HUGE explosion in Toronto...

[Problematique]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oV5udSWJcZo

Another angle:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbw_K8pfNfo


Cause:

Oil Depot. Approx 5 Mil. Barrels from what the majority of early reports say.

Damn.

[Jack Black]

Nice vids. The second one especially. Hopefully noone was in that second blast, but no doubt there will be some unlucky employees.

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hqtJYEbk8-fuqMhTAetoUpz7_yWQ

[nutsak]

That was huge!

[WarrenM]

God, the shockwave in that second one looks amazing. I hope nobody was hurt but you can't help but marvel at it. Damn.

[jerri blank]

Looks like a propane explosion rather than oil.

[Hanzii]

Yeah, that's what the news reports in that second post says too.

[Malderi]

Looks like a propane explosion rather than oil.

I'm curious; how can you tell?

[Alan Dunkin]

My thinking is that propane tank explosions are typically fast and short, while oil tank explosions are big, long, rumbling things.

--- Alan

[Mordrak]

He said he understands concerns about why a propane facility was allowed in a residential neighbourhood, but said such plants have to be housed somewhere.


Yes, preferably not in city limits. I bet a lot of people are moving after this.

[Hugin]

Wow. I feel really bad for whoever lived nearer to that.

[Bahimiron]

I'm curious; how can you tell?

Because propane creates an energy-efficient, clean-burning, more even flame. Taste the meat, not the heat.

[Pogo]

Can oil barrels just explode like that? I was under the impression that oil is much too thick to cause an explosive effect even if it's under pressurized or container-constrained circumstances.

[Lunch of Kong]

Can oil barrels just explode like that?

Haven't you ever played Donkey Kong?

[Fugitive]

Can oil barrels just explode like that? I was under the impression that oil is much too thick to cause an explosive effect even if it's under pressurized or container-constrained circumstances.
Right, but propane is naturally a gas, so if the container is ruptured it easily escapes and becomes an air/fuel mixture that is *extremely* explosive.

[Joel]

http://www.tvguide.com/images/pgimg/king-of-hill3.jpg

[Pogo]

Firefighters are close to extinguishing all of the burning tanks at the propane facility in northwest Toronto that exploded Sunday morning

Okie dokie then.

[Lunch of Kong]

You're right that a storage container full of crude oil would most likely burn and not explode. Oil refinery explosions usually involve volatile refined petroleum products such as gasoline.

[JMR]

The moral of the story is to always carry a video camera with you because cell phone videos suck.

[jerri blank]

I should have been more clear - I wasn't guessing it was propane based on the video. I saw it in the news stories. My phrasing might have been a little southern. :)

[Pogo]

That right thur look like a propeen explosion ratha' than a oil.

Fixed for Southern.

[bloo]

Right, but propane is naturally a gas, so if the container is ruptured it easily escapes and becomes an air/fuel mixture that is *extremely* explosive.

Yeah. Look at the huge flash that follows the big explosion that you see with a fast, spherical blastwave. Just after he says, "WTF?", camera tilts up a bit during its movement and there is that large flash of burning gas, a lot of which looks much closer than where the explosion started.

[MatthewF]

Had a gunpowder plant explode 2 miles away from my house when I was a kid; small town in New Jersey. There was only one shockwave and it literally picked me up out of bed and threw me against the wall. Couple hundred houses with broken windows and the ones nearest the plant were half-destroyed.

There was also a gas station explosion in Cupertino, CA when I lived there a few years ago, I was only a couple blocks away and the shockwave knocked me down and fucked my hearing up for a few days. Crazy stuff.

[Pogo]

Had a gunpowder plant explode 2 miles away from my house when I was a kid; small town in New Jersey. There was only one shockwave and it literally picked me up out of bed and threw me against the wall. Couple hundred houses with broken windows and the ones nearest the plant were half-destroyed.

What year was this? There's gotta be a news story.

[bloo]

Had a gunpowder plant explode 2 miles away from my house...
There was also a gas station explosion in Cupertino, CA when I lived there...

Scry = Explosion Magnet.

Please post continuous updates of your location so we can take appropriate action. Think of it as an international game of tag, and you're it. :)

[fuzzyslug]

Scry = Explosion Magnet.

Please post continuous updates of your location so we can take appropriate action. Think of it as an international game of tag, and you're it. :)

Yeah. Scry, you need to post your location before I start looking at the skyline every 5 minutes.

[armand v]

yeah it was a big explosion and very dramatic and all that but does anyone think the local authorities often over react at something like this? I mean shutting down a huge chunk of the highway that goes right through the middle of the city is a bit much, imo.

[WarrenM]

It's a safety measure. If they didn't shut down nearby roads and someone got hurt, things would be worse.

[Unicorn McGriddle]

yeah it was a big explosion and very dramatic and all that but does anyone think the local authorities often over react at something like this? I mean killing my mother is a bit much, imo.

It's a safety measure. If they didn't kill your mother and someone got hurt, things would be worse.

AD ABSURRRRRRRRRRRRRDUM

[fuzzyslug]

yeah it was a big explosion and very dramatic and all that but does anyone think the local authorities often over react at something like this? I mean shutting down a huge chunk of the highway that goes right through the middle of the city is a bit much, imo.

According to this (http://webwiser.nlm.nih.gov/getSubstanceData.do?substanceID=41&displaySubstanceName=Propane&UNNAID=&STCCID=&selectedDataMenuItemID=83) (data taken from the Emergency Response Guide), the protective distance is 1 mile for a rail car or tanker truck. Merely doubling it (a news report said 2 miles) for an entire factory, doesn't seem too bad to me.

[Hanzii]

I prefer authorities to be over protective in cases like this too - I've seen enough 70s disaster movies to know that the evil capitalists never wants to ground airplanes, evacuate or shut down beaches and then MILLIONS WILL DIE!

In all seriousness we had a fireworks plant go up, and apart from some knowledge gained from a similar accident in Holland authorities had no idea, what exactly they were dealing with. The poilice chief decided to play it safe and evacuated a large area, which probably saved a few lives in the later larger blast.

[Funkman]

Well I drove along Wilson Ave. this morning and got to see the rows of businesses that had all their windows blown out by the explosion. Plus there were a bunch of cars that were parked just west of the Keele/Wilson intersection right on the street, which gave the street a nice creepy/end of the world vibe. Anyway, it turns out that the propane depot was right next to a City of Toronto office that I worked at last summer.

[Shadari]

Has there been an estimate on the magnitude of the explosion?

[Machfive]

It was a 10.0 on the Awesome! scale.

[Alan Dunkin]

Another video: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7553088.stm

Apparently a firefighter died of a heart attack on scene, however.

--- Alan