Formosa Water Park explosion (2015)

Anyone who’s even remotely aware of agricultural transport and storage practice knows how ridiculously volatile organic dust (such as that from wheat flour, sugar, and yes, corn starch) can be, as the two quoted posters pointed out so clearly many pages ago.

If, as has been speculated, they were using frigging compressed O[super]2[/super] to propel the powder (and yeah, I too saw numerous oxygen tanks sitting around in the aftermath), well hell.
Might as well have just sprayed all them kids with gasoline and handed out fucking road flares.

As for those who are criticizing the ERs being overwhelmed, do you really understand how many people 500 is??
There isn’t a normally operating ER in the world that could cope with 50 burn victims suddenly showing up en masse.

come on folks, the compressed air is CO2, they’re not that stupid, give them some credit.

[quote=“Belgian Pie”][quote=“Blaquesmith”][quote=“Icon”]Were they using high pressurized powder machines in other parts of the world? Seriously?

Are we that unlucky or what exactly were the other places doi g differently?[/quote]

Well, usually, the colour festivals are held during the day, so everyone can see the colours, and for safety reasons: Most of this festivals use wheat or rice flour with food colouring to avoid toxicity. The problem with that is that flour is a flammable material, specially when suspended in the air. Wheat flour, specifically, can explode when suspended if it gets near a hot lightbulb. Hence, it is a good idea doing it during the day. At night, you have to rely on high-power illumination, and if they use big old school spotlights (as it seemed to be the case), it would be enough to produce the explosion.

On the emergency side of things, that place is a trap. People can’t evacuate quickly, and as it was pointed out previously, the walls on the sides won’t allow an optimal dispersal of the dust or the evacuation of the people. The park should be sued for holding this activity in an unsuitable time frame and in a dangerous space. The people who managed the show should also be sued for not foreseeing the dangers.[/quote]

They used cornstarch which is flammable as shown in a Youtube clip. But actually any food/grain based flour is flammable if the concentration mix oxygen/fuel is just right![/quote]

The Holi festival in Barcelona used rice flour dyed with food colouring. They had this event that alternated throwing colours into the air with pyrotechnics, and there wasn’t a single incident. I can only assume that rice flour is somehow less flammable, and that the more ventilated conditions were crucial to avoid a catastrophe.

Compressed air is not CO2, it’s compressed air. Air’s composition is mostly nitrogen, but also includes oxygen (and CO2, in a lesser amount). Since compressed air also has O2, you’re effectively making it easier for the stuff to blow up. If they had used compressed nitrogen, which is inert, it would have been much more difficult to start the combustion. Same thing for CO2, but CO2 can be toxic in high levels, so it’s better to use nitrogen.

the cylinders are CO2 gas, not O2. O2 too expensive and no one is that stupid. CO2 is cheap, nonflammable

Yeah, into the air … not spray it directly into a crowd! :loco:

I looked this up. ameriburn.org/BCRDPublic.pdf
It’s a list of burn centers in the United States and number of beds in each. A quick scroll of the list really gave me an idea of the problems Taiwan hospitals must be having dealing with the Bali victims. What is the number of major burn victims here? Around 200? Wow, That would fill up an awful lot of those burn centers in America.

Talked to my daughter. She didn’t go, but a couple of her friends did and were very lucky. They were in the bathroom when the place went up. They came out and gave aid to survivors.

Some of us consider that a feature instead of a bug.

Just when you think they can’t top their last f-up, they come back with a new one.

Also, remember all these people will need aftercare, surgery, skin grafts,the works. Each change of bandages is done by 3 nurses. There is no hospital out there with that many people. And this will go on for months.

Skin grafts are being flown from the South hospitals, artificial skin as well. But it will be a heavy burden in the time to come.

20 year old student moved to Taichung. Waiting for her mom to see her one last time…

Too many young people with 90% of their skin burned away. From 12 years old to 21. Sigh.

O2 is too expensive. Most likely is compressed air. N can provoke asphyxiation and it is used for preparing explosives… not sure how safe it would have been to use it instead of air (may be it’s OK though).

I see these parties as something stupid. I’m not so much into partying, but hundreds of people confined in small noisy smelly expensive places… it only get worse…

An idiot website run by a guy whose IQ level may actually be negative is posting an article about how it was a gay pride event and this is God’s reprisal.

Some people need to have their computer use licenses revoked.

[quote=“Hokwongwei”]An idiot website run by a guy whose IQ level may actually be negative is posting an article about how it was a gay pride event and this is God’s reprisal.

Some people need to have their computer use licenses revoked.[/quote]

Source, please.

[quote=“Hokwongwei”]An idiot website run by a guy whose IQ level may actually be negative is posting an article about how it was a gay pride event and this is God’s reprisal.

Some people need to have their computer use licenses revoked.[/quote]

Well, I do remember that during 9/11, some evangelists said that it was God’s punishment against America for allowing gays and abortion.

If they had used O2! Kids, take a balloon fill it with 1 third methane and 2 thirds o2.
Take a long string and carefully pull it over a fire.
Be careful, open your mouth wide open and protect you eardrums. Make sure there aren’t any windows nearby.
Don’t do it inside the house.
If that had been O2 Bali’s houses would be windowless now.
The boom had been audible all the way to Taipei city.

Very, very heartwrenching…

very classy of the father to president Ma, “how the hell is treatment going to help…she can’t read a book even…your daughter is very beautiful…my daughter is pretty much just as beautiful…actually more beautiful…but now her whole body has been burned…”

So sad… young beautiful people

I wonder why so many have had their lower body incinerated by the heat but the hair on the head and the head in general are untouched

i recall seeing a video of people catching fire or got electrocuted in a foam party event at a club.

I guess mud is the safest thing during such parties…

Now is definitely NOT the time to be making sarcastic remarks. What these parents are going through is unbearable to even imagine.

I’m assuming it wasn’t meant sarcastically. Indeed, as a parent, I can’t even begin to imagine it without crying.