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A boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion is an explosion caused by the rupture of a vessel containing a pressurized liquid that has reached a temperature above its boiling point. Because the boiling point of a liquid rises with pressure, the contents of the pressurized vessel can remain a liquid as long as the vessel is intact. If the vessel's integrity is compromised, the loss of pressure drops the boiling point, which can cause the liquid to convert to a gas expanding rapidly. If the gas is combustible, as in the case with hydrocarbons and alcohols, further damage can be caused by the ensuing fire.
A gas explosion is the ignition of a mixture of air and flammable gas, typically from a gas leak. In household accidents, the principal explosive gases are those used for heating or cooking purposes such as natural gas, methane, propane, butane. In industrial explosions many other gases, like hydrogen, as well as evaporated (gaseous) gasoline or ethanol play an important role. Industrial gas explosions can be prevented with the use of intrinsic safety barriers to prevent ignition, or use of alternative energy.
The Humberto Vidal explosion was a gas explosion that occurred on November 21, 1996 at the Humberto Vidal shoe store in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico. The explosion killed 33 and wounded 69 others when the building collapsed. It is one of the deadliest disasters to have occurred on the island.
On 25 September 1998 a catastrophic industrial accident occurred at the Esso natural gas plant at Longford, Australia. A pressurised vessel ruptured producing a violent outburst of hydrocarbons followed by a severe fire that burned for two days.
The Castle Gate mine disaster occurred on March 8, 1924, in a coal mine near the town of Castle Gate, Utah, located approximately 90 miles southeast of Salt Lake City. All of the 171 men working in the mine were killed in the series of three violent explosions. One worker, the leader of the rescue crew, died from carbon monoxide inhalation while attempting to reach the victims shortly after the explosion.
The Falk Corporation explosion refers to a large and fatal propane gas explosion at a Falk Corporation building in the industrial Menomonee River Valley neighborhood of Milwaukee, Wisconsin on December 6, 2006. Three people were killed and forty-seven others injured. Cars were reportedly flipped through the air and debris scattered over several blocks. An investigation of the cause of the disaster uncovered leaks in a pipe running below the building, which supplied propane to the heating system for the complex. Several parties involved in the explosion have launched legal action in connection to the accident.
The Minnie Pit disaster was a coal mining accident that took place on 12 January 1918 in Halmer End, Staffordshire, in which 155 men and boys died. The disaster, which was caused by an explosion due to firedamp, is the worst ever recorded in the North Staffordshire Coalfield. An official investigation never established what caused the ignition of flammable gases in the pit.
The 2010 Connecticut power plant explosion occurred at the Kleen Energy Systems power station in Middletown, Connecticut, United States at 11:17 am EST on February 7, 2010. The plant had been under construction from September 2007, and was scheduled to start supplying energy in June 2010. The initial blast killed five and injured at least fifty; one of the injured later died in hospital, bringing the total death toll to six.
The Abbeystead disaster occurred on the evening of 23 May 1984 when a methane gas explosion destroyed a waterworks' valve house at Abbeystead, Lancashire, England, killing 16 people. A group of 44 visitors were inside the underground building at the time, attending a public presentation by North West Water Authority (NWWA) to demonstrate the operations of the station. Eight were killed instantly by the explosion, and the others were severely injured. The explosion also caused the concrete roof to fall down onto the group, destroying the steel-mesh floor and throwing some of the victims into the water chambers below, which rapidly filled with river water. Another eight people subsequently died of their injuries in hospital; an 11-year-old boy and his mother were among the dead. The official inquiry into the disaster concluded that the methane had seeped from coal deposits 4,000 feet below ground and had built up in an empty pipeline. The gas was then ejected into the valve house by the sudden pressure of water as the pumps were switched on. The cause of ignition has never been determined.
On 31 July 2014, a series of gas explosions occurred in the Cianjhen and Lingya districts of Kaohsiung, Taiwan, following reports of gas leaks earlier that night. Thirty-two people were killed and 321 people were injured.
The 1946 Greenville propane explosion occurred on 19 November 1946, at the Ideal Laundry laundromat in Greenville, South Carolina. A tank containing around 3,500 US gallons (13 m3) of propane exploded around 6 PM, after leaking vapors were ignited by the boilers in the basement. The blast, which killed 6 people and injured over 150, was felt as far away as Gaffney, 50 miles to the northeast.
The Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum gas explosion took place in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, on October 31, 1963; 81 people died and about 400 others were injured. It was one of the worst disasters in the history of both the city and the state.
The Paramount Hotel explosion occurred on January 28, 1966, in Boston. A series of explosions under the hotel and resulting fires killed 11 people.
The Boksburg explosion took place on 24 December 2022, when a fuel tanker carrying liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) exploded underneath a railway bridge in Boksburg, in the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, with a death toll of 41 people as of 18 January 2023. Nearby infrastructure was damaged by the explosion.
References
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- 1 2 3 "SULLIVAN v. UTAH GAS SERV | 10 Utah 2d 359 (1960) | ah2d3591297 | Leagle.com". Leagle. Retrieved 2019-01-22.
- 1 2 "Madera Tribune 14 August 1956 — California Digital Newspaper Collection". cdnc.ucr.edu. Retrieved 2019-01-22.