Chevron blast.

1/6/11

Pembroke,Wales,United Kingdom.

The coastal town of Pembroke is where the Chevron plant, a oil refinery is situated.
On June 1st 2011 at 6:20pm a powerful blast rocked the refinery while employees were working on a 730 cubic tank of crude oil, the explosion killed 4 workers and seriously burned another.
Here are some likely causes of the blast:

• Hot work accident: welding or cutting the tank could ignite vapours or oil.
• Collision: two petrol tankers collidided which could of killed the drivers and ignited the oil.

Further updates will be given.

Son of Detonator Finished!

Son of Detonator ready to fight(above).

Son of Detonator is finished and ready for action!
Stats:

Weight: 500g.
Power : 4 celled battery pack.
Drive : 2x modified servos.
Weapons: Wedge and ram plate.
Armour : 3mm perspex.
Speed : 3-4 mph.
Invertable: Yes.
Pushing power: 1kg.

We hope to win a battle at least.
Did you know?
The top armour is the oldest part of the robot
at 2 years and has been a part of old prototypes.

Son of Detonator upgrade

You might have heard of Detonator, well he has been rebuilt and renamed Son of Detonator!
Changes:
New drive motors: servos. Why? Don't want to faff about with speed controllers.

Different aerial setup: middle not front. Why? Less vulnerable than at front.

Steel pads removed: for less weight. Why? Don't want to strain servos.

Emergency cutoff plug: for easy shutdown if loss of control. Why? Won't be able to compete without one.

Things that have stayed the same:
Weaponry: ram plate and spikes (spikes were different). Why? Want it easy to repair.

Armour: perspex. Why? Want it lightweight and durable.

The tactics:

We thought we shouldn't have tactics planned because we don't know what will happen, for example if you plan to push them into the pit before the fight during the fight it is unlikely to happen because the opponent will act differently than the one in you plan, making it a useless tactic, if you make tactics during the fight it will be easy because you know what is going on and what is a suitable idea or battle plan.

Tackwood explosion

Febuary 2007

Cambridge,England

At Tackwood Transport a fire has broke out after fuel vapour ignited.
A wittness called Joe recalls the inferno.

I saw smoke, my dad thought it was people burning rubbish but I wasn't convinced when a explosion vibrated the ground and I then said "call 999", but they said not to because they might have already called 999.
Then fire trucks came and I knew that there was a fire.
A nearby B&Q store were evacuated incase of a huge explosion.

We surveyed the damage the next day and the vehicle that they were servicing was destroyed, windows were blown out and the explosions were either acetylene or gas cylinders erupting.

9 workers were in the building when it caught fire but all escaped uninjured.
The company have restored the building and are working like it never happened.
The explosions were BLEVES where a tank of gas or liquid, usally flammable is heated and builds up pressure and bursts.

Buncefield fire.

December 11, 2005


Hertfordshire,UK

At the Buncefield oil depot a fire has broke out in the morning.
The plant had about 60,000,000 imperial gallons of oil which
is highly explosive, then after valiant efforts from the fire department
a series of explosions which measured around 2.4 on the Richter Scale sent fire balls the size of
Lorry's into the air and sent shock waves which destroyed buildings near the plant.

The smoke was intense and could of posed a respiratory irritant which left the environmental agency in charge of cleanup.

Explosions were heard as far as Holland, someone living in the countryside said it was powerful enough to shake a door open, when they felt it they thought it was a boiler explosion in their home.

Fire officials said they had to let the fire burn itself out, when the Armageddon ended 45 were injured, 2 were seriously injured but were not life threatening injuries.

Families which had damaged property were given up to 1 billion pounds.

PEPCON disaster

The largest explosion(above).

May 4 1988


Henderson,Nevada

A peaceful day at Pacific Engineering is shattered by a explosion from a single welders torch igniting 4500 tonnes of ammonium perchlorate, a important ingredient in rocket fuel.
The flames were watched by Rodney Mcarell who was working in a plant next to Pepcon,
Dennis Todd also watches the 200ft wall of flames from Black Mountain when he and his crew were
working on a television tower someone spotted smoke.

Trapped inside, employee of Pepcon Roy Westerfield calls 911.

Operator:"Fire department."
Roy:"Emergency we need the fire department all you can get here,immediately."
Operator:"Whats the problem?"
Roy:"Oh, we've got, every thing's on fire."

Nearly 1000 rescuers responded, but as they approached the inferno the chemicals exploded creating the force of a earthquake measuring 3.0 on the Richter Scale and sending out a thunderous shock wave which blew windows in on a fire truck, sending the roof falling and injuring 2 firefighters.Minutes later 2 smaller explosions ripped through the panicked desert.
Then 30 seconds or more after the small blasts the 4th and largest explosion erupts like a gigaton of TNT, this time the plant looks like a volcano and its shock wave demolished the other plant and measured 3.5 on the Richter Scale, the force of the explosion was measured 600 miles away in Colorado.

Ambulances were already helping the injured, the most of the injuries were cut faces from glass and debris sent flying from the shock wave, including being thrown by the force.
A huge 372 were injured.

The 4th blast was not just ammonium perchlorate,it was also natural gas, after a gas pipeline under the plant ruptured triggering the explosion.
There was a total of 7 explosions in the disaster, 2 were killed, one of the fatalities was Roy Westerfield who suffered from polio and couldn't escape the plant, the other was Bruce Halker who was also disabled.The cost of damage was 100 million dollars.

How to make a 3 zone fire alarm without a panel.

Items needed:

Wire.
Switch or call point, I used a BG-12.
Buzzers or sounders.
Strobes(optional).
Power supply, I used a 9.6V adaptor.

To make it follow this schematic.
Then test it by activating the system like this.