HAZMAT, hydrocarbon and polar solvent fires, to those of you who know, Class B or K fires, can be tricky to extinguish. Foam is an advantage, but the stuff isn't cheap.
Makes more sense to save the money and resouces, and let the sucker burn if there is nothing more to be saved, or no danger to other properties.
The CBS affiliate here showed some helicopter views which were quite impressive. The reporter did not draw any conclusions, just that Ethanol was involved. They also said it was a remote area and that the local fire departments were going to allow it to burn out on its own.
I thought that was a good idea-why get anybody hurt?
The explosion could have possibly been a BLEVE (Boiling Liquid, Expanding Vapor Explosion. sounds like "blevy") That is caused when flames from a fire are impinging on a vessel filled with flammable liquid, the liquid boils, and the vapors cause pressure to build, which then ruptures the vessel, or seeks escape in some manner, and that results in the explosion. It's possible the explosion in the video came from that. That one was huge fireball.
BLEVE type events have been known to fling railcars upwards of 1/2 a mile from the scene of the explosion....
igoldberg wrote:Ethanol, is alcohol which does not explode, it jsut burns. Something else exploded. I would not be supprrsed that the ethanol caught fire, it is quite flammable.
The rr reported that there was hydrochloric acid residue in one car,they talked like they were'nt sure if the other car was ethenol or crude oil...The oil pump next to the track was also on fire..
Apparently it is Ethanol burning. Northeast of Luther, OK, near the crossing of Cowell Road, according to this new story from an Oklahoma City station:
http://www.koco.com//news/17268024/detail.html
Location in maps.live.com: http://tinyurl.com/5zgqyc
Stein
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