Insidious "Purple Liquid": Deadly Cheerleaders Strike Again

[Lewis]

I ran across this article recently:
http://tinyurl.com/59733d

It describes the destruction of UK homes by a supposed "girl gang" due to some sort of love interest. I was sure this was some sort of joke, but the photos seem to indicate otherwise.

Authorities initially thought the blast was from a gas leak, but this seems unlikely, as the remains of the house are not charred, and I would assume a gas explosion would start secondary fires, as well.

I always find it funny to read through articles like these. This one is particularly hilarious. The question remains: What, if anything, was this purple crap that was poured through the mailbox? It would seem to me that any liquid explosive used would be ten times more effective sitting in buckets on the front doorstep.

[megalomania]

Well, the cops speculated this came from the Internet, which they always say, so where is this recipe hmm? I am not familiar with UK consumer chemical practices, but this sounds like the purple stuff may have been from a chemical with a dye. I recall only formaldehyde for RV chemical toilets containing a purple dye. It could be a dyed acid as part of a two component high explosive mixture.

It could also be grape juice dumped to ruin the living room rug. I have read enough of these stories about bombs and bombers to know the facts are rarely completely correct. I must read 4-5 different articles about the same story to average the facts, this is my technique of Raman newstroscopy :D

[Lewis]

Fox News has little more to enlighten us with:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354993,00.html
Looks like they just got info from the earlier article.

The purple color could be a telltale sign of homebrew synthesis. I know some posters have reported purple dyed drain cleaners as a source of sulfuric acid. The whole story makes little sense. A liquid explosive sensitive enough to be initiated in a puddle on a floor would most likely be a peroxide. This would explain the smell as well.

[JohnG]

A few years ago in my town something similar to this happened.

A house's propane tank was hit by falling ice or snow, it fell from it's location and created a small gash, enough for the tank to vent. Nobody was home at the time, and I'm unsure how it sparked off, but the result was very similar. The 3 bedroom, 2 story house was reduced to basically splinters, no fire involved though.

[Dave_H]

A liquid explosive sensitive enough to be initiated in a puddle on a floor would most likely be a peroxide. This would explain the smell as well.

Maybe MEKP?

More information here:
http://tinyurl.com/6ncztg
One of the possible substances being investigated by police is methyl ethyl ketone, which can come in a purple liquid form with an ether-like odour and is used on piping by plumbers. It is a highly-flammable irritant, which can be explosive if concentrated into a vapour.

[Barnacles]

Maybe they tried to make Astrolite with aniline dye that was purple. Assume the kewlest thing possible. Just a guess...
EDIT
Investigators inititally thought the explosion was caused by a gas leak, but now suspect the purple liquid — believed to have been made from a recipe found on the Internet — could have vaporized and caused the explosion, it was reported.

After reading the fox article the astrolite seems unlikely. From what I gather I am guessing the police tested the purple liquid for explosives but it didn't come up as one. Must have came up as a gas or something , the way the elude about the VAPORIZING of the liquid which POSSIBLY caused an explosion. So I am guessing they know what it is, but it isn't generally an explosive, and they don't want to say to give people idea's

[hereno]

Now surely it was just petrol, which is can be purple. I mean teenage girls blowing up a house :/ the fumes filled the house and boom.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=w09IY73oVjE

As a side note, but very unlikely. Some nitromethane when sensitized with amines turns purple due to an indicator.

[-=HeX=-]

Well, my Nitromethane when a dash of ammonium hydroxide turns purple or pink. The guy who sold it to me told me that it was dangerous if it goes purple. This is because it forms a PLX. Maybe they made that? Or maybe some MEKP with a purple colouring from the glue they got it from.

[megalomania]

A police source said: "There are several possibilities, one of which is that this was a home-made explosive which was cooked up using a recipe on the internet. The methods for making these liquid bombs are all over the internet.

"We have seen with recent terrorism trials that there are plenty of things on the web, but it would obviously be an extraordinary and disturbing development if a girl gang has decided to settle a dispute in such dramatic and tragic way."

One of the possible substances being investigated by police is methyl ethyl ketone, which can come in a purple liquid form with an ether-like odour and is used on piping by plumbers. It is a highly-flammable irritant, which can be explosive if concentrated into a vapour.

Well this is news to me. I actually don't know that much about explosives, me being new to this site and all, so I am rather curious to know about these explosives sites that are ALL OVER the Internet. Why liquid explosives are very common, look how many I have in the Chem Lab, possibly 3 or 4 out of 150...

The police are quick to blame the Internet as the source of all mischief, and by extension I take that personally. Perhaps by saying "these liquid bombs are all over the internet" the cops mean to say knowledge of gasoline + match = boom.

By the time the forensics guys figure out what the purple liquid is, the media will have gotten bored and forgotten all about the story, so we may never get to hear what the magic purple goo really is.

[Thorald]

I know the area, and I don't think people there, especially the people in that age group in that area could come up with some form of high explosive that could cause the damage it did...

Could it be that it was some kind of prank gone tragically wrong?

Because to me that seems most likely...

The Authorities now think that it was a Gas Explosion, but that the explosion may have been caused by this 'Purple Liquid' exploding, and that the Gas explosion came from various pipes from a near by factory.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1947212/Gas-leak-may-have-worsened-Harrow-blast.html

[Jacks Complete]

I'm amazed no-one has mentioned methylated spirits yet! Purple to stop tramps drinking it (or something) and it burns quite easily, but also causes vapour explosions due to it's low pressure. I can see a bottle of it going through a letterbox and then boom when the vapour caught. The sudden loss of pressure blows it out, and that's that.

If it was an explosive, surely it would have exploded?

[Thorald]

Yes it could be Methylated Spirits. In my workshop last night I found a bottle of the stuff, Purple in colour, marked with 'Highly Flammable' on the back of the bottle. The Purple Dye apparently makes you vomit the liquid up upon digestion, as to stop people from poisoning themselves with it...

Surely a fire could perhaps ignite something that caused the explosion?

[Emil]

I'm at the point now where reading news reports makes me cringe to the point of laughing. The detail is so hit and miss and over exagerated to the point of disgust.

The way they write "Gang of girls 'blew up house with home-made bomb" makes you instantly know that it is just some ramped up bullshit, written by an idiot to try and capture attention. All that headline really means is, like previously mentioned, a prank or small fire which turned into a big mess. There was no bomb. Just a flammable material which probably started a house fire, then caught fire to the gas main. Most probably meth spirits.

Anyone who thinks that a group of young girls fighting over a guy is going to construct a real bomb, is just as stupid as the guy who wrote the article. :rolleyes:

"Police originally thought the devastating explosion had been caused by a gas leak, a theory which has now been played down."

DCI Sutton said: "We still haven't ruled out a gas explosion but experts say it is unlikely to be the cause"

Of course, 500ml of liquid explosive, dispersed all over the landing floor is bound to take out 3 houses. :rolleyes: I'd love to know how they detonated it. Of course they must of never of used a blasting cap and just chose to "detonate" it with a match :D

[Silent Freedom]

I would probably think it is some gasoline because of there obviously over stated description. However there is a chance MEKP could turn purple, say adding the purple drain cleaner (and I have heard of a purple drain cleaner but never seen it) as a catalyst for the hydrogen peroxide and methyl ethyl ketone to make MEKP, just a thought.

[Rbick]

I saw someone had mentioned PLX. From experience, I can tell you that detonating PLX without a booster is difficult, and damn near impossible without some primary (unless you pour it in an engine cylinder and start it :D). It also requires a good container to detonate properly unless you use a bad ass booster charge. Usually when detonating only 50mL, I would use 1g of ETN w/ 1g HMTD to ensure full detonation. Considering they poured it on the floor and it then detonated pretty much rules out PLX, unless they poured it in, and dropped a powerful booster charge following the pouring of the liquid. I doubt it...

Having blown up a few buildings in my time, and looking at the picture, I would say looks like a gas explosion. I once detonated 12 lbs of C4 on the outside wall of a house and it didn't do as much damage as seen in this picture. Destruction of that magnitude would require A LOT of explosive to be poured through the mail slot. I don't find it believable that a "girl gang" hung out in their basement and mass produced MEKP, PLX, NG, Methylnitrate, whatever, and the necessary booster and blasting cap with the intentions of blowing up a house. I can see it now, a bunch of high school girls walking around in lab coats with beakers and flasks, preparing for their mission. The conversation probably went something like (add English accent) "Lets go throw this nasty smelling shit in that bitches mail box! That'll show her!"

The liquid must have been flammable however, possibly reaching the necessary fuel/air mixture to detonate and perhaps detonating the gas line in a secondary explosion? Whether this was intentional or not is the question, but I doubt some girls would intentionally destroy half a city block because of a boy. He must have been really "hott" :p

Regardless of whether it was intended to kill, it did end someones life needlessly and they are responsible. I really do feel bad for the family of the man killed in the blast, as it was a pointless and random death. Being killed in combat by an exploding enemy shell would be honorable, but being killed by a bunch of dumb ass high school girls is just sad. With that said, I hope they get caught and if it were up to me, I would execute them in an attempt to cleanse the gene pool.

Some quotes if found amusing:
Police originally thought the devastating explosion had been caused by a gas leak, a theory which has now been played down.
Of course its been played down! Everyone is looking for a chance to say "EXPLOSIVES!" or "TERRORISTS!" when in fact the case is much more simple.

This is a quote from a guy in the comments section of the news website:
It would seem we should take great care when it comes to what sort of young ladies we should permit our sons to consort with.

- M Young, London
Dumb ass...

[Charles Owlen Picket]

This "Girl Gang" thing is tabloid pap. Men running is fear imposed by Amazon muscular young girls is very short skirts, inflicting an imposing humiliation on them: legs apart - while the "men" stare at their panties, cringing in emasculated trepidation....

A "Girl Gang"....Jesus.....what has become of The Britain of Old? Everything is now focused on "empowerment of the Woman" to such a degree that even the fear mongering can't get along without the steely muscled Burka-clad terrorist. Or the super-cheerleader gone Bad.

Have you ever noticed that now Testosterone is used as a expletive or put-down? "It smells like too much testosterone in here". The term "macho" used to mean masculine....now it means something demeaning. On television the "wife" is always the intelligent, reasonable one, while the "husband" is a dumb-shit & slob with a laugh-track in tow. We live in an age with a deep seated resentment toward men. We see it everywhere female centered marketing takes hold....

120lb female firefighters dragging a helpless male from a burning building......A female soldier, clad only in a flack jacket and panties holding an M60 with one arm and an injured comrade under the other.... "GI-Jane"!

It's obvious that it was petrol and the idiots who burned something were written to be bigger than life. The Joke is that the public buys it up!

[Thorald]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/7403364.stm

According to this the mysterious 'Purple Liquid' was not responsible for the blast and it was most likely that Gas was responsible. Also the liquid was poured in ten hours before the blast!

[Barnacles]

Having blown up a few buildings in my time, and looking at the picture, I would say looks like a gas explosion. I once detonated 12 lbs of C4 on the outside wall of a house and it didn't do as much damage as seen in this picture. Destruction of that magnitude would require A LOT of explosive to be poured through the mail slot.

The thing about that is the charge was on the OUTSIDE of the house, the negates a major amount of damage that would occur given it was contained indoors. This would force a blow out. If the charge is contained indoors the expanding gasses have nowhere to go so would force the walls away. If its outside it will take the path of least resistant and blast away from the house taking away most of the damage. Its the same as putting a charge on concrete, a huge car bomb makes a baby crater, but if you put 25 pounds 2 feet under ground the hole will be massive... One reason I am thinking that it was most likely a gas blast or at least the HE was a very small component is because of all the intact windows around it. I think if HE was primarily responsible you wouldn't see all those windows in good shape.

I have a video of a 6 pound pentolite charge leveling a one floor house. here is the link the house was built to code I believe.Also some other related videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNP2xCfOdjI 6lb pentolite in house
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYjzIMLQYVs&feature=user - 15 pounds C4 in a bus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87rjr0xg7NI&feature=user 300 lb anfo car bomb
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fzQv_LjoMg&feature=related 15 pound bomber beside bus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbE-82UI8lM&feature=user TNT blast beside a van its really cool that you can see the ball bearings tear through it clearly in semi "orderly" state. Mock suicide bomber beside it to be clear.

Edit I don't see why everyone is so confident these girls couldn't have made a High Explosive. Us of all people should know how easy it is to do this from OTC stuff, and the recipes are floating around on the internet. You would have to be pretty inept these days to NOT be able to make explosives.

[Lewis]

I'm amazed at the framerate of those videos. The camera must have been recording images faster than a minigun fires.

[Rbick]

Awesome videos! Those are fun. I agree with you on the blast damage, it looks primarily like a gas explosion.


The thing about that is the charge was on the OUTSIDE of the house, the negates a major amount of damage that would occur given it was contained indoors. This would force a blow out. If the charge is contained indoors the expanding gasses have nowhere to go so would force the walls away. If its outside it will take the path of least resistant and blast away from the house taking away most of the damage.

I'm well aware of how explosive waves propagate. I was just making the point that 12lbs would not have flattened that large of an area even if it was inside with damage like what is seen in the picture. I've detonated a few charges inside buildings too :). If it was placed in the basement or in the middle of the lowest floor, thats a different story. But the fact the charge would have been next to the front door (having been poured through the mail slot) would mean that the explosion would have thrown the door and the front wall outward towards the street. From the pic you can see this happened everywhere, not just on the front of the structure. So unless they used A LOT of explosive, its doubtful that a gas explosion didn't take place as a result of a smaller explosive charge, a fuel/air explosion, or a fire.

You're right about the fact that it very well could have been HE. Although the reason for destroying a house over a boy escapes me. I guess these are troubled times we live in :( The fact of the matter is they may have intentionally destroyed a building and killed an innocent man while doing so. This equals death penalty in my book!

[Jacks Complete]

It is so clearly a vapour explosion that further debate is silly.

As regards the girl gang thing, well, yes, it is the latest social problem over here. Girls openly boast about how they nearly killed someone by battering him with a stiletto heel, or how four of them set someone on fire for saying mean things about them in class.

It's mostly because the cops harass the male gangs so much now, that they forgot to keep the girls in check too. And, lets face it, the phrase "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" came from somewhere long before it was discovered that girls tend to go for massive overkill on any victim, while guys tend to know the limits better.

[Rbick]

Could this be due to the fact that women tend to let their emotions get the best of them? I'm certainly not saying men are the most stable and rational beings on the planet, but under stressful situations, men seem to be able to handle themselves better and make better descisions. A good example is the Million Mom (bitch) March, whos members act irrationally when a few people die because a guy went postal on a college campus. As a result, instead of attacking the real problem, they freak out and decide to point the finger at guns, an inanimate tool.

Who would you rather be in a firefight with? My point exactly :)