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.
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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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