The big fire in Dallas (PICS)

[putnum]

Hey guys I was able to go down to the burn site in Dallas this morning. I got 43 pics from it. It was a unbelievable site. Cars with nothing but the shell. Some cars had therir whole engine blocks gone! I suggest if you live near Dallas drop by and see it.

http://backatchaphotography.com/ALBUMS/072707BurnSite/

[lscottpht]

Cool. I passed by it today while driving to the zoo. Wish I could have gone that day, but I had the kiddos. It's making the traffic bad in that area, though. Everyone is busy looking at it.

[andyz]

Wouldn't it have killed you if you had all your best camera gear in your car while at work. A new MK III just delivered, for instance.

The heat had to be something.

[xseption]

Interesting photos ... where is the site located?

thanks!

~ edd

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

I was out there the day of the fire, just later in the day when it was safer www.pbase.com/pgkps and then went back yesterday morning and then back at 3 for the PRess Conference (still have some more pics to loadup)

Found out from a cameraman from CH 33 that Reunion Towers observation deck was open the whole time and I could have gone up there and shot even though debri from the explosions had been found in the parking lot past the tower! The cemraman (video) said that they don't have a chopper available for the station so they went up in the tower and that there really wasn't anybody else up there on the deck shooting.

To get the closest shots that I took, which were still quite a bit away, I walked on the Zang Bridge about 1/4 of a mile if not a bit further-actually had the Trinity River flowing below me-but since the Levee is so high there it blocked most of the view and I figured that it was just close enough and safe enough and was able to get the shots of the first firetruck arcing water off of a boom onto the fire which actually was used for under an hour before it stopped. So I was not there when the firebombs were exploding into the sky so missed those dramatic pics but hey you can't get to em all and this one was super dangerous then since some of those full bottles carcassas were found up to a half a mile away in the far south Reunion Parking lot across I-35. What is funny as I was coming back across the bridge to my car I had a patrol car with three officers pull over and chat with me. Wanted to know if I was able to get any good shots or not and then even offered me some bottled water, real nice guys.

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Btw That lot that was closer to AirGas and behind Mikes garage were not regular cars in for repairs but cars that were either parts cars or just being worked on (saw one with a windshield intact and it's inspection sticker and license tag info were 4 or 5 years out of date). So engine gone is a misnomer since it probably had been gone for a couple years. Now the cars that were inside and at the front of the building facing the on property driveway were employees cars and customers cars and they were toasted.

Since acetelyne gas mixed with pure oxygen can burn up to 6600F most of these tanks were going at a lower temp but still probably well over 3500F which can do a lot of damage since steel itself can burn at temps near that range. Yeah steel can and will burn if it gets hot enough, aka WTC 911.

[putnum]

Originally Posted by DEMDeepEllumMusic

Btw That lot that was closer to AirGas and behind Mikes garage were not regular cars in for repairs but cars that were either parts cars or just being worked on (saw one with a windshield intact and it's inspection sticker and license tag info were 4 or 5 years out of date). So engine gone is a misnomer since it probably had been gone for a couple years. Now the cars that were inside and at the front of the building facing the on property driveway were employees cars and customers cars and they were toasted.

Since acetelyne gas mixed with pure oxygen can burn up to 6600F most of these tanks were going at a lower temp but still probably well over 3500F which can do a lot of damage since steel itself can burn at temps near that range. Yeah steel can and will burn if it gets hot enough, aka WTC 911.

Wow thats good info to know. I was thinking those cars where from the fire. Good observation. I wish I knew about the reion tower being open I would have been there in a heart beat!

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Only problem with the tower is that there was no place near to park since they had all of the parking lots closed because of debri landing in them and with my ankle still healing I couldn't walk a great distance without knowing that if the tower would even be open.

Another poster said that he had thought about going to the Methodist parking garage but the view has been blocked by a new building, well after looking at my pictures he probably would not have been able to see into the site itself because of the Trinity Levee blocking his view which it did to me when I was on the Zang Bridge so that view was no good either.

As to the cars that is just making note of what you see and also knowing how some of these small garages operate-many times the owners if they have a storage lot will pick up cars at auctions and take them in and use them for parts or will work on repairing them when business is slow (better to have that mechanic on your payroll working on a rehab than just setting around when no jobs are in for the day) which I believe is what this guy did.

As to the SMOKE the day of the fire, found out that acetelyne when burned at certain temps will put out a lot of soot also when those cars and their interiors and tires burned that will put out a lot of black smoke along with the gasoline and oil in them-at those high temps seals will fail and the oil will flow out and of course catch on fire which then will blow any other seals/hoses/even some metal tubing to where all the liquids in the car that can burn will and they generally produce smoky fires.

One of the more suprising things are the windows broken out in ReUnion-those windows are a good 80 ft or so off the ground so taking projectile paths that building blocked some heavy unidentified flying objects! Man that would have been a huge mess if the Mary Kay Convention had been using that building also, heard that several of there buses were over on that side of the Convention Center parked waiting to run shuttles and when the first big explosions went off they decided to move real fast out of the area-from where they were they could see the FIRE BALLS blowing up into the sky!

Heard rumour that some tanks actually blew across I-30 to the north which had to be over a 1/2 mile away but kind of looked into the area and didn't see any burned grass but there are several parking lots in the area that you would never know if debri had hit them or not since there was a big cleanup overnight to pickup all of the debri.

I would guess the cars will probably be there for a couple more days and then they will start cleanup of the site.

Folks this property backs right up to I-35 and is just north of the Houston St Viaduct by about 100 ft and is directly across from ReUnion Arena.