Big badaboom!

 

Yet again, a very old lesson was forgotten - with inevitable consequences.

A planned explosion at the quarry in Franklin [Tennessee] Wednesday rocked areas far beyond the immediate neighborhood after the blast was much larger than expected.

. . .

Franklin Fire Marshal Andy King said Dyno Nobel, a private licensed blasting company contracted by Williamson County, was preparing for a planned/routine blast Wednesday, when it appeared to have a “catastrophic failure.”

According to King, Dyno Nobel had drilled a single hole to put explosive material in. The hole did not have the explosive slurry as planned as it instead seeped into the ground below. The procedure called for more explosives to be loaded into the cavity to complete the shot.

When fired, the hole blew out, causing a significant pressure change that was heard and felt across much of Franklin and the Cool Springs area.

There's more at the link.

Oy, oy, oy...

Anyone who's handled explosives - particularly liquid explosives - learns the lesson very, very early:  if the explosives you expect to find somewhere - such as in a hole drilled for them - aren't there, where are they?  You don't just add more explosive.  You figure out the answer to that question first, before you do anything else.  If you don't do that, you might just find out the hard way where the original explosives are.  In Franklin, they just did.

It's like pouring gasoline onto a bonfire.  If you pour on the gas, then have to go do something else, that gasoline doesn't just vanish.  It sinks down into the pile of fuel and starts to evaporate, spreading explosive vapors throughout the pile and into the surrounding air.  When you come back, you don't just strike a match next to the bonfire, because all that lovely bangity vapor is hanging around, just waiting for a doofus like you to do something like that.  You also don't just add more gasoline because you aren't sure whether more is needed.  If you do, then those were your eyebrows that just streaked, flaming, past your ears...

Guess what?  Earth soaks up moisture.  It doesn't care if it's rain, or gasoline, or liquid explosive.  The fact that you can't see the liquid in its original state doesn't mean it isn't there.  It is - and when you add more, the combined total is likely to teach you a lesson in concentration of substances and its consequences.

I guess they won't make that mistake again in a hurry...

Peter