Huge Gas Explosion in Santo Domingo

May 5, 2007
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4 dead, 44 injured, several seriously burned - some children in a school in front of the plant.
This was in the Polyplas Plastics Plant - apparently (most probable) a leaking gas explosion.

https://dominicantoday.com/dr/local/2018/12/05/gas-explosion-rocks-several-districts/

https://sputniknews.com/latam/201812061070428840-dominican-republic-blast-casualties/
That is really sad That guy on front page looks really painful I have seen some really nasty burns while in service, they literally scare me

My Father died in a gas explosion, lived for 9 days with 3rd degree burns over 40% of his body and the hospital could do nothing for him (1979, medicine and burn treatment was not what it is today)

No way for anyone to pass
 

JD Jones

Moderator:North Coast,Santo Domingo,SW Coast,Covid
Jan 7, 2016
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I think it was a boiler that overheated and exploded and leveled everything around it which started the fires. A boiler explosion would also burn the living daylights out of anyone near.
The pressure build up in them is incredible.
The videos I've seen before the explosion looked like super heated steam vapor escaping from a pressure valve.
 

Cdn_Gringo

Gold
Apr 29, 2014
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That type of an explosion is called a BLEVE (Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion). Intense heat even a long way from the explosion itself. Not uncommon for people to sustain burns without sustaining shrapnel impacts or other direct effects of the explosion.

Those propane tanks around your home for cooking and the bbq behave the same if they fail and then ignite.
 
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NALs

Economist by Profession
Jan 20, 2003
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The indoor security camera of a business near the factory captured the moment of the explosion. Notice how everything shakes as if it was an earthquake.

[video=youtube;fDQY1CGlM6E]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDQY1CGlM6E[/video]
 

JD Jones

Moderator:North Coast,Santo Domingo,SW Coast,Covid
Jan 7, 2016
11,698
8,129
113
I think it was a boiler that overheated and exploded and leveled everything around it which started the fires. A boiler explosion would also burn the living daylights out of anyone near.
The pressure build up in them is incredible.
The videos I've seen before the explosion looked like super heated steam vapor escaping from a pressure valve.

I was kind of right. Turns out the boilers were lit and heating, and a LP gas company was filling a large tank inside which developed a leak in the valve. One the LP Gas reached the Boiler.. boom.

Purely operator error.

They evacuated the area this morning after they discovered another tank is leaking.

People and press are going nuts.