Munitions Factory Explodes in South Australia

[Down Under]

I'm not sure which forum to post this in, so I'm putting it in the Water Cooler, and leaving it to a Moderator's discretion.

Details are still sketchy, but on Tuesday, around midday ( CST ), a professional munitions factory in the state of South Australia went off with a boom, killing at least two people, and injuring two others, while a third is still missing.

Details are currently available at http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=99442
A sobering reminder to all budding would-be pyrotechnicians, of what can happen when something goes wrong.
Even under ( presumably ) strictly controlled conditions, "shit happens".

While the article doesn't show much in the way of pictures, the story on last night's National T.V. News showed video coverage of the sight by helicopter, and Damn!
Talk about a shitload of energy being released.

While I'm sure the work would be interesting, I can't think how much they'd have to pay me to work in such a place.

[Alexires]

*grin* It could haver been a bigger "damn" as the article says - "Authorities will secure the site, and remove 300kg of TNT."

*laugh* Holy balls, if that baby had gone off, I'm pretty sure that I would have known about the explosion before the news did *grin*.

Then again, it is fairly remarkable. 2 people dead, 2 wounded and one probably dead. 5 casualties at a place where they store 300kg of TNT and god knows what else is damn good I think. However that place is built, its built exceedingly well for its purpose.

Maybe someone on the forum with a decent amount of money may build their lab in the same configuration?

[wetpowder]

The missing person they may never find. Never find "all" of him I mean.

[shady mutha]

Thats the second explosion in SA this week. Some nice footage coming in from that blast....One worker is still missing, they say chances of finding his body are slim.
USE
Some fool killed himself while trying to burn down his cafe this week also. This guy spread fuel all around his shop then believe it or not flicked his lighter on! They found his body still with said lighter in hand. Nice explosion, took out the front and rear walls and sent all the tables and chairs flying into other businesses.
PARAGRAPHS
And to top it off a high school teacher got busted with 50KG of Powergel and 4 build bombs with nails and razors in it. They news showed a couple of his devices. One was a plasitic drum filled with white powder and about 20 nails spread evenly through it. The other one was a cardboard box lined with butane canisters and all wired up but no main charge.

[Chopper]

The best bit about the guy with 53Kg Powergell was, "that the devices were planned for use as pyrotechnical effects in a movie" WTF? Was he for real or what? Who, but somebody of a simliarly screwed mental state is going to believe that? As we all know, a 20kg device (the size of the first one located) is a rather large BlackPowder device, but High Explosives?!?

But for him to expect us to believe that the one containing nails and razor blades was also "for special effects" makes him rather, er, SPECIAL.

The worst thing about it was he looked as normal and boring, white and aussie as everybody else in the street. The most exciting thing was the (15yr old) sports car in the driveway.

[fiknet]

Some fool killed himself while trying to burn down his cafe this week also. This guy spread fuel all around his shop then believe it or not flicked his lighter on! They found his body still with said lighter in hand. Nice explosion, took out the front and rear walls and sent all the tables and chairs flying into other businesses.

Wow it must of been a powerful blast.

http://www.bloggernews.net/2006/05/munitions-factory-explodes.html

This link says "The explosion levelled everything within 100 metres and could be heard from 70km away." does anyone know how much explosive detonated?

Also I'm dissapointed that what that teacher did happened in Australia because I think they are also talking of tightening security for chemical precursors aswell as explosives and this incident couldn't have come at a worse time for me as I am ordering precursors for nitrations. :(

++++++++

Quoting entire posts is highly annoying and liable to get you banned.

Don't do it again.

NBK

[Red Beret]

Yeah, the radio news said he had "enough explosives to level five city blocks".
Someones getting a little carried away there....

I've handled powergel, its a watergel explosive, the type I handled was about as firm as plasticene, it does vary though, there are many types of powergel, it can come in sticks or bulk packages.

[sungod]

I was just reading an independent Adelaide paper about the munitions factory explosion and it has an interview with one of the survivors who said that he was underneath a large block of TNT and the heat was melting it onto him as he waited for rescue (sounds like a car crash I was in - the skid marks were al least three inches long).
USE PARAGRAPH BREAKS
Also the guy with the powergel had no idea how to make an anti-personnel device. I saw pictures of one of his creations and instead of the shrapnel surrounding the charge the bits and pieces appeared to be close to the centre of the charge. There may be a tech reason for this but it didn't make sense to me so if anyone knows why you would embed the shrapnel inside the explosive material rather than surrounding it please let me know.

[inventorgp]

About that guy with 53kg's of powergel.

He live relatively down the road from me.
To make his detonators he went to my local electronics store - Jaycar, and
bought the jacobs ladder ignition coil kit.

How did I find this out? Well it all started at the hardware store getting parts
for my pneumatic .68cal rifle. While I was there I caught up with a guy I knew-
the manager of Jaycar.

He (Crazy man) was also inquiring about remote "ignition system" made from remote
control cars. If you didn't see it on TV, he already made some sort of
butane bomb and crude claymores.

As Sungod said, he obviously didn't know what he was doing.

[Jacks Complete]

Don't know why he would mix the nails into the explosives. Very wierd. Liable to cause issues, too, as the charge would likely start to react with the metal.

I wonder what his plan was? Nuke the school? Noisy neighbour?

[Bert]

I've seen a car bomb made by French terrorists (OAS) that had shrapnel balls mixed into the explosive filling. Those guys were mostly ex military and were very good at blowing stuff up- But I don't thing this Ozzie fruitcake knew what the hell he was doing, fortunately.

[inventorgp]

Apparently he liked Nazi memorabilia. He threatened the government
with a holy war attack. And about a year ago some nut prank called
the cops that there'd be three bombs set off in Brisbane city.

[neo-crossbow]

I'm Sure that the teacher in Brisbane will get a fair trial.... not.

He used to be head of the Brisneyland airport or exec there, I was workedthere years ago. He seemed quite normal then. But who can tell.