Anyone impacted by the Dallas Explosions?

[johnastovall]

There appear to be some great photo ops if you can get there at I-30 and I-35.

[L Stegall]

No, but one of the guys at my husband's office was at the Crowley Courthouse and said the windows were definitely shaking that far away when it happened.

[darktiger]

Man explosions in New York, San Fran, and now Dallas.....

[Cope]

Earlier in the story they said a truck caught fire and the fire spread to the facility.

"The canisters held acetylene and propane gas, said Texas Commission on Environmental Quality spokeswoman Andrea Morrow. It wasn't immediately clear what caused them begin exploding around 9:30 a.m. Calls to a phone listing for Southwest Industrial Gases weren't answered. "

Do you think the calls weren't answered because the phone lines had melted?

Where do they get the people who write this stuff?

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Well I tried to go out and cover this and it was damn near impossible unless you were in a chopper- ALL ROADS for about 1/2 mile radius were closed to traffic (even TV news trucks were not allowed to pass the baracades but did see one crew had gotten past them but had only gone about 200 ft in to set up but left soon anyway because the visual just wasn't there). I actually walked another 1/4 mile right up over where the Trinity was right under my feet -it's back in it's banks- and grabbed a few shots from the Zang Ave Bridge but they were still pretty much blocked by the east side of the Levee and part of one of the Viaducts that cross the Trinity. Didn't want to walk further because of the smoke and didn't want nor need a cop coming up to hastle me. What is funny as I was walking back after shooting a police car with 3 officers in it pulls up to me and offers me some water and asked if I got any decent shots which I admitted that they were not the best-just a snorkel truck arcing water towards the smoke-will get them up on Pbase soon. So really you may have been able to get something from Reunion Tower but don't know if the observation deck was even open since all of the parking lots were sealed off by cops and Texas Highway Dept folks. Hell I was even at one spot on the edge of the RxR tracks trying to get a shot and a RxR cop came up with flashing lights over by Lamar and asked me what I was doing right after I had gotten a couple shots off- he said well just move your vehicle out of here. So cops were cool to me today but the shooting conditions were crap and to be honest didn't get out there until after the smoke died down and the explosions had stopped, I actually waited a bit because I kept seeing cylanders burning gas out of their valves on TV and when they are releasing gas you know they are hotter than hades and those suckers could blow at any time.

Turns out a pigtail malfuncted and started the whole mess.

Radio-KRLD-said that they had all sorts of Industrial gases on site and so far just three people were burned and no one was killed which is amazing.

[TxManx]

I followed the events on my scanner at work...sounded like it would have been an awesome photo-op...but couldn't escape.

[guitarbug]

I had to cancel 2 jobs today because we could not through the traffic! I am sure my tech's did not mind the early cut off today. That was pretty cool watching it on the tube, glad I was not on the freeway like I am most of the time.

[Chief]

fox news had a new york fireman call and this guy was trying to tell em all about what was going on. it was silly what he was saying from new york city. reminded me of a pace picante sauce commercial.
I hope no one was killed or hurt. i havent had to see the news since noon.

good luck guys

gordon

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

The two main guys with the shop got burned, they tried to stop the fire with some small water hoses, and a truck driver who was trying to run away wrenched his back but that was the exctent of injuries.

Heard that the two burn victims should recover in a few months if not quicker, did not hear if they will have to get any skin grafts or not but Parklands Burn unit where they were taken is considered one of the best in the world.

Very suprised that none of the exploding debri, some found up to 1/4 mile away, did any damage to people just some property damage but the fire dept went way safe on this one and did not even attempt to enter the site when those canisters were still blowing up. Hell an acetalyne tank that is about 4 ft tall is one deadly projectile and some of those full tanks were flying hundreds of feet when neighboring tanks or those themselves were blowing up.

Looks like anyone in the business who is looking to get their tanks refilled with acetalyne or even many of the other gasses that they supplied will have to go some distance to find a supplier since these were the go to guys for those industrial gases.

[Hanky]

I have to be honest here, I have have worked with oxcy-aceteline torches so I know a litttle not alot about them. If they are engulfed in flames I'm outta there. I simply do not posess the courage needed to attempt a fire supression. My hat is off to those two.

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

If people don't know how the operation works of filling the bottles this is kinda of how it works.

They line the bottle up in a row and use a system of high pressure tubing with what are called pigtails that run off to each bottle being filled. They pressureize the aceteline to 300 lbs per square inch (PSI) at the plant (big 18 wheelers that deliver it handle it at around 8-9 psi) and then pump it into several of the "bottles" (bottles are the steel cylanders some are around 4 ft tall and about 8 inches across-think of the helium tanks that you see them filling mass quantities of ballons with) and I guess that they may do this with the bottles actually still on the delivery truck (easier than hauling the cylanders off the truck and back on). Well one of the "pig tails" malfunctioned and something set the gas off and at first only one or two bottles were burning and I guess the feeder line and that is when they tried to put it out with extinguishers and water hoses but then it escallated fast and spread into the storage yard where they had up to 1000 of these full cylanders in the yard holding various industrial gases and those are what started exploding sending debri up to 1/4 mile away!

Fox 4 happened to interview one guy from the shop who said that when he saw the fire on the fueling dock he just started running north leaving the other guys in the shop just hoping that they would get out too as fast as they could. The business had been there for around 30 years with a totally clean history as to how they handled their gasses, there had been some minor citations about where vehicles were parked and maybe a couple workers comp type claims but as far as safety record of how they operated they were very well trained on safety so it just came down to faulty equipment that failed at the worste possible time.

The two guys who were injured were both in the mid to lat 50's, one was the manager and the other the owner.

[Gama Fotos]

Here's a youtube link pretty much showing everything. This is insane.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrz-E_QuM3E


Here's another link from a different perspective. Thows the gas cylinders exploding and flying half a mile away onto highways and bridges. One of them landing about 4 meters away from some guy.

http://beloint.wmod.llnwd.net/a125/o...iarawfinal.wmv

copy this url into your windows media player. (file-> open url->)

[BlueStar-57]

I was concerned about the animal shelter that wasn't to far away, they moved the animals to the back of the building, then had to leave them behind.
They said there where nearly wrecks on the freeway when people where trying to backup to get away from the flying shells. Chris sorry to hear about your job losses, but glad you didn't get tied up in the traffic jam.
Liked the wording NBC tried to use to describe the street people who hang outside the local liquior places as one of the concerns the police had for safety. They kind of stumbled on their wording trying to express them in the right terminology, me I just call them street people since they live on and off (getting money) of them.
Propane though it wasn't the main thing at the site is very explosive and unless on fire is toxic to breath, that is why a smell is added to it, duh for those who might not know.
As for breathing the smoke I'm not sure of it's health effects, but they assured everyone it would not hurt (think they said the same thing on 911 which didn't end up being true).
Insurance is high on companys handling propane (I'm sure true with any explosive gas), so I'm pretty sure they will have medical bills covered and be able to pay for the damage to vehicles, auto shop and some of their operations.
I'm just greatly relieved that no one was killed in it all. And yes when something like that happens you'll find people trying to put it out ASAP risking injury if they work in the field for a long time. Some of our drivers did and where able to save the day though some got hurt doing it. When filling tanks static electricity off clothing can set things off, even the trucks require a grounding strap.
Paul tis better to be safe than sorry even if it means missing a shot. Can't wait to see what you did get though.