[Magdalen] Prayers: massive explosion in China

[Charles Wohlers]

That chemical which reacts violently with water is calcium carbide, and the 
product of the reaction is acetylene - which, to put it mildly, is 
flammable.

I gather one problem is that China has no system of MSDS's (material safety 
data sheets) which describe each chemical present and what hazards they 
might entail. So the firefighters had no idea that calcium carbide was 
there, unlike in the US.

Chad Wohlers
Woodbury, VT USA
chadwohl at satucket.com



-----Original Message----- 
From: Roger Stokes
Sent: Saturday, August 15, 2015 5:49 PM
To: magdalen at herberthouse.org
Subject: Re: [Magdalen] Prayers: massive explosion in China

On 15/08/2015 22:20, Jay Weigel wrote:
> The death toll has risen to 104, including some firefighters. I have a
> feeling the news will be a lot worse before it gets better.

Unfortunately in the nature of such incidents that is likely to be
true.  Reports indicate that firefighters were on scene before the
explosions and it may be that their use of water on chemicals stored
there actually triggered the explosions.  Certainly a chemical that
reacts violently with water is reported to have been there.

Let us give thanks, however, that it appears somebody who was 50 metres
away has been recovered alive.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-33945788

Roger