* * * Manure Happenz * * *

Cam

I'd be fairly sure that 3070's hadnt been born when that happened. The engine block that I saw on TV was a 6 cylinder - 250 or 335 Cummins. And with a belly tank involved (a key part of the whole deal) I doubt if any drums were on the load.

I have a vague recall that there was some suggestion that he was transfering fuel from the belly tank (using air presure) and the transfer hose broke - creating a 'spray' of fuel. Which wet the load as well as started the initial fire.

Having said that - a leaking drum sitting on top of the load would offer a better suturation effect.

I'd put the date as pre 1972. All the above is a guess on my part.

OldFulla

Heard that story a few times as well.

Only problem with that actually happening on the back of a tarped trailer, is that the 'nitropril' needs to be compacted and held in place very securely. Think rammed down tight in a drilled hole, not loosely poured onto a trailer or spread out on the ground.

I have personally seen quite a few spills of this stuff out on the highways, think upside down trailers or heaps of the nitropril left on the side of the road from when the dozy steering wheel attendant required forty winks at a very inconvenient time.

Plenty of diesel spilled during these very tricky manoeuvres too, funny thing though, never saw any "craters" from this supposedly toxic mix.

Even been in the same roadhouse's with some of these R & H steeringwheel attendants, and had plenty of laughs about this tale as well.
They told me straight up, it wont go bang, unless it is compacted and it does requires another charge, to start things happening, a fire will NOT do it.

It needs a certain amount of diesel to cover each small bit of 'nitropril' and the lot packed down a hole tightly, then a charge is placed on top of this, and a bung of earth is then tamped onto it all.
When the small charge is fired, it ignites the diesel, just the same way as in a motor, then the 'nitropril' gets burnt and expands rapidly, causing the explosion.

So, what happens to a good burning fire when you chuck on some diesel, 99 times out of a 100 you will put the fire out, don't believe it, eh ? Go try it and then come back and tell me what happened.
Same thing happens when one of R & H's went AR$E up, OK, a fire might have started, but when it hit the 'nitropril', it just fizzed out, no bang at all.

regards greenie [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif]

ps - my memory of the R & H steersman, was that they were ONLY hired because of their very low intelligence. These "turkeys" could only see the magic dollars signs, if they managed to cover so many clicks in a day, so they drove accordingly.

Oldfulla, have a look at this site, look for the word DOWNLOAD, open both, Technical Data Sheet and the Safety Data Sheet, make sure you have a real good look at what the manufacture says about fires and explosions.

www.oricaminingservices.com/nz/en/produc...pril/56#.T78YJYubuIA

Wonder if "MYTHBUSTERS" would ever do something about this particular myth. [smiley=rolleyes.gif] [smiley=rolleyes.gif]

regards greenie [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif]

Gents
I recall this story as a kid, but I heard it on the news!
Agree with Greenie re compacting pril and so on (although I'm no expert) and not saying what he says is not true-I know for sure that diesel is hard to burn when "let loose"-but that incident sure did occur.
Given the right conditions though, most normally safe things will go bang!
I somehow remember too it was a six cylinder block.
Cheers

Your detonator could have been the drive tyres blowing in the fire (The truck was burning ). a mate of mine worked at Taroom on the council and the drivers gear was stacked behind a tree at the scene.

I had a quick try with a search on "Trove" using "truck explosion taroom" as the search words with no luck, any guesses of words for a search? Trove should search old newspaper articles, I would guess an event like this would have made the paper.

Trove only searches newspapers earlier than 1954.

But a Google search gives
www.safework.sa.gov.au/uploaded_files/SSAN_Storage.T60.pdf
about the dangers of AN refers to the Taroom incident

There goes that theory, any clues on how else to search the story?
Allan, that article most definatly verifies the story, along with everyone else recollections of seeing it on the news. The article only states 2 tonnes though, not quite a semi-trailer load.

I'm feeling a bit one tracked here, here a bit out off the web-

Accidental explosions
Although relatively stable in isolation and when handled and stored carefully, ammonium nitrate will support combustion initiated in another material. Its oxidising quality will intensify a fire, even in the absence of air. When subjected to sufficient heat, ammonium nitrate becomes molten, extremely sensitive to impact, and will detonate, as demonstrated by the following major accidents:

any guesses of words for a search?

Taroom boom?

crikey .. i've heard of plenty of urban myths...but bugger all country ones !!

ps...in all the peterbilt research about 15 years ago, this story was told to me, so it's been around awhile...

...ol' mate onetrack would have had it all sorted by now... :'( :'( :'(