Fertilizer plant explodes

[patric]

I was thinking Airgas in 2003...

The devastation from the explosion in West (TX), especially given the known destructive power from the Oklahoma City bombing, should have been foreseeable. Whoever thought it was appropriate to place a middle school, retirement complex, apartments and houses next to a fertilizer plant needs to be called to account.

A few years ago, we had a huge chain reaction of exploding acetylene gas tanks from a storage depot right next to downtown.
http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/columnists/tod-robberson/20130417-tod-robberson-explosion-in-west-texas-should-make-all-towns-question-zoning-decisions.ece

[custosnox]

I was thinking Airgas in 2003...

The devastation from the explosion in West (TX), especially given the known destructive power from the Oklahoma City bombing, should have been foreseeable. Whoever thought it was appropriate to place a middle school, retirement complex, apartments and houses next to a fertilizer plant needs to be called to account.

A few years ago, we had a huge chain reaction of exploding acetylene gas tanks from a storage depot right next to downtown.
http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/columnists/tod-robberson/20130417-tod-robberson-explosion-in-west-texas-should-make-all-towns-question-zoning-decisions.ece

"Hey kids, this fertilizer plant, you know the stuff that people have used to blow the hell out of things, is on fire.  Let's stop here and take a video of it."  Gee, dad of the year there.

[BKDotCom]

"Hey kids, this fertilizer plant, you know the stuff that people have used to blow the hell out of things, is on fire.  Let's stop here and take a video of it."  Gee, dad of the year there.

Intelligence immediately revealed via the 9:16 aspect ratio of the video.

[patric]

Intelligence immediately revealed via the 9:16 aspect ratio of the video.

Dont know if he would have changed the ratio if he could, but when did people start thinking video is shot framed as a portrait?

Obviously, everyone underestimated the danger, including those in what used to be an apartment building:

[BKDotCom]

Dont know if he would have changed the ratio if he could.  

Instructions for adjusting aspect ratio:  turn camera 90°

but when did people start thinking video is shot framed as a portrait

1897

[patric]

Instructions for adjusting aspect ratio:  turn camera 90°

That's how you adjust orientation, but the aspect ratio remains at 16:9.  To change the ratio, you would have to either add or subtract pixels.

Since our eyes are side-by side (and not one on top of another), we see the world as a landscape, rather than a portrait.
Coincidentally, that's how TV and movies work, so if you ever want to take a picture for broadcast, dont shoot it vertically -- lest it be cropped into something tiny and unrecognizable.

[Gaspar]

That's how you adjust orientation, but the aspect ratio remains at 16:9.  To change the ratio, you would have to either add or subtract pixels.

Since our eyes are side-by side (and not one on top of another), we see the world as a landscape, rather than a portrait.

or you could just lay down on your side and watch the video.

[BKDotCom]

That's how you adjust orientation, but the aspect ratio remains at 16:9.

width:height
16:9 and 9:16 are not the same thing
to change from 9:16 to 16:9 : rotate the the widescreen format camera 90° so you're shooting in "landscape" orientation

Coincidentally, that's how TV and movies work, so if you ever want to take a picture for broadcast, dont shoot it vertically -- lest it be cropped into something tiny and unrecognizable.

precisely the point I was originally making... this doofus shot it vertically

[patric]

This guy figures his camera out about half way through,
but cant tell if it was a plane or a meth lab...

[BKDotCom]

[Conan71]

This guy figures his camera out about half way through,
but cant tell if it was a plane or a meth lab...

One hell of a meth lab

[sauerkraut]

This blast reminded me of a blast in Hendersen, Nevada- It happened 10 years ago or more, where a rocket fuel plant blew up, the plant was located far away from population centers, but it still rattled the area. I think the cause of the blast was leaking barrels that were in storage, they mixed with other other chemicals or got wet and they blew up- when those barrels blew they set off the other barrels in storage at the plant and then the whole thing went up into orbit. youtube has a video of it.

[sgrizzle]

Interestingly enough, this came up in a TulsaNow board meeting because the plant was in an unincorporated area directly adjacent to a population center. Not saying it would make a difference, but there was really no city oversight of the plant, it's layout or construction.

[Red Arrow]

Interestingly enough, this came up in a TulsaNow board meeting because the plant was in an unincorporated area directly adjacent to a population center. Not saying it would make a difference, but there was really no city oversight of the plant, it's layout or construction.

Which was there first, the fertilizer plant or the population center?

[patric]

Which was there first, the fertilizer plant or the population center?

When the plant opened, it was located far from West's downtown area, mostly surrounded by open farmland. But over the years the town expanded north, with more and more houses popping up in the shadow of the plant.

Town leaders built an intermediate school about a tenth of a mile across the railroad tracks from the plant. The nursing home also sits within eyesight of the plant, part of the gradual expansion of homes and businesses. Because the facility was built so long ago, local zoning regulations primarily governed what could be built near it.

Ed Sykora, who owns a local Ford dealership in West and has been displaced from his home since Wednesday, was on the town school board and city council for more than a dozen years. He doesn't remember any discussion of whether it made sense to build new homes and a new school so close to the fertilizer plant.

"The land was available out there that way; they could get sewer and other stuff that way without building a bunch of new lines," Sykora recalled. "There never was any thought about it. Maybe that was wrong."

Rejcek, the farmer, said he remembered some in town who worried about building a school near the plant. "There have always been questions about that," he said, calling that decision "a mistake."

Yet even in recent reports, state regulators saw no problems for the schools and houses nearby. For most people living near the plant, the only concern through the years was the smell of ammonia, which would periodically cause a nuisance if there were leaks in containers. Records from the Commission on Environmental Quality show several odor complaints dating back to the 1970s. But most said the smell only caused problems every few years.

Residents were comfortable living next to the plant because it was such a cornerstone of the community, run by locals who went to the same churches, shopped in the same stores and sent their children to the same schools.

"It's not like some corporation came in here and built a facility," said Sykora. "It's always been our neighbor."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/22/west-fertilizer_n_3134202.html


If you wanted to put the last statements into perspective, substitute the word "plant" for "refinery."