Fire/Arson Investigations : Fire/Arson Investigations
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Re: High Temperature Accelerants (HTA)
Posted by: Sir Gary (IP Logged)
Date: May 16, 2010 09:19AM
Once had a Thermite factory go up:
made Copper Thermite for welding high-tension electrical cables together;
sort of a DIY kit with a sachet of Copper oxide premixed with Aluminium powder,
a machined graphite mold to take in the two cables, and a pyrotechnic mixture to prime it with
- really nifty & kinda cute, sort of thing I'd have loved as a juvenile delinquent.
Fire started in the basement where the pyrotechnic mixtures were mixed:
Not a very high-tech arrangement;
no more than a table with a toploading scale, and some one- and 5-gallon paint tins.
Recipe up against the wall ran something like:
"Take one small tinful of A, mix in 2 tinsfuls of B and half a tin of C;
shake well and chuck into large tin under the table".
Well,
years of mixing and machining away had left a powdery residue of Al, Cu etc. over most things,
including the electrical sockets run in normal commercial trunking along the wall;
seems like a small short caused the pyrotechnic dust to unzip the trunking cover,
startling Mark the Mixer who knocked over a 5-gallon tin of the pyrotechnic mix,
which in turn set off the 40-gallon drums of raw material (Red phosphorus etc.)
stacked around the mixing table in the basement.
Can't say I saw any molten concrete though...
Not much of the two-storey building was left higher than knee-height,
and I found bits of Mark the Mixer three storeys up in the adjacent building.
(So Pat, it wasn't negative corpus)
By the time I left, Dept. of Labour officials were circling the owner like a pack of vultures...
- Gary KEMP B.Sc NAFI CFEI & -CFII
Port Elizabeth
SOUTH AFRICA
Disclaimer :
Any question, viewpoint, opinion or comment attached to this post
is possibly/probably void of relevance, truth, validity or anything else
which anyone may choose to use/quote/assign to/against me in/out of context
and should only be considered as a pinup-/sounding board/soap box
in which (ir)relevant banter may be exchanged for educational/entertainment purposes etc.
As with all things - "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good."
made Copper Thermite for welding high-tension electrical cables together;
sort of a DIY kit with a sachet of Copper oxide premixed with Aluminium powder,
a machined graphite mold to take in the two cables, and a pyrotechnic mixture to prime it with
- really nifty & kinda cute, sort of thing I'd have loved as a juvenile delinquent.
Fire started in the basement where the pyrotechnic mixtures were mixed:
Not a very high-tech arrangement;
no more than a table with a toploading scale, and some one- and 5-gallon paint tins.
Recipe up against the wall ran something like:
"Take one small tinful of A, mix in 2 tinsfuls of B and half a tin of C;
shake well and chuck into large tin under the table".
Well,
years of mixing and machining away had left a powdery residue of Al, Cu etc. over most things,
including the electrical sockets run in normal commercial trunking along the wall;
seems like a small short caused the pyrotechnic dust to unzip the trunking cover,
startling Mark the Mixer who knocked over a 5-gallon tin of the pyrotechnic mix,
which in turn set off the 40-gallon drums of raw material (Red phosphorus etc.)
stacked around the mixing table in the basement.
Can't say I saw any molten concrete though...
Not much of the two-storey building was left higher than knee-height,
and I found bits of Mark the Mixer three storeys up in the adjacent building.
(So Pat, it wasn't negative corpus)
By the time I left, Dept. of Labour officials were circling the owner like a pack of vultures...
- Gary KEMP B.Sc NAFI CFEI & -CFII
Port Elizabeth
SOUTH AFRICA
Disclaimer :
Any question, viewpoint, opinion or comment attached to this post
is possibly/probably void of relevance, truth, validity or anything else
which anyone may choose to use/quote/assign to/against me in/out of context
and should only be considered as a pinup-/sounding board/soap box
in which (ir)relevant banter may be exchanged for educational/entertainment purposes etc.
As with all things - "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good."
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