Corn bin collapses and catches fire in Southern Indiana (2:38)
Posted Aug 1, 2017, 12:29 AM UTC
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When it first ignited and the camera went to the ground, I totally expected it to pan back to a massive pile of popcorn. I've never been so disappointed in my life.
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That took a bit of the sting out. But I could tell it was staged when I spotted Val Kilmer.
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Paging u/officialvalkilmer
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Lol
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The 80s were weird
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Weird, yes. But also awesome as fuck. The 1900's can almost be pinpointed by the styles of the decade. Like you know what year something is by just looking at it. Maybe it's because I've lived all of the 2000's (so far), it just doesn't have the same feel. Like there's now only a pre and post 9/11 world.
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That was one of the strangest 80's movies ever.
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You've had a pretty interesting life if not seeing popcorn is your biggest disappointment.
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You can say that again.
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You've had a pretty interesting life if not seeing popcorn is your biggest disappointment.
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From the Facebook video description:
July 31, 2017 at approximately 1:00 pm. Switz City, Indiana. White Farms Inc. Overhead tank collapsed full of corn. It hit a power line on the way down and sparked the grain dust igniting the dust and causing the flash. We are very fortunate that there were no injuries!
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It's insane how i can live in Indiana my entire life and still get hit with cities I had no idea existed.
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I live 30 minutes from there and I've never heard of it.
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Switz City
Its not a city, is possibly why. It's a town that called itself Switz City because your naming protocols in the states are all over the place.
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naming protocols
"this here town is called: Switz City!"
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"Switz City, County New York, West Alabama, Germany", Indiana.
I don't see what's so confusing about it
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There are a ton of small towns barely large enough to have a name. I thought it was odd that their accent was different than my local one, but I guess it's probably because they're way on the other side of B-Town.
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I'm from Evansville and don't have that accent...I think it's more of a rural verses city thing when you're in Indiana
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I was really surprised to learn how close it was to Bloomington, though the accent makes sense to me once I think about it. It's more in line with what you find outside of the city in all directions, a very general southern Indiana drawl.
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Must be a thing further west of where I am. The area south of me has a stronger accent than my area(~30 miles apart), but it's totally different from what you hear in the video.
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Same
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Get back Grandpa, GET BACK!
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That makes me super sad. Knowing this is probably a family farm where even grandpa helps out... and their equipment and crop are ruined just like that.
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Yeah, that is sad. I hope they have some sort of insurance.
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If they own that giant ass structure and no insurance I'm not sure which one would be the smart idea.
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Well equipment maybe but the crop is not ruined. They'll scoop it up with tractors and store it or use it for silage.
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Median age of a farmer is like 58.....those old timers will work till they die. Luckily this was just an overhead bin, so probably a $15kish loss in corn plus the bin itself being destroyed.
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As someone who worked at an elevator on the family farm from about age 8 to age 18 this was my worst nightmare. Every grinding noise/power failure was an opening to the gates of hell.
Someone really fucked up here. On multiple levels it seems, I'm not sure why they put such a large tank on top of a hopper like that, that alone doesn't seem to be the brightest move. Second, everything at an elevator is about timing, and my guess is someone got busy here and forgot to turn off the leg. Thank god I'm watching it in youtube and not reliving it in memories.
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We build bins twice that size on hoppers. Just have to use much thicker sheets.
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Just curious, why not separate bins over the head at that point with separate chutes? That way you aren't locked into one thing only. At our elevator we'd sometimes be unloading multiple varieties in a day, and if a truck was late we'd just have to switch overhead bins and not have to worry about a full hopper with a bin on top. It was super convenient.
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It's nice to have multiple bins for unloading if you can afford it. A few of our customers have a single over-head hopper unload system like in the video, but also all of their bins have u-trough auger unloads, and several bins that have side-draw unloads. That way they can unload from other bins when it gets busy.
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Popcorn anyone?
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We're going to need a lot of butter!
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Not if it is good popcorn you don't.
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"another day at the farm"
I think I'd find somewhere else to work
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lol, in corn country there is no other work
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The amount of corn used in the USA is insane.
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Son of a gun? That's the expletive you use?
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Obligatory woman screaming.
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The woman's precious ears, oh my.
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"Get back some more!" smart man
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If something very tall is falling, you should be at least twice as far away as the distance you think is safe.
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That dust combustion reminds me of this https://youtu.be/VgsI8hvKVlM?t=28
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Holy fucking shit! That was horrifying to see all those people engulfed in flames like that. Wow, the organizers fucked up. I went to a foam party in Philadelphia and those motherfuckers used foam that burned your eyes and instead of spraying that shit from ground level they sprayed from above into our faces. You can't breathe or see. I walked my GF out of the pit and watched as girls all around me were freaking out because they just got blasted in the face with this shit. It was actually pretty funny to see but I always remember that safety is still in your own hands at these places. Can't trust the event organizers to be competent in mitigating safety hazards.
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I remember i was in a club Santika in Bangkok. Pretty cool place with live music. Year later the whole place burned down because they used fireworks on stage inside building. Many people perished in fire due to very poor fire safetry standards. Too many .
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When I took officers training for the fire department we had to watch a video someone took of a night club going up in flames and hundreds of people stuck inside because of over crowding and fireworks usage. It was rough to watch
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Im pretty sure I know which video you are talking about and I had this feeling its the kind of video firefighters would watch on their training.
Edit: Station nightclub fire is what i was thinking about.
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TIL the dust they use for these color events is colored corn starch.
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Giback, grandpa!
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from their accents I have to assume this is an average day at work for them lol
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Grain dust is nothing to mess with. They should have been way farther back.
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Was going to make a corny joke. But I'm just glad to ear everyone's alright.
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Let's stalk about these puns.
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Time to install one with a safety shut off perhaps? Why couldn't it be shut down...? Crazy....
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I was wondering if there was a malfunction or if it was just overloaded by accident and failed, after it was loaded. These do have safety equipment installed, but you can't anticipate everything.
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Being someone who is never near anything like that, is overloading the cause?
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That explosion really snuck up on me! Must've killed a ton of pigeons.
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I bet his fist thought was people getting crushed or hit with debris. The explosion probably wasn't the first thing on his mind. I know of 2 kids who suffocated in a grain silo, you can't swim up.
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Damn, what a shitty way to go
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Wait. Why was there fire?
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Many organic and inorganic compounds when in a dust like state are extremely flammable. While falling the structure hit a power line and ignited the dust. There was a sugar mill in Georgia where sugar dust created a huge explosion killing 14 people. It is scary, this could have been much worse.
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Corn gas is HIGHLY flammable in large enough concentrations. It's why you should never eat hot sauce if you've had too much corn in one day.
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wtf would anyone named u/Anus_master be downvoted for an anus joke.
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What on earth have them duke boys done now
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Nice Colorado.
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Dust explosions are crazy dangerous. I'm surprised they were so close.
Hijacking this to show some true industrial dust explosions. The following are longer vids but are real situations where deaths have happened and how dangerous these are.
Combustible Wood Dust Explosions
Inferno: Dust Explosion at Imperial Sugar
Combustible Dust: An Insidious Hazard
Combustible Dust: Solutions Delayed
Edit:
If you want to see more industrial accidents and why they happened look at the USCSB. Many interesting videos, more so if you're working in these fields. If you know something is wrong you are protected, say something. PSA from someone in a dangerous field working with companies that take it seriously, say something if you see something. And if not report it here or here.
No job is worth dying for or letting others because someone didn't speak up.
Trumps budget plan would have eliminated the USCSB but the house plan is still keeping them around. For such a small organization they are truly valuable for worker safety.
The explosions will just regulate themselves
Don't worry, if it's a legitimate explosion the body has ways to shut the whole thing down. If it happens anyway then it's the workers fault for choosing to work there.
Even Iron Dust: https://youtu.be/PZHpeBubb_M
CSB is a great resource, and good find. Many of the accidents didn't have to happen. Have my upvote as the entire channel and animations prove how foolish companies can be, not to be cliche but see something say something. Don't be a dick but if you know shit ain't right, you have the right to not work. As the
GermanColombian Rafael Moure-Eraso man said "they're entirely preventable". So blow the whistle.But the market will regulate itself!!!
Ah shit there goes my afternoon. I love channels with graphics like this that actually show exactly how things happen instead of just talking about it.
Anybody know of any more like this? Doesn't have to be any specific thing. I just like having things shown to me instead of explained.
Edit: I always hit the b or v key when trying to hit the space key..
Worth noting that in Donald Trumps budget proposal, he cuts funding to the USCSB.
Not the same as cutting the USCSB entirely, and it's not being done because he wants people to die.
What isn't the same as the USCSB? This is the report I am talking about.
It doesn't matter his intentions, the CSB is an incredibly valuable organization and my point is that Trump isn't funding it with his proposal.
Awesome, great links
Mother of god. I just got back from one of our paper mills last week. Next time i'll for sure take notice of some of these
CSB videos are great
Well now I am an expert on industrial dust explosions. Thanks I guess?
Anyone know who narrated that 2nd one? That dude narrates a shit load of stuff.
Sheldon Smith.
Wow that's fucking terrifying. Now I have an irrational fear of large amounts of dust.
I mean, I've watched all the USCSB videos, but I guess there is no better time to watch them again.
Yes, me too. I didn't see a power line, it may have been just the friction of the metal being crushed that sparked the dust.
According to the original facebook post
More likely static from the dry stuff rubbing together.
Unlikely, the source of this was likely the motors at the base running the augers. Static while important would have been a factor long before. If you pause and slow down the ignitions happens at ground level.
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Another couple of possibilities are dissimilar metals that create a electrical potential or static electricity, either could make a spark.
It was from power lines.
I was just going to ask y it exploded..... So the dust in the corn caught fire? Either some spark or maybe friction? Is that correct?
Yes. Dust can explode if mixed in the right quantities with air and given a ignition source. So any semi-large container filled with dust in the air is a potential explosion.
I mean, it should be noted that gasoline in an IC engine won't detonate unless it's atomized and mixed with air.
Most things have to have the right air/density mixture to explode. (Not sure how this applies to nitrates)
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I had a blast making miniature versions of these in the pizza oven as a stoned teenager at work. Once we figured it out, we'd occasionally toss a handful of flour into the gas conveyor oven.
A metal building collapsing when it is hot and dry will definitely make sparks. With the air full of combustible dust, it's gonna go boom.
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It's essentially a self-feeding (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermobaric_weapon)[thermobaric bomb]. It's similar to how your entire kitchen explodes when you try to (put out burning oil by putting water on it)[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbgdRR4yj8Y]. Lots of flammable tiny particles suddenly exposed to enough heat and oxygen to catch fire. Even if it's a small explosion that won't rip you apart, you will literally breathe in fire, and cook your airways.
Stay the fuck away from any fine fuel particles suspended in air. Just turn around and leave. Come back when the fuel has settled or in case of dry fuel when you have enough water to disarm the situation. Don't use a household vacuum cleaner in these condition. A vacuum cleaner can ignite very fine dust.
This would make a great popcorn commercial...
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Didn't even use mythbusters?