quote:

A collision on a highway in Italy caused an extraordinary blast that killed at least two people and left at least 70 others injured. It happened near the city of Bologna.

Police say a tanker truck carrying liquefied petroleum gas was involved in a traffic accident. The initial collision caused a fire, but shortly after the entire truck exploded, sending flames across all lanes of the highway and into the air.

That's one heck of a BLEVE.

YOW!!

RMD

Word to the wise. You see something that holds compressed flammable whatever, and it's on fire, you'll want to get some place where you can no longer see it.

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:
Word to the wise. You see something that holds compressed flammable whatever, and it's on fire, you'll want to get some place where you can no longer see it.

Sounds reasonable.

BLEVEs can match most things in the Air Force's arsenal in terms of destructive power.

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:
ire, you'll want to get some place where you can no longer see it.

I've always gone by the advice I once heard, "If you can see the explosion...the explosion can see YOU."

During a hazardous materials crash investigation seminar, someone asked what was the best way to approach a LNG tanker involved in a crash. He was told to exam it from a great distance, with binoculars.

Our Hazmat instructor at the Police Academy joked that when dealing with situations like this, obey the "Rule of Thumb":

Hold you fist straight out at arm's length, and extend your thumb. If you can't cover up the entire scene with your thumb, you're too close.

Bleve it or not, if you see on up close you're likely to never see another.

I recall a photo from training on this way back. It showed the rail tanker splitting and the fireball starting to emerge. Apparently recovered from what was left of the photographers camera.

For those not sure BLEVE
Boiling
Liquid
Expanding
Vapor
Explosion

Saw a couple of after photos, the freeway looked like a JDAM had been dropped on it and the surrounding area was a smoking ruin.

That's gonna screw up holiday traffic for those in Northern Italy headed to Rimini. August is holiday season in Europe and they're dealing with an epic heatwave right now.

https://www.independent.co.uk/...ghters-a8479536.html

quote:

Bologna explosion: Two dead and up to 70 injured after truck explodes near airport in Italy
Several rescue and emergency squads sent to scene

A huge explosion on a highway near Bologna airport in northern Italy has killed two people and left at least 70 injured, some with serious burns, police said.

The explosion was caused when a tanker truck carrying explosive materials crashed in a traffic accident.

The news agency ANSA said the tanker was carrying liquefied petroleum gas.
...

This message has been edited. Last edited by: corsair,

From my firefighter 1 / hazmat ops class
Instructor: bleve stands for boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion. Also known as blast leveling everything very effectively.

YouTube has some impressive ones

Reminds me of the time I got the brilliant idea to shoot a full 1lb propane bottle from about 25ft away....
Got lucky that day... the ball of fire was right at a 23ft radius.

That's about twenty kilometers north of where my wife has gone for work over 30 times since 2011. She has been on that piece of autostrada countless times going to and from the airport. This occured at a crucial spot where the main autostrade coming SE from Milan and N from Florence meet. This will also impact those coming the other direction from Venice, Rimini and the Brenner Pass.

The local roads will not easily support the detour during what look like long term repairs. I have driven in Italy and can see how this could easily happen. Imagine stop and go traffic on the Interstate going from a crawl to nearly 80 mph and then abruptly returning to a crawl or full stop. Repeat. It's nuts.