Homemade Stoves

[LnP]

29 minutes ago, sgt_woulds said:

The flammable vapours released might also play a part depending upon distance and the presence of exposed flames.

 

I used to work on the Goodyear blimp.  Once, in France, we had an Avgas spillage - about 80 - 100 litres. 

 

I can't remember which airport it was, but it was a fairly major one and their response was extraordinary.  They closed the airport and evacuated an enormous area down-wind of the spillage, (at least half a km.  Mostly fields although they had to ask a farmer to switch off his tractor and put out his cigarette - for a French farmer this must have been like asking him to chop part of his face off!)  

 

Within 15 minutes a team of engineers, diggers, and lorries had arrived, excavated the site of the spillage down to a depth of about 2m and a diameter of about 6m and carted the offending material away.  A new team arrived on their heels, filled the hole and laid new turf.

 

All in the whole process took less than one hour from when we reported the spillage to the tower!

 

Seems extreme, but the incident team leader, (possibly the angriest chap I've ever met -quite an achievement as the French are good at simmering resentment) said that another airport in France had had an Avgas fire and the ignition source was outside the airfield boundary!

That's a nice story. Maybe if it had been a Michelin blimp the spill would have been met with a Gallic shrug.

 

But the hazardous properties of the Avgas which the airport fire brigade would have been worried about, would have been its vapour pressure (the extent to which it could be the source of a flammable gas cloud) and its flash point. The Buncefield explosion incident in 2005 was caused by a release of gasoline/petrol from an overflowing storage tank, albeit on a much larger scale than your 80- 100 litres.  Avgas is a gasoline/petrol formulation. Unless there are embers falling out, what causes combustible building materials like wood panelling behind wood burning stoves to catch fire, isn't the release of flammable vapours. It's autoignition. Regarding Markocosic's towel, maybe it depends how much after shave he's using ...🙂.

[SteamyTea]

25 minutes ago, LnP said:

The Buncefield explosion incident in 2005

I used to work next to Buncefield, the office had one side destroyed and all the servers were exposed to the weather.  My house was less than 4 miles away, and apparently the bang was so load, all the neighbours evacuated their houses as they thought a plane had crashed (9/11 was still a thing back then).  My parents lived on the other side of the Chilterns, about 30 miles away crow flies, and it shook their house.

I was down here, so missed it all, but went up after and took a few pictures.  How no one was killed is quite amazing when you see the damage done.

When I was a kid, we got moved to Essex as my Father had the job of recommissioning Shellhaven oil refinery after the fire.  During final testing, a JCB with the bucket up, hit a high pressure valve and started a new fire (1966 I think).

We had to stay in Essex longer (1970), and I still cannot shift the accent.

[sgt_woulds]

My dad worked at Shellhaven in the mid 60's just before the fire.  One of his jobs was to climb into the tanks to inspect them - hold his breath an in he went.  H&S would have a fit now! 

 

Especially as his foreman used to stand out of the wind nearby smoking his pipe till they finished...

[SteamyTea]

31 minutes ago, sgt_woulds said:

My dad worked at Shellhaven in the mid 60's just before the fire

My Father may have been his boss (boss is a Dutch word, which is quite appropriate when discussing Shell).

We got rewarded with 2 years in France, then 3 in the Dutch West Indies.

Both were better than Corringham.