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Mar 20, 2003 Fire and explosions are great video entertainment. Every one must at least love a campfire and be amazed at its power. A forest fire is just unimaginable watching trees disappear in a flash. I started thinking about this topic because this weekend a section of the old city (1900) caught fire. There was nothing the fire department could do but stop the fire from jumping across the street. About 10 old building were destroyed. It was night and the local news shots were incredible. Then I remembered an early morning about 20 years ago. Let me tell you what a propane gas explosion looks like from the point of origin. Yes I light the match and lived to talk about it. It’s a bit different than the Hollywood version of an explosion. I was working on a road construction job and we were setting up a new camp. The trailers had been moved in over night and at 5:00 AM we started hooking up power, water and propane gas. At about 6 one of the girls came over and said she could not get the pilot light started on the stove and she could smell gas. So I wandered over to take a look. You could smell gas but not too strong. I thought just some leftover gas from trying to light the stove. She decided to wait outside. Factors in my favor: The gas was leaking behind cupboards and slowly filling the trailer, the leak was only for 10 minutes or so, Propane sinks to the floor and slowly fills the room. The doctor had one more piece of advice, Never inhale only exhale. Things just turned out that way by luck. I was standing up when I lit the match. At the height I lit the match the gas concentration was not high enough to start an explosion. I started to bend down to look at the pilot light. Bending down seems to make me exhale. There was a glowing bubble around the match. It expanded in a flash around me, up and down. The realization of intense sunburn, eyebrow’s and other exposed hair were vaporized. There was also a loud WHOOP noise as the explosion started. A second later, I am standing in a calm area (all the gas around me had burnt away) and I watched as a wall of fire expanded in all directions around me. As it moved past the stove the cupboard doors blew open with puffs of flame. Kitchen drawers got blown out. This is where most of the gas was hiding. The wall of fire slowly moved down the trailer. The door at the end of the hall was blown open. It took maybe 2 seconds for everything to happen but it was slow enough that I could watch it. Some of the windows were open and this helped vent gas and the explosion. It was impressive. You have to try this to get the full effect. As a side note we were have problems with flies and other bugs. This resolved that problem. Nothing but the smell of burnt protein. Most of it was my hair. A lot of people were also impressed because the dark morning sky had been light up and then a flash of flames shot out the windows of the trailer and then darkness came again. At this point I decided it was best to go outside and have a cigarette or two and survey the damage. My hair was making funny crinkling noises and I felt very hot! I was beat red in color on all exposed skin, really bad sunburn. My boss insisted that I go to the hospital where I would have to explain this experiment. This is what I learned at the doctors office. If I had been inhaling the fire would have gone into my lungs. Therefore always exhale! My poor vision and having to wear glasses saved my eyes during the heat wave flash. Some of the worst burns were where I was wearing clothes. The metal button on my jeans picked up a blast of heat and retained it. I had a burn for every button on my shirt. After the initial flash my Blue jeans stayed hotter than bare skin and melted the hair on my legs. Rings and bracelets and watch also left a nice pattern. I think that being naked might be your best option during an explosion. The secret to this experiment is having just the right amount of propane gas. Also maybe try this over at a friend’s house. Just kidding! I was very lucky. ------------ Edwin Richter lives in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Computer Technical Support agent. Free time is spent surfing the internet. Runs BestFreeTraffic.com as a hobby. Loves to do at home simple science experiments. Email Edwin: warfque@shaw.ca Comment on this column in the forum. ------------- |
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