Messing with propane.

The subject has come up often and I found two good videos to show ya. The first is when a storage tank is involved in a fire. Very informative safty type film. 5he second is a Russian trafic acident. You will see the truck pass on the left with a FULL load of cylinders.
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Let us try a different way.
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And this should be a big tank.
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This Russian truck load of smaller tanks I had seen before. Worth watching again. The cop car coming in, and then retreating near the end is kinda funny. Bet the one fella wishes he had stayed in his car and backed up like everyone else..... Wonder what was in the big tanker truck that was very close, glad that got backed up quick enough to get out of the fireworks......

The other 2 links you posted don't work for me.

Paul

Propane explosion events are defined by an explosion in 1973 in Kingman Arizona. It is still used as a case study in fire training. This event caused the fire service to set the rule that unless the responding department has the capability to put 500 GPM without interruption on a 500+ gallon tank, they should stay back and limit their efforts to evacuating the area.

We had a training night on propane for the fire dept. It was pretty neat with several hoses to keep the tank cool and 2 more where the nozzles were fanned out and overlapping to provide a heat shield while you approached the tank to reach out and shut off the valve. IIRC they went through over 1000 gallons of propane that night.

The instructor asked what industry this might affect locally and the propane supplier was the only o e. Instructor about had a heart attack when he told him that he had two 18000 gallon tanks on the edge of a town of 40 people. He did some quick figuring and said we would need to evacuate everyone in a 1 1/2 mile radius if we thought those tanks were going to go.

Another figure he came up with was the amount of water needed combined with it being a rural area with limited local water. He realized we didn't have enough tankers in the area to be able to supply all the wire needed to put one out so just stay away.

It was a real fun and informative night.

(quoted from post at 05:59:53 02/17/17) We had a training night on propane for the fire dept. It was pretty neat with several hoses to keep the tank cool and 2 more where the nozzles were fanned out and overlapping to provide a heat shield while you approached the tank to reach out and shut off the valve. IIRC they went through over 1000 gallons of propane that night.

The instructor asked what industry this might affect locally and the propane supplier was the only o e. Instructor about had a heart attack when he told him that he had two 18000 gallon tanks on the edge of a town of 40 people. He did some quick figuring and said we would need to evacuate everyone in a 1 1/2 mile radius if we thought those tanks were going to go.

Another figure he came up with was the amount of water needed combined with it being a rural area with limited local water. He realized we didn't have enough tankers in the area to be able to supply all the wire needed to put one out so just stay away.

It was a real fun and informative night.

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Our department had an interesting incident once where a large tank got backed into and rolled over and was leaking. We put a stream on it to disperse the vapor and I was assigned to go in and shut the valve off. It proved tricky because as soon as my gloved hand came in contact with the vapor my glove froze. Fun times.

In 1975, the Rock Island Railroad was facing bankruptcy and track maintenance was put on the 'back burner'. Well, it was in September and my Fianc? and I were in the living room watching television when WHOOM, an explosion. I looked out the front picture window and said it looks like Roy Medici's DX station has a fire. Now, that gas station was on the corner of U.S. 69 and my street, about 1000 feet away. We went outside to see what had happened and WHOOM, another explosion. It was over a mile away where the tracks went under Interstate 80. We went to the corner where the sheriff had set up a roadblock when WHOOM, another explosion. This one sent parts of tank cars, including 'trucks' (wheels) over I-80 and toward us. I told my future wife this is NOT a place to be. The explosions wrecked the seal in our picture window and it was 'fogged' from that Winter on. It was later found that the 'Rock' had coupled over a dozen tank cars together which violated rules even if the tracks were in good condition. Propane is NEVER filled to the top of a tanker, be it Railroad or Commercial truck. Those cars started 'rocking' in unison and finally caused the derailment. P.S. I STILL have that little Lady and STILL living in the same place. Chicago Northwestern bought the Rock's track and rebuilt all the roadbed, welding the rails from Nevada, Iowa to Kansas City. Now you can "Watch old 97 Roll'.

This was entertaining too. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_propane_explosion

Enjoyed watching it a few times as long as I WASN'T there.

These videos and discussion are always entertaining, but I get amused by people who think propane is so dangerous. I am a retired fuel hauler and have hauled gasoline, diesel, ethanol, and propane for many years. Propane and diesel are the safest to transport and store. Gasoline and ethanol are more dangerous. In fact, in over 20 years with a company, the only fire and explosion the company ever had was with a gasoline storage tank and a diesel truck. This occurred in the winter when a gasoline storage tank vent froze shut in an ice storm. The truck was pumping gasoline into the tank. These storage tanks are NOT designed to take pressure. The frozen vent caused the tank to pressurize, rupture, spray gas everywhere, which the running truck engine ignited when it ran away and blew up. The whole truck, storage plant, and driver were incinerated.

There are many examples of gasoline and diesel transport tankers being ruptured in traffic accidents and leaking the contents. It's rare when an overturned propane tanker leaks. There both primary and secondary safety valves, including internal excess flow valves that are designed to close in the event that the external valves fail for any reason. In fact, the only example I ever saw was when a tanker driver tried to beat a train and didn't make it. The train hit the tanker in the side and split it. In that event, I'm not sure the type of fuel in the tanker would have mattered all that much.

We have had vandals shoot our propane tanks with deer rifles. They dented but did not penetrate. Those tanks are thick.



I much preferred hauling propane.

Yes you are on track Ronnie. I was raised on a dairy farm and have worked ln the food industry for over 30 years. You want to see a couple of the idiot stuff people do with natural and propane gas equipment. Natural gas "methane" with stinky stuff added, is not too bad. Same specific gravity as air. They mix very well and you get a fire with an ignition source. LP IS a whole nuther animal. The gravity on that stuff is almost twice that of air. Likes to crawl across the floor and makes puddles of gas. When that damn stuff hits an ignition source you get KABOOOOM!! Here in the Philadelphia area the tank trucks seam to like hitting bridge abutments and under pass pillars. Burn really good.