House explosion... Oklahoma... I'm gonna go with meth lab here
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – A house exploded in Oklahoma City Friday afternoon, the blast reducing the home to a massive pile of debris, and authorities are working to determine what caused the explosion.
Possibly. Or a bad fuel gas regulator or furnace controller that filled the house with gas until there was a spark from a thermostat, telephone or a flash-over from a pilot light in the stove or furnace. Around here, most folks seem to do their "cooking" in a detached garage or garden shed. It keeps the smells out of the house. Gas explosions are actually not uncommon, but local "industry" in other areas may result in other outcomes.
Or the residents were very careless with their stockpiles of gunpowder. When I was a little dinosaur, I mixed up some homemade gunpowder, stored it in a glass jar, and forgot to keep it out of sunlight. Oopsie! 40 years later, Mom still remembered the incident, and the damage it caused to our house. I never told my parents that the container held only a small amount of my mix. After things settled down and I could sit down, I went to the town dump and set off the rest of the batch, about 5+ pounds. Things were simpler, then. Sigh.
One of my fellow students in high school got a really cool Christmas present for his junior year: a glass distillation set. He didn't want to make booze; that was against his family's religion. He used it to distill the ingredients for nitroglycerin. We used to go down to the town dump on Saturday mornings and set off explosive charges. Since the dump was not near any houses, the local police tolerated it as long as there were no injuries or complaints. Paul went on to become a chemist for a major company; I wonder if he's still around...
Likely not natural gas. We had an insurance scam sabotage of a house here set up that way, gas leak in basement, ignition source on main floor, but when it went off, it took out half of a neighborhood, and killed several people. Scammers convicted. John in Indy
Possibly. Or a bad fuel gas regulator or furnace controller that filled the house with gas until there was a spark from a thermostat, telephone or a flash-over from a pilot light in the stove or furnace. Around here, most folks seem to do their "cooking" in a detached garage or garden shed. It keeps the smells out of the house. Gas explosions are actually not uncommon, but local "industry" in other areas may result in other outcomes.
ReplyDeleteOr the residents were very careless with their stockpiles of gunpowder. When I was a little dinosaur, I mixed up some homemade gunpowder, stored it in a glass jar, and forgot to keep it out of sunlight. Oopsie!
ReplyDelete40 years later, Mom still remembered the incident, and the damage it caused to our house. I never told my parents that the container held only a small amount of my mix. After things settled down and I could sit down, I went to the town dump and set off the rest of the batch, about 5+ pounds. Things were simpler, then. Sigh.
You could have just spread it on the lawn as fertilizer, but that wouldn't have been nearly as much fun.
DeleteOne of my fellow students in high school got a really cool Christmas present for his junior year: a glass distillation set. He didn't want to make booze; that was against his family's religion. He used it to distill the ingredients for nitroglycerin. We used to go down to the town dump on Saturday mornings and set off explosive charges. Since the dump was not near any houses, the local police tolerated it as long as there were no injuries or complaints. Paul went on to become a chemist for a major company; I wonder if he's still around...
DeleteOh yeah, Paul's still around - here and there.
DeleteJoe Buydem farts. "Farmers" covered it, December 8th 2021. ;-)) Nemo
ReplyDeleteLikely not natural gas. We had an insurance scam sabotage of a house here set up that way, gas leak in basement, ignition source on main floor, but when it went off, it took out half of a neighborhood, and killed several people. Scammers convicted.
ReplyDeleteJohn in Indy
with all the China fentanyl being cartel in, who does does meth any more.
ReplyDelete