Kraichgauer
Phoenix
Joined: Apr 13, 2010
Age: 47
Posts: 13182
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 Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2012 1:01 pm Post subject: |
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| OliveOilMom wrote: | | Dox47 wrote: | | Just FYI, oxygen on it's own is not actually flammable or explosive, it merely provides the fuel for other things to burn more rapidly. It's pretty interesting, you can't light oxygen, but if you have something that's smoldering, oxygen will cause it to burst into flames. We've had some accidents at the shipyard near my house when welders have used unlit cutting torches to blow debris off their cotton coveralls, only to have them later burst into flames from the slightest spark. I'd imagine that a house fire involving an oxygen tank would be similar, what would have just been a smoldering slow fire would rapidly become a conflagration because of the accelerant effect of the O2. What you would not have though, is an "explosion", absent some other highly flammable material or gas. |
I wonder what the boom was then. I assumed it was the oxygen tanks. Maybe there was something else in there, or maybe it was a transformer on the other side of the street. He heard a boom though because he mentioned it the next day. I know transformers make loud booms when they blow, so maybe that was it. I haven't heard about the power being off anywhere though, and nothing was blinking over here when we got up.
Hmmmmmm, now I'm curious (nosey - it's rubbed off on me from everybody else in this town, I wasn't nosey when I moved here) and I'm going to have to ask around. I'll definately let you know when I find out. |
I would assume it was the sudden release of the compressed oxygen.
-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer |
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