date 05-18-2009 06:12

I thought some had floating roofs too and some made to go like you said or ridgid depends on what is in them maybe?

By FixaLinc (****)

Date 05-18-2009 06:21

Probably foam & water solution but like others said it's expensive to carry lots of foam soap and have the equipment for it. Some of oil company refinery fire trucks carry about as much foam soap as water but few volunteer depts can afford trucks like that. Most new trucks now have onboard foam solution tank and water tank it's all mixed by a electronic computerized push button controller. On vehicle fires we cool it with water till can get our foam hose hooked up then go to foam but once you foam it never rinse the foam back off with water or it will come back on you.