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Now that's what I call an exciting coming back to the forums story. Glad to hear you're ok!
Tak went boom (well, almost) - Explosion at our fireworks factory
- Thread starter Takumaji
- Start date
HeartlessNinny
Heartlessness is a virtue
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Let me add my good wishes as well. I'm really glad you're okay, Tak. What would we do without you? Somebody's got to keep it classy around here. 
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Glad you're ok Tak, by any chance have you been rattling off cheesy 80's action movie one liners now?
NeoTheranthrope
Basara's Blade Keeper
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No joke! (Per)chlorate are serious big-boy chemicals.
I was home sick from school the day the Kerr-McGee (PEPCON) plant blew here in the Valley back in 88':
I can still remember the power of the shockwaves hitting the house.
I was home sick from school the day the Kerr-McGee (PEPCON) plant blew here in the Valley back in 88':
I can still remember the power of the shockwaves hitting the house.
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The lesson I've learned is that we should live today, right here, right now, because tomorrow you might get run over by a car, die from heart attack or get blown to pieces.
Big fireworks are like lions in a circus, you can tame and control them if you push the right buttons but treat them respectlessly or turn your back on them and they will bite you in the ass. The workers at every fireworks factory I've been to over the years will tell you similar stories, there's a lot of nasty stuff going on behind the scenes. If it's not a huge explosion that simply cannot be hidden, you won't hear anything about it in the news or papers...
I hope Saint Barbara (patron saint of artillerymen and pyrotechnicians) will smile on our work from now on... maybe we should do as my buddy Alex suggested and put a Barbara statue in our staffroom... I mean, it can't hurt, can it.
EDIT:
NeoTheranthrope,
Yeah, I remember the Pepcon disaster. They used ammonium perchlorate for their fuels which is a totally different beast compared to the relatively tame potassium perchlorate we use for fireworks. AP is capable of exploding when compressed, shocked or suddenly exposed to high temperatures, that's something which is almost impossible with the potassium variant.
Some Italian fireworks factories use AP for certain star or burst composition, this is what killed a pyrotechnician I knew about half a year ago when he cut into a large unexploded Italian-made cylindrical shell (loaded with more than 2,5kg (almost 6 lbs) of explosives) in order to defuse it. He used a ceramic knife to prevent spark production but the impact of the blade on one of the AP stars was enough to set it off. Press article (German): http://www.augsburger-allgemeine.de...isst-Pyrotechniker-in-den-Tod-id17247506.html .
The concrete building he worked in was completely destroyed down to the ground. What remained of Michael the pyro was picked up and carried away in a case the size of a shoe box... poor old soul.
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Exactly.
I knew Michael for about 20 years, he started dabbling with pyro chemistry and fireworks at the age of 8. 47 is too early to go but he died while doing what he loved the most in life and I know he did not regret a single thing so it's all good.
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End the thread right here. Holy shit hahahaha. I'm surprised anyone other than me has played KOF 99 in particular enough to know winquotes from it...
"I can survive anything, even badly mixed Indian (per)chlorate contamintated with bromine"
Anyway, nice luck Tak, and good that you guys are taking precautions now.
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3+ lbs of chlorate-flash in a hand mixer will do the trick.
And Spin's winquote is great, would make a cool t-shirt!
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HeartlessNinny
Heartlessness is a virtue
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Isn't this kind of like saying, "I'll buy a motorcycle, but I won't go fast."
P.S. I loved the win quote too. For some reason '99 was the first KoF I really spent a lot of time on, so I remember that one well.
I think he meant more like "I'll buy a motorcycle, but I'll only ride it on the drag strip at top speed."
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Tak I just want you to know that I don't have the balls to do what you do. Seriously. As you know I work with explosives too but the ones I work with have fuzes and safes galore. You on the other hand work with the raw dangerous stuff. I tip my hat to you good sir.
this is a collector site, they have the game, they just never played it save for like 5 people here.
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Glad that you're alright, Tak. That's pretty freaking crazy.
PS - I watched both clips for that Pepcon disaster. I couldn't even imagine being on top of the mountain and watching that final large shockwave racing toward you.
PS - I watched both clips for that Pepcon disaster. I couldn't even imagine being on top of the mountain and watching that final large shockwave racing toward you.
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Take care and please do be more safe in the future, Tak.
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Well, making fireworks was considered a black art in the old days before the advent of advanced anorganic chemistry. Before the turn of the century (19th to 20th), quite a few manufacturers used the let's-throw-these-substances-together-and-see-what-happens method for making fireworks. Some of them came up with really groundbreaking stuff that gets used 'til today, others developed seriously dangerous mixes that only a fool would try to recreate today. That's because many basic incompatibilities between certain chemicals and metal compounds were not known in the old days, they had to find out most of that stuff the hard way.
As usual, the two world wars led to a radical change in the field. The military needed all sorts of reliable signal flares, smoke pots, tracer ammo, battlefield illumination, blank/training ammo, etc., so the pyros left their old backyard sheds and went to build modern factories where they started to mass-manufacture military-grade pyrotechnics under scientific and thus professional conditions. This had an enormous impact on the fireworks branch as a whole when the makers started to apply the same scientific methods to amusement fireworks.
In other words, we have a much better understanding of fireworks chemistry than in the old days which helps to keep the overall danger on a reasonable level. However, as the accident at our factory shows, there are way more parameters involved here than just chemistry. In other trades, a wrong decision may lead to loss of production and money, in our case it may result in a lethal disaster. That's why we will make sure that none of these parameters will go unchecked in future, however small and insignificant they seem.
The S.E. Fireworks inferno at Enschede was the great seminal catastrophe of the European pyro scene, so to speak. It forever changed the face of the trade and led to a shit-ton of new safety and transportation rules for fireworks and compounds. While many of them make sense, quite a few of them cannot be followed without cheating, thus making things even less safe than before (and also way more expensive).
The thing is, they not only stored consumer fireworks in Enschede but also large professional firework pieces (namely salute shells) and even loose compounds which they kept in dozens of regular sea containers. What they did already was illegal back in 2000 so the fire that broke out in the storage dept. would not have led to such a gigantic disaster with 22 dead, 1000 injured, 500 completely destroyed houses and huge loss of property had they done it right.
Enschede was a real tragedy, been to the memorial there twice to pay respect to those who died. It's a warning to all of us powder sniffers.
Hikaru Ichijyo
Thundercock,
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Craziness. 
Echoing what others have said, glad to see you're still with us.
Echoing what others have said, glad to see you're still with us.
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@Tak: I heard about the way it was stored, wich was pretty ignorant to say the least. I didn't go there myself, guess it was a bit too much to handle for me.
I saw the explosion more or less live on tv. That was so unreal, looked like a warzone.
Just look after yourself man, you might not always be this lucky. Glad you were this time for sure, but be carefull man.
I saw the explosion more or less live on tv. That was so unreal, looked like a warzone.
Just look after yourself man, you might not always be this lucky. Glad you were this time for sure, but be carefull man.
aria
Former Moderator
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How dangerous are exploding glass bottles during the bottling process? I assume what you guys do is more automated, but have you ever dealt with that?
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Our machine smashes bottles all the time. We do try to wear safety glasses at all times, but I'll admit that we can 'forget' sometimes because they are a pain in the ass. They aren't especially dangerous though, they usually just get crushed under the filler or crowner head, shards never really go flying but I've heard stories. That's why you have a backup eye I guess, just in case.
aria
Former Moderator
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Yeah, I bought a beergun for home use because I was nervous about sending glass shards around my house when I make soda.