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[Max White]

Not a good week for the US.

[Loud Whispers]

On the topic of explosions: http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/18/us/texas-explosion/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
A Texas fertilizer plant exploded. There's video of the explosion, and damn. That's one hell of a boom.

Hundreds injured, 2 confirmed deaths, expected to rise dramatically. Dozens of homes damaged/leveled, and a nearby nursing home collapsed.

NBC reported cited it as a '5 block blast radius.' And apparently it could be heard up to 45 miles away.

3 firefighters unaccounted for. Devastating.

[Sirus]

The only "good" thing that can be said is that this one has a good chance of being a freak accident. So...at least it might not be the work of another bomber.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

It is most likely an accident. Not really even a freak accident. Fertilizer is very volatile due to it being nitrogen-fixed, and nitrogen's high-energy bond makes it the reactant in most known explosives. A whole factory of it would easily go up in flames and explode.

You'd be surprised about the volatility of a lot of stuff. There are videos out there of people igniting weed killer by jumping on it.

[alway]

Yeah, the plant had been on fire for a while; being fought by about 5 or 6 volunteer firefighters... Yeah, with that number, it's not all that surprising it exploded. Fertilizer, after all, is basically bomb making material, as just about everyone knows. And a plant that makes the stuff, and thus has massive tanks and vats of the stuff, combined with a bunch of open flame? Well, I think you get the picture.

[Loud Whispers]

It is most likely an accident. Not really even a freak accident. Fertilizer is very volatile due to it being nitrogen-fixed, and nitrogen's high-energy bond makes it the reactant in most known explosives. A whole factory of it would easily go up in flames and explode.

And it's stored at very high pressures.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

It is most likely an accident. Not really even a freak accident. Fertilizer is very volatile due to it being nitrogen-fixed, and nitrogen's high-energy bond makes it the reactant in most known explosives. A whole factory of it would easily go up in flames and explode.

And it's stored at very high pressures.

Indeed. Given what we saw, I'm guessing any fertilizer or fumes outside the storage tanks fed the initial fire, followed by one of the tanks eventually rupturing and causing the explosion.

[Max White]

Knowing what was in there, why did they even attempt to put out the blaze? Their highest priority should have been evacuate the area.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

They might have thought they could stop it, or were caught up in their duty as firefighters, or just plain didn't know that it was a fertilizer plant. They almost certainly didn't get inside with a fire that extreme, so they wouldn't have seen it.

[penguinofhonor]

How did fertilizer get so explosive? Does poop do this in high enough quantities?

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I told you, nitrogen, and lots of it because plants love nitrogen unless they're legumes. It makes high-energy bonds, and when the bonds are broken all that energy comes out.

[Loud Whispers]

How did fertilizer get so explosive? Does poop do this in high enough quantities?

Ammonia produces a large volume of gas and releases much heat energy when it combusts.

Pure ammonia is not all that flammable, which might explain the firefighters' actions. However under certain conditions like where there are other fuel sources it can act as a powerful catalyst and an uninterrupted flame source (like that of an inferno) inside one of those storage tanks would lead to conditions that could and did cause an explosion.

[Sheb]

MSH, going to be pedantic, but breaking the bonds require energy, it doesn't free it. what happens is that N2, molecular nitrogen, got an incredibly strng triple bond. So when you break down another molecules containing nitrogen, any ergy required is going to be much less than the fantastic amount of energy you get by creating that triple bond afterward.

Moreover, it's a gas, which means creating it augment entropy fast, which further help the reaction.

[misko27]

Bloody fertilizer. That shit is dangerous. Used in quite a number of bombs. Frankly, I expect more explosions of that variety.


Anyway, the FBI has 2 person's of interest out there.

EDIT: BREAKING NEWS
They found the Ricin guy.. Guess what his career is?
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/elvis_is_busted_in_ricin_terror_RREsG6VnWRkCz6mrnq1SCL

[Virex]

You'd be surprised about the volatility of a lot of stuff.

One of Germany's biggest industrial accidents ever was the explosion of a fertilizer silo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oppau_explosion