#230478 - 08/24/11 08:44 PM
Propane rail car on fire, 5,000 homes threatened
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Veteran
Registered: 12/14/09
Posts: 1419
Loc: Nothern Ontario
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This is when it pays to have your go bags ready and evac plans in place. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44259169/ns/us_news-life/Firefighters on Wednesday will try to siphon propane from a burning rail car in a bold maneuver meant to head off an explosion after the blaze forced the evacuation of thousands of people in a Sacramento suburb.
Officials decided to take the step after consulting with members of a national response team from Houston, who were flown in overnight to offer advice.
Fire officials initially said the blaze could continue for 21 days, but Lincoln Fire Chief Dave Whitt said that scenario was unacceptable. Between 4,000 and 5,000 homes in the city of 40,000 are evacuated and more than 6,000 students are missing their first days of classes, with district schools ordered closed until Monday.
Officials are trying to head off a potentially catastrophic failure of the 29,000-gallon tank. A buildup of heat could lead to an explosion that Whitt compared to a "small thermal nuclear bomb" that produces a fireball several hundred yards wide.
_________________________
Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.
John Lubbock
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#230511 - 08/25/11 01:27 AM
Re: Propane rail car on fire, 5,000 homes threatened
[Re: Teslinhiker]
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Geezer
Registered: 01/21/04
Posts: 5163
Loc: W. WA
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I was reading about that earlier today. Dangerous situation for all concerned, esp the firemen handling it. The 'bomb' going off is bad enough, but the shrapnel from the tank would be awful, too.
Sue
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#230552 - 08/25/11 03:58 PM
Re: Propane rail car on fire, 5,000 homes threatened
[Re: Teslinhiker]
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Pooh-Bah
Registered: 02/16/08
Posts: 2463
Loc: Central California
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Heard this a.m. that by the time the fix was ready they determined the tanks were almost drained and the danger all but over.
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#230573 - 08/25/11 06:02 PM
Re: Propane rail car on fire, 5,000 homes threatened
[Re: dweste]
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Old Hand
Registered: 05/29/10
Posts: 863
Loc: Southern California
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Heard this a.m. that by the time the fix was ready they determined the tanks were almost drained and the danger all but over.
_________________________
Hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane
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