[Digestion] An accident waiting to happen (methane+diesel fumes)?

[David Fulford]

All,

Very plausible. There have been several well recorded incidents of similar 
things happening in Europe and USA.

In UK, gas from a landfill site seeped into someone's kitchen and cause it 
to explode, sometime in the 1970s. This resulted in a huge re-organisation 
of the management of landfill sites and the present European pressure to 
stop putting food wastes into landfill.

There was a more recent occasion when a group of local authority people 
were inspecting an underground control room for a pumping station and 
several were asphyxiated by an accumulation of gases (mainly carbon 
dioxide, but some methane) in the control room from rotting vegetation in 
the water course nearby.

Cheers,

David

At 18:24 24/10/2007 -0700, gp baron wrote:
>Given that in the Philippines, it takes about 2 weeks for a 
>pseudo-government entity to know (or remember?) handing out cash bundles 
>of half-a-million pesos each to some governors after the latter met with 
>the President ...
>
>See: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=96876
>
>... It is interesting how our military "intelligence" knew immediately 
>that methane+diesel fumes can cause a HUGE blast to kill 11 and injure 
>100+  ...
>
>Is this story below plausible? If it is then, it probably worth discussing 
>in this forum.
>
>The mall & its owner (in addition to being the one of the largest & most 
>affluent property developer in the Philippines) pioneered since the 1970's 
>& now operate the most modern sewage & waste water treatment systems for 
>all their properties.
>
>As the "accident" was witnessed by many, recorded by surveillance cameras 
>& broadcast on live TV almost immediately and was initially suspected as a 
>bomb (or an LPG tank exploding due to improper connections?) -- no one 
>spoke of seeing, hearing or smelling fire or smoke that would be 
>characteristic of diesel (or just methane+diesel fumes) burning.
>
>However, should our military "intelligence" be correct, the world can 
>learn much from this "accident" and let us ensure it does not happen again 
>to anyone anywhere.
>
>‘An accident waiting to happen’
>         By Cecille Suerte Felipe
>Thursday, October 25, 2007Page:  1
>-->
>It was really “an accident waiting to happen” ­ and it did happen, with 
>tragic results. A lethal mix of methane and diesel fumes in a poorly 
>ventilated basement compartment set off an explosion last Friday at 
>Glorietta 2 that killed 11 people and wounded more than a hundred others.
>  This was how Philippine National Police chief Director General Avelino 
> Razon Jr. described to The STAR editors and reporters the initial 
> findings of the team investigating last Friday’s explosion at the Makati mall.
>  The blast, which occurred when the weekend crowd was building up, was 
> initially blamed on terrorists and later on some elements in the Arroyo 
> administration who reportedly wanted to distract the public’s attention 
> from fresh scandals besetting the government.
>  Ayala Land Inc. (ALI), operator of the Glorietta malls, debunked police 
> claims that the blast was accidental but declined to offer another 
> explanation for the blast.
>  Razon said foreign experts, including those from Australia and the US 
> Federal Bureau of Investigation, corroborated the initial findings of 
> police investigators.
>
>Full article available at: 
>http://www.philstar.com/index.php?Headlines&p=49&type=2&sec=24&aid=20071024103
>
>Ayala Land rejects gas blast theory
>         By Zinnia dela Peña and Jose Rodel Clapano
>Thursday, October 25, 2007
>
>(excerpts) Page:  1
>-->
>
>Ayala also rebuffed police claims that inadequate ventilation caused the 
>accumulation of methane at the basement. “The basement is ventilated by 
>air entering the approximately 2.4x2.4 meter opening at the stairwell, 
>which is connected to the delivery bay area which at that time was opened 
>to the road,” Ayala said
>  He added that it was almost impossible for methane to accumulate at the 
> mall basement since human waste coming from the mall doesn’t stay long at 
> the building’s sump pit. The waste is “98 percent liquid,” he said.
>  “There is constant flow of mainly liquid wastewater from toilets into 
> the sump pit and onto the city sewer. Wastewater entering the pit stays 
> in the pit for less than 24 hours,” Ayala explained.
>  “The usual decomposition process brought about by large amounts of solid 
> matter in house septic tanks does not occur in this commercial sump pit,” 
> he pointed out.
>  He also stressed that the diesel tank at the basement was in good shape 
> and that it was last used during a power outage in June.
>Full article available at:
>http://www.philstar.com/index.php?Headlines&p=49&type=2&sec=24&aid=20071024104
>
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*** Dr David Fulford, MSc Renewable Energy, Engineering Building ***
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