Massive explosion in West, TX

[Woods Racing Transmission]

Pretty sure the OKC bombing was Diesel mixed with Ammonium Nitrate (Urea) and he set it off with a stick or two of TNT.

If what they had down in West was Liquid then what we saw was a BLEVE. (boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion)

[naynay]

from arlington

[stevo]

I have been in the exact spot where the video above was shot, it is west of the plant at the baseball field. The area yesterday had an extremely odd wind direction, it was blowing from the south-east. As Craig said above, the wind was carrying the flames across from the south end of the plant towards the north-west. I assume the heat eventually caused either one of the dry tanks full of fertilizer or the large tank of anhydrous ammonia to blow, or a combination/chain reaction.

80% of my relatives were raised within 30 miles of West.

Stevo

[Strychnine]

Pretty sure the OKC bombing was Diesel mixed with Ammonium Nitrate (Urea) and he set it off with a stick or two of TNT.

Yes, it was an ANFO bomb (ammonium nitrate, fuel oil)

[krazy kris]

from arlington

R....

[stevo]

That pic is from an oil refinery explosion in 2008.

Stevo

[Woods Racing Transmission]

from arlington

That photo is a double repost from today and way back in 2008 (think big spring refinery explosion)

Sorry Steve Treed Me.

[Phuck Phace]

I seriously doubt Phuck Phace is who I think it could be. That said, Ventrca isn't exactly a common name.

No sister.

[Chili]

Pretty sure the OKC bombing was Diesel mixed with Ammonium Nitrate (Urea) and he set it off with a stick or two of TNT.

If what they had down in West was Liquid then what we saw was a BLEVE. (boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion)

Yeah, I see that in the high level summary about the bomb, but just did a quick google and came up with the following. To summarize, McVeigh bought 3 barrels of racing fuel in Ennis for use in the bomb:

http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=timothy_chambers_1

Profile: Timothy Chambers
Timothy Chambers was a participant or observer in the following events:
October 21 or 22, 1994: Future Oklahoma City Bombers Purchase, Test Explosive Ingredients
Wearing a biker disguise, future Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh (see September 13, 1994, October 20, 1994, and 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995) purchases $2,775 worth of nitromethane, a racing fuel used in bomb construction, from an Ennis, Texas, drag-racing track, in three large drums. After purchasing the fuel, McVeigh and co-conspirator Terry Nichols travel to Kingman, Arizona, where McVeigh and his friend Michael Fortier (see February - July 1994) test the explosives mixture. [PBS FRONTLINE, 1/22/1996; NEW YORK TIMES, 8/29/1997; DOUGLAS O. LINDER, 2001; INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 2003] Reportedly, McVeigh buys the fuel with $3,000 obtained by Nichols from the sale of gold. It is unclear where Nichols obtained the gold. They had some trouble finding a venue for the purchase, even driving McVeigh to contact his hometown friend David Darlak (see 1987-1988), but McVeigh learned of a source on the Funny Car Racing Circuit by hanging around “pit” areas on local race tracks. The source is located in Manhattan, Kansas, but Nichols and McVeigh had to drive to Ennis to get the fuel. McVeigh goes to the track alone, letting Nichols out before driving to the track itself. Timothy Chambers, a VP Racing Fuels truck manager, sells McVeigh three drums of nitromethane for $925 each; McVeigh pays in cash. Chambers does not ask McVeigh his name, but does ask what he plans on doing with it. McVeigh responds that he and his friends like to race Harley-Davidson motorcycles around Oklahoma City, an explanation Chambers will later say he does not believe. Chambers will later identify McVeigh to federal investigators as the man who bought such a large amount of nitromethane for cash, saying he clearly remembers McVeigh’s “possum face.” McVeigh and Nichols take the drums of fuel to Kansas, storing them in one of the sheds they have rented in Herington. They also buy six black plastic barrels with full take-off lids, six white plastic barrels with smaller lids, and a blue plastic barrel. They obtain the white barrels free from the Hillsboro Milk Co-op, and pay $12 each for the black barrels. They obtain the blue barrel from a plastics manufacturing company in Council Grove. Afterwards, they drive to Kingman, Arizona, where McVeigh stays for four days with Fortier, and shows Fortier some of the materials. [PBS FRONTLINE, 1/22/1996; SERRANO, 1998, PP. 94-95] The New York Times will later state the date of the fuel-oil purchase as October 20. [NEW YORK TIMES, 8/29/1997] A chronology of events compiled by McVeigh’s lawyers will give the date as October 22. In September, McVeigh attempted to buy similar racing fuel from a Topeka, Kansas, race track (see September 1994). McVeigh and Nichols stay in a room at the Amish Inn in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, before driving to Ennis to get the racing fuel. The room is rented with cash under the name of “Joe Kyle,” an alias used by Nichols (see October 17, 1994). “Kyle“‘s address is given as “Rt. 2, Box 28, Hillsboro, KS,” the same information given by Nichols using the alias “Terry Havens” in an earlier motel stay (see October 16, 1994). [PBS FRONTLINE, 1/22/1996] McVeigh tries to persuade Fortier to take an active part in the bombing plot, but Fortier refuses, asking, “What about all the people?” Fortier is referring to the people who will die or be injured in such a blast. McVeigh advises Fortier to think of the victims as “storm troopers in Star Wars” who, although individually innocent, “are guilty because they work for the evil empire.” Fortier makes it clear that he will not take an active role in the bombing. [PBS FRONTLINE, 1/22/1996; SERRANO, 1998, PP. 97; DOUGLAS O. LINDER, 2006]
Entity Tags: Michael Joseph Fortier, Timothy Chambers, Hillsboro Milk Co-op, Timothy James McVeigh, David Darlak, Terry Lynn Nichols
Timeline Tags: US Domestic Terrorism

[Strychnine]

from arlington

False.


Here is that same picture used in '08 in thread about the Big Spring refinery explosion.

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/676098_.html

Also, I'd challenge you to find a hill like that in S. Arligton, or better yet to see that far. West is 55 mi south of south arlington (straight line).
a 6' tall person on flat ground can only see 3 miles to the horizon due to the curvature of the Earth. To see 55 miles the viewer would have to be at ~2000 ft elevation.


Just sayin'

[Chili]

False.


Here is that same picture used in '08 in thread about the Big Spring refinery explosion.

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/676098_.html

Also, I'd challenge you to find a hill like that in S. Arligton, or better yet to see that far. West is 55 mi south of south arlington (straight line).
a 6' tall person on flat ground can only see 3 miles to the horizon due to the curvature of the Earth. To see 55 miles the viewer would have to be at ~2000 ft elevation.


Just sayin'

That's the same thing I mentioned to Leah yesterday when seeing that pic (about seeing that far from any hill in Arlington).

[Chili]

Yes, it was an ANFO bomb (ammonium nitrate, fuel oil)

Something else I just found. Not super definitive, but mentions the race fuel:

http://blogs.howstuffworks.com/2010/11/02/how-terrorist-bombs-work/

In the case of Timothy McVeigh’s truck bomb, the disguise was the truck itself. The explosive agent was ammonium nitrate fertilizer mixed with either nitromethane (the type of fuel used in top fuel dragsters and funny cars) or diesel fuel. The fertilizer/fuel mixture was held in large plastic barrels in the back of the truck.
When ammonium nitrate is mixed with fuel like this, it creates an extremely powerful explosive agent that is approximately equivalent, pound for pound, to TNT. But it does need a detonator – a smaller explosion that is powerful enough to set off the fertilizer. In this case McVeigh used two fuses that he lit to ignite 350 pounds of an industrial blasting agent. The shock from that smaller explosion set off the ammonium nitrate.

[talisman]

Arlington doesn't have any views like that whatsoever.

[naynay]

cedar hill does

[talisman]

cedar hill does

Oh, well that completely changes everything, then.