The Debruce Grain Disaster 1998 | A Plainly Difficult Documentary
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- Опубликовано: 31 май 2024
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#disaster #Documentary #History #TrueStories
On June 8, 1998 Wichita, KS, the DeBruce Grain Elevator experienced a massive and devastating explosion.
The Disaster at the Facility, which was the largest of its type in the world, would result in 7 loosing their lives and many more being injured.
The event would be caused by something that wouldn't seem dangerous.... dust.
00:00 Intro
01:21 Grain A History
04:39 Largest Grain Elevator in the World
08:53 The Disaster
12:05 Investigation
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Sources:
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I hope you enjoyed the video! Any suggestions for future disasters let me know!
I like the little black and white box in the corner alerting about incoming advert break.
A real blast from the past. (Pun intended).
Have you covered Luna Park Ghost train fire (Sydney Australia)
Something local...the Enbridge oil line spill in Marshall/Battle Creek, Michigan?
@@Darryl_Frost no but Fantastic Horror has covered both Luna Park and the Dreamworld incident if you wanna see some Aussie content. Probably a bad idea for anyone to cover Luna Park since defamation suits over the 7:30 expose are still in the courts
Somewhat tangentially related to materials storage and the lack thereof- the Beirut port fertilser explosion was something else
USCSB has a bunch of videos on the dangers of combustible dust. Highly recommend their informative videos of you haven’t already checked them out
I actually found this channel through the USCSB channel. Great information on both
Couple videos on youtube of collapsing grain solos igniting.
USCSB has fantastic videos.
I love that channel!
Actually thought that’s what this video was from at first they’re great
MY chemistry/physics teacher in high school went over the danger of grain dust with simple experiment. Lit a small candle, had some fine grain dust in a straw, placed a large soup can over both and blew into it. Can shot up to the 10ft ceiling. Living in an agricultural county in Ohio, this was a telling and relatable experiment.
Same here, in Poland. I was like -how, and what the hell?
When mine did it he used a paint can and the lid smashed one of the light fixtures.
Growing up in Central Indiana, even though our biggest agricultural export is corn and soybeans, we also produce a lot of wheat. Because of this, there are a lot of wheat mills that are located in or dangerously close small towns/communities. I'm always afraid of explosions like this happening in one of those towns/communities.
You heard about the guys killed in the grain silo at Anderson silos right? That is over nesr the border of mi and Ohio. I was at that facility less than 2 months after it happened.
Living in rural Ohio here too and no one ever told me about this. Just now learning about combustible dust but only cause I now have a job at a chemical plant 😂
I worked for a local farm co-op for years. Most of the grain handling equipment was outdoors in the open air. We had several fires on the belts, legs, and drags outside. We had a few a in the tunnels under the bins from time to time. Our federal grain inspectors would run for a nearby highway when they would hear us on the radio talk about shutting down to put out a fire.
Later I went to work for a national grain company that itself had lost an elevator and four people in an explosion about four years before I came to work for them. They mostly had indoor facilities much like the one in this video. There, we had very strict rules for cleanup and sensors on the bearings. Every time a bearing alarm would go off, the crew would drop what they were doing and race to the rally point. Having been through several fires I didn't react the same way as my coworkers. This facility was so much cleaner than what I was used to working in and it had a functional dust suppression system.
Speaking of the dust suppression system, based on cleanup, we didn't think it had much effect at all until it broke down and we tried to run without it. I can't imagine that DeBruce facility running without one for a year. Since we had strict cleanup protocol, we constantly had to shut down and cleanup without dust suppression and it seemed like we got nothing done but sweeping and shoveling. That's not to mention how much dust was in the air while the belts and legs were running. Visibility could be reduced to 15 feet at times. Standard operating day was around seven hours moving grain through the facility with an hour cleanup at the end of the shift. Every so often once dust was observed to collect on walls and ceilings, we would blow the whole facility out for about an entire shift. Without the dust suppression system, we would run for a few hours (depending on how dirty the grain was) and we would have to shut down and cleanup. Then start up and run again, then shutdown for the end of the shift cleanup. The next day we came in, we would blow the whole facility out again.
The danger presented by larger facilities is exponentially larger than that of smaller facilities- a small dust explosion will dislodge combustible dust in nearby enclosed spaces which rapidly creates further explosive fuel-air mixtures potentially leading to a series of concatenating dust explosions capable of demolishing structures not fitted with blowout walls. Not keeping up with dust suppression or not designing with dust settling on inaccessible surfaces in mind turns plants into an enormous bomb with the dust and air as it's explosive and the building as it's confining fragmentation liner.
I've worked at a couple.
Every single area was cleaned at least once a week. High use areas like the road and rail pits, elevator boots and chutes, conveyor pulleys and trips, were cleaned daily. The bigger places would have full time hygiene crews that would start at the top, blow down to the bottom, sweep everything up, then go straight back to the top.
I just can't imagine a place having inches of dust on the floor. Incredible negligence. Not just the explosion aspect but the simple trip hazard. Then there's the food safety aspect, people eat this stuff, the facility must be clean.
We also had weekly bearing rounds. Every single bearing was checked for temperature and noise. All temperatures were recorded on the site bearing map and compared to the last reading.
The company handled 10-15million tonnes of grain a year and fires were non existent. I can't imagine the absolute negligence of a company where fires are common place.
Thank you for taking the time to share this insight.
Top notch comment. Thank you for sharing! 👍
Well written...
I responded to the DeBruce explosion in 1998. The smell of burning grain and human remains still is fresh in my memory. Thanks for a great documentary on a tragic subject.
Hope you're holding up okay. Can't be a fun experience, I reckon.
That's something I'm sure as you say you and all the others will never forget....
Takes a very special person to be the one running to such events and not away
My father investigated this explosion when I was in my late teens. I remember him leaving home for a week or two. He even talked to me afterwards about it.
While pictures do not depict smell, they certainly can leave an impact.
When I was studying electrical, our instructor (RIP Mr. C.) had what I called the White Book of Horrors or something to that effect. It was a three-ring binder with pictures of the damage to personnel and property that ranged from war to Arc Flash as the cause.
I only remember two, perhaps three of the photographs. The one that I will always remember was of an Iraqi electrician who died from being hit by an Arc Flash. I hate to describe it as follows, however, it's the best way I can do so.
If you know what real (not grilled) BBQ chicken breast looks like, imagine that but the size of a man's torso and with the shredded remains of a plaid shirt.
Oscar, what's your email address? I'd be interested in talking to you about the investigation.
I love when there's a little pause between 'John' and what the weather's like. Just the mental image of him leaning to see what the weather's doing is great
😬
I worked in a flour mill in New Zealand, as an engineer, it was depressing how management just didn't give a s__t about maintenance. In the time I was there the only money they spend on equipment was machinery that allowed them to put more water into the flour without it spoiling. The flour was often contaminated with iron filling from poorly maintained screw conveyors. And don't even get me started on the rats.
It's the same here in the U.S. Workers who complain or whistleblow can get blacklisted by the whole community.
Welcome to capitalism. No safety, only profit.
Oooooh ooo ! Get started ! Get started ! Tell us all about the rats !
Rats are just more protein in the finished product. 😆
@@Wildstar40 Their very social creatures, I spent alot of time watching them, sometimes their would be over 100 at a time in the one place. Each one has it's own personality. I can see why people have them as pets. The only reason that they were there was because the company wouldn't patch leaks and there was so much food for them. The company would use poison and they would die in the walls and under buildings, when ever it would rain the corpses would get wet and start to stink again. The smell of rotting rats is very distinctive. That's me starting.....lol
You really should include a clip of a grain dust explosion. It's incredible how powerful they are.
I believe someone once built an engine that ran on (of all things) iron dust...
@@Chris-hx3om Many coal plants powder their coal and inject it with high pressure air to maximise the burn rate.
Non-dairy creamer is used in a lot of Hollywood explosions, lol.
@@darthkarl99 Coke burners
@@Backroad_Junkie lots of boys lost their eyebrows playing with those little bags of creamers and a lighter lol.
I lived outside Wichita as a kid during this time. These things are designed to take a hell of a beating, so that puts it into perspective just how powerful this was just from dust!
If I recall 1 cubic foot of grain dust is equal to a stick or dynamite.
Yeah, I lived in Kansas for years and saw these things all the time, they're built like military bunkers practically.
Part of what's missing about the nature of the dust is also that grains in general are HIGH in carbohydrates... Chemically speaking very high in useful chemical energy that's easily released...
AND just for the record, a simple fuel-air explosion stands as THE most powerful non-nuclear explosion known to mankind to date. We've explored a great deal of technology since the advent of internal combustion engines... BUT even the supposedly "highly inefficient" reciprocating piston engines still common in "gas-guzzler" vehicles rely on this dubiously aged technology.
...The only difference here is that grain-dust was the fuel, instead of some petro-chemical compounds...
....so... it's worth thinking about... though, in my experience, I'm glad nobody's bothered building a non-dairy creamer silo... ;o)
Until John brought us this tale of typical company caused deaths, the only thing I knew of Wichita was something about a lineman that needed a small vacation.
@@annakeye I grew up south of Wichita...and everyone who had to live in that blighted, boring place yearned for a vacation from it. I made mine permanent.
My dad worked for General Mills for almost 35 years, and was in charge of managing dust to prevent explosions in grain mills and plants. This is an incident he prevented for GM throughout his entire career. He would tell me bedtime stories about how the smallest thing can make the biggest impact
I did the same at a house factory for 2 years.
Not an easy task when nobody around you understand or appreciates what you're doing apart form cleaning up their mess.
Not to speak of the places, nooks and crannies that haven't been cleaned for years, and you have to clean those while still maintaining dust & humidity levels everywhere else, and while everyone else, with higher pay, want you to help them with things that has nothing to do with preventing the place from blowing it's roof off.
I’ve seen a grain elevator on fire before, and it’s a terrifying sight. Working in this part of the agronomy field can be very dangerous and tedious, and you should always appreciate the people who help work hard to maintain your food supplies.
Deadly dust. I worked at a grain elevator for 7 years. Dust explosions, crush injuries, being pulled into a piece of machinery, restricted and confined spaces accidents, falls, being buried alive by grain, and electrocution are some of the dangers of these elevators. They are terrifying places!
Never thought I’d be interested in learning about grain silos of all things, but you know how to hook an audience. Props.
Gains silos are rather uninteresting... until you hear they can explode like a freaking bomb. Then all of the sudden it seems pertinent to educate one self about these fascinating structures! :P
The last time I thought about a grain silo was when the dude got locked inside one and the switch to fill it up was turned on in "Dark Night of the Scarecrow".
What many people do not realize is that the secondary explosions are, in some ways, worse than the initial explosion. The concussion from the blast shakes more dust into the air and feeds the fire/explosions continuing as long as there is dust to combust.
I know in the Middle East I think in the 90’s the government imported wheat which was treated with a chemical to kill grain weevils, and it was meant for farming only, but the grain was accidentally widely distributed and a lot of people were poisoned as a result. I read this in the book Unnatural Disasters.
Sounds like the Middle East
That's global rn with the wheat that grow shorter than the generic one, also makes men's genetalia grow shorter
But the investors made a profit, right?
Africa
@@Darkytz what
I'm an electrician and there's a big section of the electrical code dedicated to hazardous areas sorted by size/combustibility of vapors (the worst), dust, etc. Electrical installations for such areas use explosion-proof and dust-prood fittings and similar equipment to reduce or eliminate electrical systems from causing ignition and attempting to make it survive fires and explosions as best as possible. Nothing is ever perfect though and the farther back in time you go the less you have such things. Very expensive and much harder to usually and maintenance.
*install and maintenance
I'm a welder and there is a lot of simularity between the precautions you need to take when working in a hydrocarbon unit and the precautions you need to take when working in an area with dust in the air. I don't think people respect how flamable sawdust in the air can actually be until they see the fire caused by it.
I remember that day, I worked at Cessna aircraft that was 4 miles north. Our credit union said that the windows shook like it was an earth quake.
Thank you for another great story.
And I thought you were flying a Cessna 4 miles north and could photograph it.
@@MrGreghome no sir, I wish I was a pilot. And to take photos right after it happened would have been cool. Most of our local news networks all got video of it.
I was at Boeing surplus we though it was a sonic boom but someone came in saying it was an explosion at Vulcan Chemical, a little later someone else said the Garvey elevator had exploded.
Dust is indeed a scourge in any industry where it's a byproduct. For instance, my father worked his whole career as an engineer for a paper company, and they grappled with dust control in their mills pretty much constantly. (And also bearing maintenance, come to that. There are a _lot_ of rotating parts in a paper machine, most of them turning at quite high speeds.)
indeed. doesn't really matter what the dust is made of, even metal dust can be fuel for dust explosions and fires. USCSB has several videos on dust-related incidents and they're all pretty scary.
My high angle rescue instructor works for Sedgwick County Fire Department & responded to this incident. One thing he told us was that there are metal manhole covers on top of the silos. The blast shot them up & spot-welded them into the metal catwalk that was running overhead.
Bloomin' 'eck, I knew this sort of explosion releases a lot of energy but hearing it's enough to friction weld steel.... Cor, blimey!
holy shit, to think about the amount of energy it would take to lift those covers hold them pinned against the walkway until they tack welded your looking at tens of seconds of continuous explosions. To think of the heat and energy released is just astounding.
Holy crap! And it probably did a better circular weld, than I can do intentionally and with properly maintained equipment!
It’s terrifying how such a seemingly innocuous element can become so dangerous.
Yeah there's basically nothing safe about grain storage and milling. Putting on my old country boy hat and having friends that worked in mills after high school its a long list-
They turn into fuel-air bombs
The dust gives you asthma
Gasses can accumulate in the silos that will asphyxiate you
You can drown in grain quite easily
Augers are terrifying things
Heavy machinery like trucks and trains
Then the rest is the usual workplace hazards of working in confined spaces, working at heights, moving parts and coming to the uncomfortable realisation that you're the softest, squishiest thing on the whole site with everything else being much tougher, heavier and murderous
@@krissteel4074 Who knew working in the fucking *grain* industry would be a deathtrap
Holy cow PD when I made the comment a few months back I honestly didn't expect anything from it, yet here we are. An absolutely outstanding video. Thank you so much for covering it.
I'm from Buffalo, NY, and there are a few grain elevators still standing but not used. When I was in high school I had a friend who's uncle owned the land that one of them is on, and we used to have paintball wars in the ground floor, and we even got to climb to the top once. Good times.
I was up visiting my mom around there in 2017 and took the guided tour! It was really fascinating stuff.
I work for a company that sells dust collection equipment, so when I see videos like this it's right up my alley. But yeah, there are still those in management that put dollars before human well being.
A facility of that size easily require a dozen or more large dust collectors, systems (and the ancillary safety items to go with them) in which a single system could easily cost a million dollars or more. So when certain people see a price tag like that, they tend to look for alternatives, which are usually just praying that nothing bad happens.
Imagine if the management and/or owners of those places were made to have their offices in those danger zones, they would certainly pick up the pace in getting the safety systems fully functional...
I am always dumbfounded when a disaster occurs due to management neglegince. Like, all you had to do was simple maitenance and ensure people actually did it, and you'd save so much money, time, and lives (not even mentioning reputation).
Our company encourages a private program "5S" which is designed for people to seek out issues, and report them. So many issues still remain, but even more have been solved.
Apathy and depression are killers when you don't have a fire under your butt.
I’m surprised he’s so slow you can understand him in 1.5 speed
@@roxydabomb8896 trying to make it stretch to 15 minutes
Many companies actively teach about spotting and reporting issues, some even giving stop work authority to every employee if they see a potential disaster. The problem is that a lot of these same companies will quietly fire those people who try to bring attention to the issues. Of course, that's not ever the reason given for firing them but everyone knows that's why.
At my second job, I work in a cereal factory and because of the potential for fires and a breathing hazard, we're tasked with cleaning the dust from around the machinery and floors. You wouldn't believe how dusty it gets just between runs and with frequent cleaning. I go home smelling of chocolate grain dust. There's another team who handles the sanitisation of the machines and lines.
It's crazy talking to people who have been working in and around factories for decades and hearing how much has changed, even in the last couple of decades, in terms of h&s.
h&s is health & safety, I presume? I had friends who worked at a Kentucky Fried Chicken. Your lucky!
@@FlyingSavannahs after working in a Chinese takeaway in my younger years, no way in hell would I ever go back into fast food. We didn't even have fire extinguishers, let alone any kind of health and safety.
Yeah I worked at a newspaper packaging facility right next to the printerhouse.
We had the same thing, but no chocolate dust we had paper dust.
Didion mill in Cambria WI fatally exploded in 2017… seems that we refuse to learn the lesson we are taught over and over and over again.
By the way, great explanation of how grain handing facilities work!
Yeah, John doesn't dwell on the Disaster/Legacy Scales any more but you can tell that low rating on Legacy is because that industry learned *nothing* from it.
That’s because unrestricted Capitalism has only one goal, to make as much money as possible regardless of the consequences.
@@georgejones3526 that would make a good argument if rebuilding flattened mills didn’t cost millions of dollars and take months or years. Dust explosions are expensive.
@@georgejones3526 No... Short-sighted and simple-minded greedy BASTARDS who make piss poor judgments are JUST as prominent in your very favorite socialist and communist schemes... AND they do JUST as much or more harm and cost easily as much in resources. Your argument is BALONEY.
It's remarkably short-sighted to over-simplify everything to a "this is good" and "that is bad" and leave it at that. It's called black-and-white thinking... The world isn't black and white, though. It's full of colors, and unless you plan to bury your head into colorblindness, you can try learning a thing or two, instead of "only in capitalism"... like it's some kind of mantra.
It'll be YOUR neck you put in the chains and YOUR children you SELL OUT to slavery with that overtly political rhetoric, you know. ;o)
@@georgejones3526 and yet there were plenty of industrial accidents in the old Soviet Union and former Communist country surrounding it, in fact health and safety might have been worse because managers wanted to cover up failures so not to incur the wrath of those higher up the state system and the media was controlled by the state, so industrial accidents wouldn't be known about outside the immediate area and there would be no way of protesting to improve conditions.
Talking to my many work colleagues who lived through those times, I'm not sure which system was worse for the workers, ours or theirs.
I grew up in KC and I remember hearing about this. Always made me look differently at the grain elevators across town.
Also, there's a reason why anywhere combustion is desired the fuel is aerosolized as much as possible. For a quick bit of math, if you took a 1 m radius sphere and broke it apart into a bunch of tiny spheres 50 microns in radius, you increase the total surface area by 20 thousand.
*a factor of 20 thousand
That's how fuel air explosives work.
@@grmpEqweer and how the ol' reliable Internal Combustion Engine functions. That's why "flooding" the engine means it won't start.
@@airplanemaniacgaming7877 Match in gas Vs. match + gas.
As someone who lives in Wichita and witnessed the news stories first hand, this was certainly a tragedy. This brought together the community.
I will admit, when I watch your videos, I think about how old I was at the time/how many years until I was born. Holy cow. This happened the day I was born. I'm surprised that I've never heard of this. Especially considering I live in a rural community. I was taught farm safety a lot as a kid, but I never knew that the grain dust could be flammable. But, it makes sense.
I was only 7 back then and lived in Wichita. It rattled my grandparents’ house and I heard about it from them + other family, but I only recall one other classmate talking about it (he was a farm kid)
Almost any kind of dust can be combustible under the right circumstances. I've seen the results of a baghouse after the aluminum dust inside spontaneously combusted, scary to think metal that doesn't burn at all when in a solid shape can detonate like that when powdered.
Aluminum is literally rocket fuel. The Space Shuttle solid rocket boosters used aluminum powder in the fuel mix.
Yeah, aluminium is actually one of the most reactive metals; the reason why it was so rare before extractions from compounds were invented. Aluminium forms a thin layer of aluminium oxide when it's exposed to air, this is called a "passivation layer" due to the fact that it usually prevents the metal from oxidising further. However certain conditions allow aluminium to oxidise to completion, which can be quite violent. Solid rocket fuel is a great example of this reactivity, thermite is another, though other reactive metals can also be used in that case.
I might be mistaken but from what I've heard someone attempted using bare aluminium as a ship's hull and it did NOT agree with salt water.
Ahem.
Thermite is rust and aluminum powder.
@@kieraleahy6795 IIRC aluminium used as a hull on it's own is fine but when combined with the iron, steel, copper and brass structures, fittings and equipment without effective insulation or management of the chemistry of those metals you can wind up with serious galvanic corrosion with the aluminium and steel structures forming a galvanic cell with the seawater and the ions it contains as electrolyte. The same effect was found to have been the cause of the accelerated corrosion in the joints between the copper skin and iron frame of the statue of liberty when the original shellac insulation installed during the statue's construction had perished over time and allowed electrons to move between the metals setting up a galvanic cell with rainwater as the electrolyte.
In the casting industry aluminum has a big burning hazard. Magnesium even worse
Look at the sheer thickness of the concrete in the damaged sections. This could actually have been worse if the building hadn't contained so much of the blasts -- if grain silos weren't built like the world's biggest tornado shelters, this thing would have been more like PEPCON. I can easily guess why the Legacy rating was so low: this industry ain't learned a damn thing from this place blowing up.
This industry hasn't learned a damned thing from all the places that have blown up throughout history*
FTFY. Industries will NEVER learn unless they are forced to by governments, or an equivalent amount of normal people.
I used to live on a sugar cane and sugar mill country, and even sugar powder created huge explosions. The rest of the country does have grain elevators but so far haven’t heard of explosions, but of workers killed by chocking on the grain silos due to lack of air.
Oh, I could see sugar dust making big explosions.
You should check out the Imperial Sugar Company Dust Explosion and Fire that occurred 07 February 2008 at Port Wentworth, (near Savannah) Georgia, USA. There were 14 dead and 38 injured.
_Choking_ not "chocking"
And burns from sugar that has been melted by any form of heat (explosion or stovetop) are horrendous.
Thank you for covering this. It's scary how dangerous grain dust explosions are, and most people have no idea. One interesting thing about grain dust explosions that you missed is that it isn't the initial explosion that does most of the destruction. The initial explosion creates a shockwave that causes settled dust to become airborne, then with the all that more dust in the air, that will explode creating a huge explosion.
So, a bearing _caught fire_ and almost burned the place down, yet the company couldn't manage to grease the other bearings in the set. They had probably sacked the maintenance staff on the advice of a bean counter from a firm in NYC. Big saving - bravo! - you really earned your bonus that year!
I commented on a mining disaster. I live in Montana, about 100 miles from the sunshine mine. One day, in the early 70's,some rags spontaneously combusted. Co2 filled the vents and tunnels. By the end of the day, 90 men lost their lives, including the crane operator who literally lifted men out until he died at the controls. Over a week later they found 2 men who survived, eating food from their fallen coworkers lunches. There is also a lot of content around, to help your research. Thank you
Thanks for the suggestion ill have a look into it!
Thanks for the film John! Another interesting dust explosion is the Bird's custard powder explosion at Banbury in 1981. Years later I used to park on the concrete floor slab of the destryed plant when visiting the coffee plant next door.
This reminds me of this Sugar Factory explosion near Savannah Georgia several years ago.
I'm glad I found this video! I was at work approximately 5 miles North from this site, on that morning. We heard and felt the explosion indoors. We were a cell-phone sales office, and in just a few minutes, we had a box of intrinsically-safe Motorola 'brick' phones ready to go to the site, when requested by emergency crews. We delivered them later that morning. What a disaster area! Small point, though - it isn't the world's largest elevator, at least by length (although it might be by capacity). The record for length belongs to a grain elevator in Hutchinson KS, which is over a mile long.
My spouse grew up on a farm in Iowa. All of the kids in that community have to take multiple farm safety courses throughout school whether they live on a farm or not.
There was a story a few months ago where three brothers died in a methane pit. My in-laws were friends with a guy who drowned in his corn silo. All you need to do is go into a farm shop to get an idea of how dangerous it is or stand next to a working auger.
Not to mention spinning PTO shafts. Those things will dismember you in short order.
Wow. I remember when this happened because my dad worked in the aviation industry in Wichita and was at work at that time. He came home from work and told me about this. He and his colleagues felt the blast and all ran out to their airfield because it was so loud and violent an explosion that they had feared one of their planes had crashed.
Wichita resident here. I live 10 miles due north of this facility. I was getting ready to leave for work when a huge heavy thud shook the house violently. I knew instantly that some kind of huge explosion had occurred. I went outside and looked south of my house. I was just unable to see any tell tales column of smoke rising. Driving to work I finally heard the news broadcast confirming my suspicions of an explosion and it’s location was given.
Very familiar with this site as there are many storage warehouses on the site and been there several times. It is indeed a massive complex, as said a world record holder. Driving out there to see the damage it all seemed pretty much contained within the interior. Yea, the head house walls had blown out and the gallery across the top was about 30% obliterated. I think actually a few of the individual silos also had failures spilling grain. I wouldn’t wanted to be there.
There are many other silos operating within a 3 mi radius of downtown. Most of them adjacent to the railroad main lines running N/S thru the entire city. Grain is moving mostly south to Houston for export and north to Chicago and on to NE US. The five counties surrounding Wichita are some of the most productive crop land in the world for wheat.
great video as usually plainly D maybe you could do the 2008 imperial sugar refinery explosion in Port Wentworth Georgia killed 14 Workers and injured 36 others
Sounds interesting
USCSB channel - united states chemical safety and hazard investigation board.
Ooh, this is the first video of yours where I actually experienced the event.
Eep
Same! Kinda weird to see a video of an event you were nearby for.
I work in an industrial bakery with large on-site silos for flour and sugar. Things like this are WHY our bosses are neurotic about cleaning any area that dust can reach for just this reason.
Good to hear you have good bosses. It probably helps that they have to be on-site themselves! :P
It's not just explosions. It's food safety as well. No one wants rats and bugs
I remember there being a big explosion at a power generating station in Atikokan, ON Canada when they were doing some experimental testing on switching from coal to wood pellets for fuel. The dust caused an explosion that tore half the building apart
I worked at a power plant that had an explosion when switching from coal to wood trash.
But that was just the hammer mill violently exploding out of its housing.
Hi man, awesome job.
Having 25 years of service in the quarrying industry, dust fires or worse dust explosions are a massive part of the industry.
There are a number of dust related fires in UK quarrying history.
Just thought you might want to know.
Take care man
I don't think I've heard of dust fires in the quarrying industry before, though I've heard about them in relation to coal mining. That'd be interesting to know more about. My first thought as someone who knows nothing about quarrying is "Wait, rock dust can burn, too?!"
@@RedHeadForester hi man,
Yeah any really high concentration of any kinda dust can cause an explosion.
Asphalt coating plants are some of the higher risks.
I was 7 when this happened and live in the area. It was such a wild thing to see in person. Thank you for making a video on it!
Your channel good Sir, has become my absolute favorite on all of RUclips.
Hey look at that, a Plainly Difficult video from my hometown that I knew all about as I used to be an engineer in the dust filtration industry, sadly yes this was a very avoidable incident.
I used to work at a grain silo (elevator) on Southampton Docks and the whole thing was an accident waiting to happen. It had explosion doors in all the elevators (doors held shut by a soft lead seal that would pop open and release the pressure in the even if detonation / combustion) but the manager was incredibly tight-fisted and wouldn’t pay for a proper maintenance program. Holes were patched with Steel-Stick putty (which often fell off) and dust extractor filters, when clogged, were not replaced in favour of just turning the extractor off. It fell to us worker ants who, along with everything else, spent most of our time hoovering up dust or a few tonnes of spilt grain after an elevator packed-up while laden yet again.
After loading a ship with wheat (the most common and by far the dustiest grain we handled) the head house floor where the weigher was was often covered in a layer of grain dust that in places would come up to my knees…and I’m 6’ 4”!
How that place wasn’t blasted into the Solent I will never know.
Apparently not long after I quit in disgust the penny-pinching came home to roost and there was a massive fuckup. The subsequent investigation alerted the company to the extent of the mismanagement and the boss was sacked. Last I heard things were improving and the silo is still un-exploded today so something must be going right.
My son did a demonstration for his 4-H club. He took an empty oatmeal container, put a plastic hose in from the bottom connected to a funnel inside the container. The funnel was filled with grain dust and he also placed a lighted candle in the bottom beside the funnel. He made a lid out of tin foil for the top of the oatmeal container. When he blew into the hose the grain dust went into the air and exploded, blowing the tin foil lid off. It was quite impressive and won him the first place prize.
If a person commits manslaughter due to lack of vigilance or care, or even murder, then that person is likely going to prison.
If a company does the same, they pay a fine and move on with business as usual.
The day this changes such that companies management face the same charges that single persons would is the day these kinds of "accidents" are prevented.
A dust explosion that is allowed to happen due to lack of maintenance and investment in prevention measures is NOT an accident. It's intentional through neglect and as such should in EVERY SINGLE CASE be tried as 2nd degree involuntary manslaughter. Which should be treated at the highest tier with up to 15 years of imprisonment.
This should apply to EVERYONE in a position of leadership that operated the faulty machinery or likewise.
So in this case, those in charge of the workers that were killed or injured. As well as those in charge of the whole chain to the top of the on site management.
All of them should have been tried AND (yes they are guilty) punished with prison sentences.
As this would make each and every one of them directly responsible for the safety of the worksite and they would be legally allowed to refuse (with sustained pay) further operation when safety is neglected. Not refusing to continue to operate is grounds for criminal charges, the same way driving a car while under the influence is.
I grew up in Wichita. I remember feeling it move things in our basement at our house.
My father investigated this explosion. I remember him leaving home to go here when I was in my late teens. He even talked to me about it and how grain dust was very dangerous
About twenty years, a distant cousin of mine was at work in a grain elevator on the canal just south of Joliet, Illinois. The place was destroyed by an explosion, probably from spontaneous combustion, and he was one of around ten people killed. I don’t know if they ever found his body, the explosion was so powerful.
I believe the CSB(Chemical Safety Board) was brought in to assist the OSHA wi5h the investigation given the nature of the accident and the expertise of the CSB in investigating failures in harzard prevention regarding materials prone to explosion.
Excellent point. Glad to see you're back, Mr. Lincoln. Though I'd avoid politics these days - the current situation's a headache.
@@shannonrhoads7099 I'm sure he's experienced a far worse headache than modern politics, fam.
@@hauntedshadowslegacy2826 Yeah, you should read the transcript of Johnson's speech at my second inauguration.
My No1 favourite type of explosion.
Sawmills have this problem, first piles up everywhere of your not careful. Once a spark ignored a small conflagration, it knocks all the other other dust down, which mixes and ignites and now you have a cock-up cascade
“Cock up cascade” my new favorite phrase. The KISS one is eternal.
@@shereesmazik5030
I stole it from Zero Punctuation, used to describe what happens in Stealth Games when you get discovered, you end up just having to murder everyone, including the guards you already snuck past! 🤣
John’s voice is so good for relating these incidents,informative and intelligent at the same time.
Perfect end to my Saturday thanks John.
Dust is dangerous in many manufacturing industries. Sugar, grain, a variety of metals, etc. Enough in the air… a spark… you get highly combustible material. This is why there are such stringent regulations these days. Tough that we have had to learn this in such a tragic way.
I learned this the fun way, with a bag of flour and a beach campfire. Good to be reminded of why we keep the shop tidy.
@@tactileslutyikes! That must have been one hell of a wake up!!
This was only a few miles from my house. The explosion was so strong that it rattled the windows and knocked pictures down off the wall.
I remember driving by there on my way to work and seeing chunks of concrete the size of cars flung into all the surrounding fields.
Every town in my area has a grain elevator, and very few people really know just how potentially dangerous they are. Even an explosion this impressive will eventually fade from memory and be forgotten.
Great screen name!
That was an incredibly suspenseful pause when you stopped to look out the window to check the weather.
I’m from New Orleans and was at children’s hospital as a kid when the grain elevator exploded here a couple of miles up river from it, and it blew Windows out at the hospital. It’s listed as one of the top ten industrial accidents in America. There’s still a HUGE Hole in the ground from when it happened
My dad was the engineer in charge of the construction of 3 dome-shaped corn grain silos near Mexico City, went with him a few times, after they were built, someone decided to have some welders work on the grain belts, but did not clean the underground ducts where the belts were before the work began. All 3 silos blew up.
Dad told me about the grain dust, called "Tamo" in Spanish; a couple of years later, silos were rebuilt as cone-shaped now.
This was interesting to watch! I just went through a whole training on combustible dusts so I feel like a nerd watching. 😂
It’s amazing that 7 inches of dust was able to accumulate especially considering that even 1/6 in. of dust when moved can cause a dust explosion. That’s why vacuuming dust rather than sweeping off the dust is important.
Manual cleaning of dust is key, but the fact their dust collection system wasn’t working is an issue in itself. Even if their dust collection system was working, the fugitive dust would have still been enough to cause an explosion.
"In a currently..." **pauses to look out the window** "...sunny southeastern corner of London, UK."
That pause was funny. ;-)
I thought the same thing lol
I am hugely appreciative of the slower VO pacing! Thank you!
The moment I saw the title I knew this was gonna be a doozy. In the Midwest you learn a lot about how dangerous grain elevators and silos can be...
Completely preventable. I would be terrified working in a facility like that.
Nice pfp
I'm so glad I found your channel. You do a great job of explaining things and your topics are so interesting.
I was an Electrician and worked for a company that did service work at this elevator and the company finally refused to do anymore work there because of the chance for explosion, among other reasons. That company also got the contract to rebuild the elevator enough to resume business after the explosion. I started there day after the last of the human remains were recovered and worked there until they were receiving and shipping grain again. I personally saw some stuff and heard some tales from some the workers that would curl your toes. I'm not going to repeat any of that here out of respect for those who lost their lives. Grain dust is a scary thing when it's not handled properly.
Mythbusters did a bit where they ignited coffee creamer, which showed just how big a fireball an aerosolized dust cloud could produce. The energy is impressive.
I do have to wonder if the structure was solid enough to cause some of that tho be a detonation combustion event.
I would have liked to know more about the accidental deaths of the two employees who got trapped in confined spaces.. it sounds like a total nightmare..
It's tragically common in agricultural areas. Granular stuff like grain and seeds doesn't compact under your feet so you can sink down into it like quicksand, and the lateral pressure it exerts makes it very difficult to just pull someone out. If you put your foot in a 5gal bucket and fill it with grain, you won't be able to pull your foot straight out. Most rural FD's have a grain rescue team with digging and hoisting equipment.
@@br-v388 "If you put your foot in a 5gal bucket and fill it with grain, you won't be able to pull your foot straight out"
Yeah, no. Grain isn't that bad.
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Otherwise the "...two employees..." part, it sounds like they went into a bin with bridged grain from my understanding and fell through, as the articles say "...if they would have had the required safety equipment...."
I grew up in Wichita, Kansas, and all over Kansas until I was 27yo. And I had no idea about any of this! Thank you 🙏🏾
Thanks for another great video John!
I remember my mum telling me about an explosion in a custard factory, I was only about 10 years old but her story stuck with me.
... was it caused by dust or are we just playing word association
In 1981, there was a dust explosion at the Bird’s Custard Factory in Banbury, a historic market town on the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, UK.
@@sirbrigit That must have been the one my mother told me about thank you.
@@toericabaker The corn starch used to make the custard powder ignited.
@@toericabaker A large variety of dusts can explode. Iron, aluminum, wheat, corn starch, wood... Besides, I doubt the custard industry is cutthroat enough to warrant lobbing missiles back and forth; a dust explosion at a custard factory makes way more sense than corporate bombing raids at a custard factory.
Every week I wait to find out what the weather in a southeastern corner of London is like and I don't know why.
I grew up in grain country, and sugar beet country too! I heard many a chilling tale of people who have been lost in the silos and found only after all the grain has been removed from the silo. Sugar dust is really explosive, and i have heard some crazy stories about that too! These storage silos are dangerous and people die in and around them all the time.
first channel in maybe 10 years that I eagerly await every episode, every week. Keep up the incredible work!
You wouldn't think that grain elevators would be bombs
I remember this we lived a couple miles from there. We thought it was thunder at first until we saw the news
the day this happened I was in Russellville AR, my co-driver and I were walking through the drivers room at a truck stop when we heard them say something on the big TV about an explosion in Wichita. both of us being from there, we stopped to watch the live coverage for a couple minutes then headed for the phones. talked to my Dad who told me the whole house shook, he thought maybe a plane had crashed at the airport (same general direction from our house as DeBruce). I remember him saying he hadn't heard an explosion that big since he was in Viet Nam. fast forward 6 years I was driving grain truck for a local company, hauling wheat into DeBruce multiple times a day during harvest. sitting in the unload line with those huge silos looming over me, there was more than one time I had an uneasy feeling. nothing ever happened, but I was always glad to be leaving
I absolutely love your uploads keep these coming
I was in a dust explosion in north dakota at a pea and lentil processing plant. The biggest in the USA. It was 8 stories high and you can see through the grated floor all the way to the bottom. It was a small explosion in the upper level and blew out the top secret door and some windows and turned everything black 🖤. Anyway it wasn't that bad.
Here in Denmark we had a dust explosion in a cyclone silo just after it was done emptying the last grain onto the truck. The "top hat" was found nearly half a mile away... Fortunately the construction code of those mandate that the walls are much stronger than the roof, so the only thing that happened to the truck driver was a bad case of ringing ears.
Most people are not aware that flour and sugar are inflammable.
Inflammable.....that would be not flammable, right?
The English language is a disaster!
Lol.
Wichita resident and ex steel erector here!!! I used to build giant steel elevators!! It’s extremely dangerous building them and preforming maintenance. Biggest structure we built was called a “90” because it was 90 feet from the center to any one wall. Weighed over a millions pounds in steel and we lifted up them with hydraulic jacks and built each level as we raised it.
I live 20 minutes south of the elevator and drive by it occasionally, and had no idea of it's history. I'll never look at it the same way again. Thanks for the informative vid as always! I live about 4 blocks from a smaller (two unit) grain elevator now and these vids make me nervous LOL.
"Fuel to build a Civilization has the capability to burn a Civilization"
- Master Oogway
Things like grain, chocolate, and molasses can be quite dangerous at industrial scales.
Chocolate kills ?
@@shereesmazik5030 damn straight
I drive by it going through KS every so often. I never knew the story, always thought the collapsed central structure was from a tornado.
John you should take a look at the dust explosions at Imperial Sugar in Georgia (the state)in 2008 or at Hoeganaes powdered metal plant in Texas in 2011.
Just a reminder to everyone at the right air to dust ratio any dust can be an explosive
Nothing is a better reminder of that than the festival of colours dust explosion back in 2015 where a light caused the corn starch to catch on fire
Unrelated to this video: When will you do a follow-up video for Chernobyl? You said in your video at the end that you'll do a video on the aftermath and wider impact of the disaster?
Many don't appreciate the ability for grain and especially sugar dust to explode. Given the right conditions they can explode with greater energy than gunpowder.
Loved the editing in this one. Great job keeping me interesting in a topic I didn’t know I cared aboit
Excellent topic selection and coverage as always, MeJohn!
Thank you
Ratings seem about right to me, dust explosions in general are so sadly common. Sugar, coal, grain, metals... Lots of them. We've gotten *better* generally about dust control and whatnot, but as long as we have oxygen in our atmosphere and rapid oxidation is a thing (thanks, physics) these will continue to happen. Good maintenance and operations will help, but when you're looking at something like that, murphy's law will *always* find a way.
There are trials on using nitrogen atmospheres to prevent pests in grain silos. Basically taking the same nitrogen generation technology from oil storage and using it in grain storage.
Probably won't do much for explosions though as they are caused by machinery that will still be in oxygen.
@@mabamabam I doubt that will go very far as it would be reasonably expensive and difficult to detect, unlike the current phosphine.
Im always curious to know how the weather is when youre recording this. Have you looked out of the window to see if its sunny or where did the break come from? Greetings form the currently little cloudy west corner of Germany. Really enjoy your content ^^
Unrelated to the topic, been binging this channel without order and I need to admit, the slower pace of narration is a lot more enjoyable to listen to. And easier to follow.
Maybe I'm old.
ah i remember this on discovery channel back in the day. thanks for refreshing my memory, keep up