Aftermath of an industrial accident, Pt1
The pictures on this series of pages have been taken at the site of an industrial accident (propane explosion) which took place during the weekend of October 13-14 2007 in an industrial unit in the city of Brampton Ontario Canada (at the NW border with Toronto).
As a result of that explosion the walls have been broken into the adjacent units.
Luckily, there were no casualties, as nobody was working in that unit or the adjacent ones at the time of the explosion.
The picture below was taken several days after the explosion.
It was taken early in the morning, soon after 7am, that's why the lights are still on. Not clear, though, if a "dedicated" power cable was connected to that light from the point, where the electrical wiring remained intact.
Later, an electrical power generator was brought over, no doubt because the wiring in that unit was damaged.
The first picture on the next page shows that all three bay doors have been closed with this makeshift cover.
But here I wanted to zoom on the unit where the explosion took place, to be able to see the damage to the roof in greater detail.
This picture was taken several days after the explosion. The reason glass was not blown out from the windows, was because the force of the blast was absorbed by the wall, which disintegrated.
The wall into the unit on the other side was also blown out.
This is a close-up of the same photo.
According to the version I heard first, a battery on a forklift truck had been left connected to a charger. At that same time the propane tank was leaking (allegedly), which produced an explosive gas mixture. A spark from the charger - battery circuit had allegedly triggered an explosion.
I heard this version of events from a person, who was working at that time for a company in the same building.
I do not know where he has got this information, as it was probably somewhat early for the fire marshal's office to produce anything definitive.
I also heard a different version of events, it was told to me by an employee of the disaster recovery company.
He said that the battery charger was indeed left connected over the weekend. Then the fire had somehow started at that forklift truck. The flames had apparently heated up the propane tank, which resulted in the opening of the pressure-release valve. The escaping gas had added strength to the fire and then the whole tank blew up.
At the time when I was talking to that person, the forklift truck was still inside. It was moved outside only a couple of weeks after the explosion.
The picture below shows that truck in sufficient detail.
Considering its condition, I find it hard to believe that the explosion came from the propane tank on that truck. After all, it was powerful enough to blow out the walls into the ajacent units, and yet the truck was left with so relatively little damage!
As for the damage to the propane tank itself, I doubt it would be substantial if the explosion was from the gas mixture in the entire unit.
But the tank would most certainly be blown open, maybe even blown to pieces, if at least some force of the explosion would have originated inside that tank.
Obviously, it is easy to determine by examining the remnants of that tank.
Here is some additional background information which may help to evaluate both versions of events:
The weather in the beginning of October 2007 was unseasonably warm. Normally, bay doors in industrial units are kept open at such temperatures.
Pretty much the only reason why the bay doors would be closed could have something to do with security concerns.
Industrial crime is something no business owner can afford to forget about. If you have something the thugs would like steal, especially if it is also easy to sell, then it certainly pays to be on guard.
There was a case when a group of thieves smashed the bay door with a truck and took off with a load of aluminum.
Aluminum bars are quite expensive, a ton of them may well "go" for a few thousand dollars on a black market.
Scrap, of course, is much cheaper, definitely not worth risking a jail time.
In another case a trailer was stolen. It was parked next to an industrial unit and was used for storage. During the night, thieves took it a safe distance away, broke the door open and took whatever was of value.
There is also petty crime, like stealing metal from scrap bins, dumping garbage.
At the place where I used to work at one time, the management raised this issue of keeping the bay doors closed even in warm weather, but had to drop it because of the protests from the people who were working on the floor.
At that place there was plenty of aerosol emitted, and even though not toxic, you could still "feel" it.
It was suggested to the management that it would be enough to arrange curtains of some sort, for example, a few simple office partitions, just enough to frustrate any attempts by the thieves to case the potential targets while driving by.
The reason I mention that is to illustrate this simple reality that people who work on a factory floor would rather keep the bay door(s) open in warm weather.
Coming back to the connection between the warm weather and the circumstances around that industrial accident. I believe it is reasonable to assume that the bay door was at least partially opened prior to the Saturday October 13, enough to prevent the formation of an explosive gas mixture, even if the propane tank was leaking.
But when everybody had left for the weekend and the door was closed, an explosive gas mixture started to form and then the spark completed the unfortunate chain of events.
The explosive mixture could have also been ignited by a gas heater. Every unit has at least one of those mounted on the ceiling. Most likely the heater was off, as it was rather warm even during the night. However, gas heaters have a pilot light, which is always on.
And if the tank was indeed leaking, then the pilot light could have simply ignited the explosive mixture, without any sparks from electrical circuits.
There are special heaters, which are designed to operate in the environment where explosive mixtures can be formed (because of the release of flammable aerosols, for example). But I doubt very much that place had anything like that.
Like any technical contraption, propane tanks can malfunction and start releasing gas.
And incidentally, the only gadgets, which NEVER malfunction, are the fluoride feeder pumps at the water treatment plants (if you believe the sweet-talking liars who are pushing that rat poison into our water).
Coming back to the propane tanks, according to the law, spare tanks have to be stored outside. However, many business owners are reluctant to do that because those gas tanks can get stolen.
Thieves simply cut off locks on steel cages and you no longer have a spare propane tank and thus may get stuck unable to unload several hundred pounds from a delivery truck, or to load your wares for a customer pick-up.
I would imagine thieves can only use those propane tanks for barbeques, because no metal recycler would buy them, as it is illegal to recycle gas tanks, they have to be disposed of at designated facilities, but the small propane tanks for barbeques go into an ordinary garbage dumpster.
At one place, where I used to work, we had to remove a used propane tank from the big steel bin, which was used for metal recycling.
Somebody from an industrial unit nearby must have thrown it there without realizing that it is illegal. One such thing can probably blow up a smelting oven.
And incidentally, you can see on the picture below that the spare propane tank was indeed stored outside, as per letter of the law. (It is in a small wire cage right next to the gas and water meters.) But one tank was more than enough to wreck the place!
We are jumping more than a week ahead with these pictures of the forklift truck, as it was moved outside only about two weeks after the explosion.
It is here just to illustrate the fact that the storage arrangements of a spare propane tank were in accordance with the law.
The storage cage for the propane tank is also visible on the picture below and also on the first picture on this page.
This picture was taken several days after the explosion. The bay doors were removed and a temporary shield arranged, just enough to keep away curiosity seekers like myself.
A mobile electrical power generator was brought over and those dumpsters were soon full of bricks and debris and had to be hauled away, to be replaced with the empty ones.
And incidentally, the fence was erected right away, the reason it is not visible on some pictures is because I was sticking the lens of my camera between the wires of that fence.
Fruit juice labels you probably have never seen before
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