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Fire at boatyard at Osney

frangar

By frangar
in General Boating

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Onewheeler Rising Star

Onewheeler

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Also at http://www.thisisoxfordshire.co.uk/news/15091709.Huge_explosion_and_fire_in_Oxford/

 

Our mooring is almost opposite, about 50 m downstream. Looks like a boat or two on hardstanding have gone up and probably some damage from flying debris to boats all around. We're at home so won't find out more until tomorrow.

 

Martin/

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lulu fish Collaborator

lulu fish

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Calor gas bottle in one of those mobile cabinet heaters caused this would be my guess from the photos.

 

 

 

Calor gas bottles very rarely explode, it's pretty hard to get them to explode even if you are trying to. You could put one in the middle of a bonfire and it wouldn't explode.

 

How do you suppose the cabinet heater gas bottle came to explode?

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GoodGurl Experienced

GoodGurl

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Calor gas bottles very rarely explode, it's pretty hard to get them to explode even if you are trying to. You could put one in the middle of a bonfire and it wouldn't explode.

 

How do you suppose the cabinet heater gas bottle came to explode?

from the news report. although there is no official explanation yet.

.

Another eyewitness told BBC Radio Oxford there was a "small explosion" and then five minutes later "there was a bigger explosion".

An onlooker said the explosion was caused by gas canisters.

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lulu fish Collaborator

lulu fish

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from the news report. although there is no official explanation yet.

.

Another eyewitness told BBC Radio Oxford there was a "small explosion" and then five minutes later "there was a bigger explosion".

An onlooker said the explosion was caused by gas canisters.

 

It may well be caused by a leak from a calor gas bottle. The bottle itself exploding. would be very rare. I don't think any one can guess the cause by looking at the pictures in the article.

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Alan de Enfield Veteran II

Alan de Enfield

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Posted (edited)

 

Calor gas bottles very rarely explode, it's pretty hard to get them to explode even if you are trying to. You could put one in the middle of a bonfire and it wouldn't explode.

 

How do you suppose the cabinet heater gas bottle came to explode?

 

How wrong can you be.

 

An 'Agricultural Merchant' up the road from us had a fire it one of his buildings - the heat caused over 100 Calor gas bottles (of all sizes) to explode, the explosions shook our roof and we are almost a mile away, they were shooting several 100 feet into the air - at least one took off sideways and went thru the rear door, (and out the other side) of a passing car, another went up in the air and came down 500 yards away and went thru the back of a pick up truck.

The road was subsequently closed for 2-days as the fire brigade could not (would not) get within 500 yards due to the danger from an unknown quantity of cylinders remaining.

It was a 'nightmare' and just goes to show how easily they do explode.

 

Edit to add :

The gas cylinders were not in the shed that caught fire, but in a 'Calor Approved' steel mesh (sides & roof) compound about 30-40 feet away from the burning building

Edited by Alan de Enfield
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lulu fish Collaborator

lulu fish

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How wrong can you be.

 

An 'Agricultural Merchant' up the road from us had a fire it one of his buildings - the heat caused over 100 Calor gas bottles (of all sizes) to explode, the explosions shook our roof and we are almost a mile away, they were shooting several 100 feet into the air - at least one took off sideways and went thru the rear door, (and out the other side) of a passing car, another went up in the air and came down 500 yards away and went thru the back of a pick up truck.

The road was subsequently closed for 2-days as the fire brigade could not (would not) get within 500 yards due to the danger from an unknown quantity of cylinders remaining.

It was a 'nightmare' and just goes to show how easily they do explode.

 

Edit to add :

The gas cylinders were not in the shed that caught fire, but in a 'Calor Approved' steel mesh (sides & roof) compound about 30-40 feet away from the burning building

 

Canisters shooting off sideways or up in the air are not exploding. That is the pressure relief valve opening, propelling the canister but preventing it from exploding.

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alan_fincher Veteran II

alan_fincher

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Canisters shooting off sideways or up in the air are not exploding. That is the pressure relief valve opening, propelling the canister but preventing it from exploding.

 

Does that make it OK if one is heading straight at you then?

  • Greenie 2
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Alan de Enfield Veteran II

Alan de Enfield

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Canisters shooting off sideways or up in the air are not exploding. That is the pressure relief valve opening, propelling the canister but preventing it from exploding.

 

Agreed - but the 'explosions' that rattled our roof (almost a mile away across open fields) were 'explosions' and not just the jet-flame from a burning pressure relief valve.

When a 47kg gas bottle goes 'bang' you know about it.

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Murflynn Veteran

Murflynn

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agree. it is academic whether it burns fiercely with expansive behaviour or whether it explodes - the effect is broadly the same.

 

I remember as a lad watching a paint store burning in Reading, the fire was accompanied by frequent bangs like small bombs as the paint cans blew up.

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lulu fish Collaborator

lulu fish

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Does that make it OK if one is heading straight at you then?

 

No, but it won't destroy a building in the way that seems to have happened at Osney.

agree. it is academic whether it burns fiercely with expansive behaviour or whether it explodes - the effect is broadly the same.

 

Nonsense. It is the difference between a fierce fire and a huge explosion.

 

Agreed - but the 'explosions' that rattled our roof (almost a mile away across open fields) were 'explosions' and not just the jet-flame from a burning pressure relief valve.

When a 47kg gas bottle goes 'bang' you know about it.

 

I agree, but it is very rare for one to explode, especially a single cannister in a cabinet heater, It virtually never happens.

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mrsmelly Veteran II

mrsmellyDonate to Canal World

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Just seen this on BBC news site. The video seems to show it at a boatyard

 

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-Oxfordshire-38972074

 

My business partners live there on their boat and tell me the place was swarming with emergency services but it didnt put him off his fillet steak or bottle of cndp for valentines meal.....yuk..... the valentines bit not the meal. People still unacounted for it seems this morning though non of them boaters.

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Nightwatch Veteran II

NightwatchDonate to Canal World

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Saw a video of a lorry carrying gas canisters having an accident. What followed was quite amazing. Gas bottle flying all over the place and exploding. Carnage.a patrol car reversing at high speed to escape from a canister. It was in America!

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PaulG Experienced

PaulG

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Saw a video of a lorry carrying gas canisters having an accident. What followed was quite amazing. Gas bottle flying all over the place and exploding. Carnage.a patrol car reversing at high speed to escape from a canister. It was in America!

Even more spectacular when it's a train...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-tUQTw_Vtk

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Onewheeler Rising Star

Onewheeler

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Exploding cylinders or cylinders going into orbit may be a red herring. The explosion could well be consistent with a flat filled with gas, possibly with a large leak being initiated by a small initial explosion. It has been scurrilously suggested that propane may have been in use for extraction of THC. There are certainly plenty of stoners in the area, mostly harmless.

 

I believe that there is still no access to the area. I had been thinking of going to see if any flying masonry had caused damage to our boat that needs urgent fixing. F&R still searching the wreckage for bodies, still people unaccounted for.

 

Martin /

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Alan de Enfield Veteran II

Alan de Enfield

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. It has been scurrilously suggested that propane may have been in use for extraction of THC. There are certainly plenty of stoners in the area, mostly harmless.

 

 

 

Sorry I do not understand the local dialect, can you please explain what is meant by :

 

1) THC

2) 'Stoners' (what have 'harmless quarrymen got to do with it ?)

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