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11th August 2022, 07:38 AM | #1 |
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3 killed, 39 homes destroyed in explosion of unknown origin in Evansville, Illinois
(CNN)- Authorities have yet to determine the cause of a house explosion Wednesday that left three people dead and damaged at least 39 homes in Evansville, Indiana, the city's fire chief said.
CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/10/us/ev...ion/index.html |
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11th August 2022, 07:55 AM | #2 |
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Russian artillery, probably.
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11th August 2022, 07:57 AM | #3 |
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ETA: 39 homes damaged, not destroyed. I flubbed the title.
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11th August 2022, 04:10 PM | #4 |
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11th August 2022, 05:39 PM | #5 |
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Wasn't there some kind of gas-service catastrophe that damaged a couple dozen homes like this in Boston a few years back?
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11th August 2022, 05:41 PM | #6 |
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And in San Bruno, on the San Francisco peninsula:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Br...line_explosion |
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11th August 2022, 05:45 PM | #7 |
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Here in Northern California, there have been a few explosions over the years from old gas pipes.
It's a nice winter counter-balance to the wildfires started by power lines in the summer. PG&E likes to be consistent. ETA: I see that's what theprestige was referencing above. To be fair, I believe one of the events I vaguely remember was SMUD(Sacramento Municipal Utilities District.) Still an example of aging infrastructure. |
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11th August 2022, 05:46 PM | #8 |
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The betting window is open. Long shot for natural gas/propane explosion, and giving odds on terrorist incendiary devices versus meth lab.
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11th August 2022, 05:48 PM | #9 |
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Big ass meth lab if so.
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11th August 2022, 05:49 PM | #10 |
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Yeah, I've seen similar, and they were all gas (not petrol) explosions.
The typical scenario is that a gas leak under a house persists for a period of time... Then there is some change in conditions, a windy day for example, that causes the gas to mix with the air, and it achieves a fuel-air mixture. Then a naked flame causes it to explode. In South Australia, the reticulated gas is mixed with butyl mercaptan to make the odourless gas much easier to detect by human nose. Sadly, cases turn up from time to time, where a home-owner has put up with the smell for months, without investigating the cause (or turning off the gas main). |
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11th August 2022, 05:49 PM | #11 |
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I have no idea what you're trying to say, but I'm still pretty sure that you're wrong. -Akhenaten I sometimes think the Bible was inspired by Satan to make God look bad. And then it backfired on Him when He underestimated the stupidity of religious ideologues. -MontagK505 |
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11th August 2022, 06:00 PM | #12 |
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Have I missed a good reason to suspect a terrorist bombed the house of this random couple in..."Evansville, Indiana"?
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11th August 2022, 06:06 PM | #13 |
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Cause still uncertain, but the explosion has been deemed "accidental" in nature.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/10/us/ev...ion/index.html |
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11th August 2022, 06:10 PM | #14 |
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You don't consider white supremacists terrorists? Rabid Trump supporters? They are not excluded from Indiana for whatever reasons you might think.
Split ticket for meth lab or bomb made worse by gas lines or tanks. |
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11th August 2022, 06:14 PM | #15 |
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11th August 2022, 06:18 PM | #16 |
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//spitball//
The "source" house was empty/abandoned so a large amount of gas could build up without anyone noticing it? |
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11th August 2022, 06:23 PM | #17 |
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Abandoned houses almost always have utilities shut off, with no one paying the bill. Although we play a game on construction sites, theorizing how to make equipment catastrophicly malfunction in case we ever need to grease someone and not get caught. There are a surprising amount of ways to make gas-fired household appliances ignite themselves
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11th August 2022, 06:27 PM | #18 |
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11th August 2022, 06:46 PM | #19 |
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I don't recall saying anything about being targeted by anyone. You feeling ok?
Houses don't generally explode. The safety features tend to be very prohibitive of exploding. You might notice that it is fairly rare. Even a household forced hot air furnace has redundant "proves" that must test positive before it will ignite, and shuts down if they don't prove. People with homemade explosive chemicals are not nearly so safety minded. When a house explodes, I go to outside source of ignition compounded with user error, not a wonky hot water heater. Logical sources of explosions are people making bombs or the chemicals involved in meth cooking. |
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11th August 2022, 10:20 PM | #20 |
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I seem to recall a gas explosion wreaking havoc in Mexico some years back (Guadalajara?). Ripped up a street and left a huge crater.
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11th August 2022, 11:22 PM | #21 |
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Wait - you're suggesting that the dead couple were the terrorists (or one of them was) and they destroyed their house accidentally while building explosives?
I mean, it's not impossible. I'm just waiting for the reason that has convinced any of you that it's particularly likely in this case, or rather, more likely than a gas explosion. Gas explosions, whether accidental or intentional, seem to represent the vast majority of house explosions. |
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12th August 2022, 12:11 AM | #22 |
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12th August 2022, 05:16 AM | #23 |
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12th August 2022, 07:45 AM | #24 |
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12th August 2022, 07:49 AM | #25 |
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12th August 2022, 07:56 AM | #26 |
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That's why I hate now CNN does that "rolling real time update" for articles.
My source was accurate when I posted it, and was then updated/revised under the same URL. |
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12th August 2022, 09:18 AM | #27 |
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12th August 2022, 11:15 AM | #28 |
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12th August 2022, 02:15 PM | #29 | |||
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Gas explosions usually involve a lot of flame and fire, and that is what we see here as well.
Note the amount of flame in this one (New Jersey 2015)
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12th August 2022, 04:48 PM | #30 |
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Here's a couple of fun ones, that I was directly involved with...
I was leased a home, one year rent free, on the proviso that I made it habitable. (The owners paid for all materials, but I provided the labour for free) The gas was turned off and red-tagged. One night, a squatter came in, and turned on the gas main. There was a huge plume of black dust on an internal wall, emanating from the open end of the main, in the kitchen. Fortunately for me (and the house) the squatter turned the gas main off again, and didn't return. Another home, belonging to a friend, had all the floors sanded and varnished. Despite many instructions to turn off all appliances, and the gas main, before this work started, she left the hot water service turned on, and the pilot light lit. (The service was inside the laundry of this home.) The resulting explosion, caused by fumes from the curing varnish, broke every window and external doors and caused many painted areas to catch on fire. She was very lucky that the house wasn't destroyed. |
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12th August 2022, 05:30 PM | #31 |
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12th August 2022, 09:16 PM | #32 |
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13th August 2022, 04:06 AM | #33 |
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13th August 2022, 09:34 AM | #34 |
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So this is interesting. Five years ago, in this same area, another house blew up and was leveled. The occupant was being evicted that same week, and investigators determined it was not caused be a gas leak. It remains unexplained.
Back in 2012, another Indiana boy tampered with gas lines, causing a massive explosion, to try and fake an insurance claim. He and his buddies are in the pokey over that one. In 2004, another gas fired house went roasty-toasty too. [Eta: caused by city workers who mistook a gas line for a water line, and the occupant tried to relight a pilot, evidently in a cloud of natural gas] Keep your marshmallows and hot dogs on their sticks in this neighborhood. https://www.courierpress.com/story/n...n/65399022007/ |
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13th August 2022, 11:21 AM | #35 |
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13th August 2022, 11:28 AM | #36 |
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13th August 2022, 11:32 AM | #37 |
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13th August 2022, 12:17 PM | #38 |
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Could potentially be a sewer issue too, although that's unlikely. There can be build-ups of methane and the like in sewer lines, but it normally takes a long time of blockages and such (and various vents and other safety features disabled) for that to happen. Still we're already looking ta low-probability events, might as well toss another one in
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13th August 2022, 12:46 PM | #39 |
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The pics don't seem to show a foundation where the house had a crawlspace or basement where gas could have built up unnoticed by occupants. If it was a slab on grade home, the gas lines would likely be all in the living area. Very small house, too, so if there people were inside, they would have been choking on gas fumes to have made a blast that big. I'm leaning towards someone monkeying with the hardware.
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13th August 2022, 01:20 PM | #40 |
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It is possible for that much damage to occur from a hot water storage tank overheating due to failure of a temperature/pressure relief valve.
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