Dust
 

Last night at about 7:30 Deb and I were on the screened porch when we heard an explosion. I said..."What the Hell was that?" Today we found out that the Dixie Crystal Sugar Plant in Savannah exploded.

Sugar dust, coal dust, (from experience), and grain dust. Some of the most explosive stuff that most people don't know about. Right now, nobody's dead....but they should be. The pics of the plant are devistating. We live probably 35 miles as the crow flies....maybe less and heard it like it was just across the river.

Pack

The Big Bang, eh pack? I was wondering if you'd heard it when i read about it this AM, remembering you don't live that far away from Savannah.

Flour dust is just as explosive.

Stay good
James

Any flammable material that is pulverized and reaches a specific air to fuel ratio is a potential bomb. One spark or excessively hot surface and its’ kaabooooom, poof one factory, grain elevator, fabric mill, coal mine, etc.
At a time the Piedmont Plateau area was know to blow a fabric mill for no apparent reason, same with grain elevators in the plans states, rice husk extraction processes in the south, wood processing plants where wood dust is created, etc.

Preventive measures are now known, applied and are part of NFPA codes and regulations. But with some catastrophic equipment failure, or lax enforcement or untrained work force, an explosive sitting duck is created. Most of current preventive technology and equipment was born of coal mine disasters in the first part of the last century and then further applied to other dust hazard applications.

Scamp

Searches for 6 missing workers has shifted to a recovery effort

When I was in High School Tennessee Eastman Cemical Plant had an explosion that killed thirteen people. It is in Kingsport which is about 25 miles from where I lived. I was going up a hill to a house on my paper route in Johnson City when I heard it. It sounded like they were blasting a mile or so away. It turns out aniline will explode when mixed with water and somebody got their pipes crossed. The building my dad worked in was right next to the aniline building and all three workes in his building were killed. He had taken the day off and someone else died in his place. That's and old family tradcition. Anyway, the day he did come back he found a rib while cleaning up. The only time I was ever at his work site was when he retired. The girders and walls still had "frag wounds".

Back in the 70's
 

They had a fire works factory explode in the Seattle area. The three men working in the factory were never found. Just a few fragments of bone.
Granaries will also explode, hay barns in our area often explode though not so violent as a granary. Unexpected explosions can be very dangerous. Occassionally they have a fertilized explosion and they are very violent (the Goverment Bldg in Oklahoma). I see that four were killed, sad indeed.

Keith

News
 

This was on our local news about the sugar plant.