No. Vinyl chloride is a gas at room temperature and pressure. The tanker contained liquid vinyl chloride which is maintained at a high pressure in order to be liquid. The failed journal box on the train caught fire. The fire was increasing the pressure of the vinyl chloride. The choice was: (A) do nothing and let the vinyl chloride tanks explode, turn into vapor, and descend upon everyone, or (B) pre-empt the explosion by draining the tanks into a burn ditch where the vinyl chloride could be safely converted into carbon dioxide, water, phosgene, and hydrogen chloride. Admittedly, it was more like a five of one, seven of the other kind of choice. Not negligence. Just a bad set of options.
There was no option to transfer the vinyl chloride. Not enough time to muster the required equipment and trained personnel, and no assurance that the plumbing would be oriented to permit evacuation of the tanks. It is by no means clear that any such equipment exists, because it would not have been a standard occurrence. It was, after all, a train derailment scene.
Pay attention to what is being carried on the rails. This is the way we transport many dangerous chemicals, because any other method involves more danger. Pipelines are not practical for most of these chemicals. Tanker trucks are exposed to more hazard on the highways. Things you wouldn't imagine (like molten sulfur). Our modern industry depends on these chemicals. Like I mentioned elsewhere, this has been so for nearly two centuries. These events are rare, but what has happened recently is not a bolt out of the blue. Past events have come and gone, and we have no social memory of them if they did not affect us personally.
You make a good point that this is something that could have been an accident and they didn’t have a good solution and had to choose the best of 2 evils. However if it’s really the case that it’s an accident, then why the media blackout? The media was more than happy to publish up to the minute covid deaths for 2 years..
Also, why did the CDC edit their phosgene profile two weeks before the derailment? They did the same thing with midazolam, the drug used to kill elderly patients in quarantine during the first wave of 'covid' deaths. With midazolam, the CDC increased the prescribed dosage to a lethal one on their website, which medical practitioners referred to during that time. During this time of silent war, I don't believe there are coincidences.
It was an accident. It is not reported because it occurs under the watch of present Department of Transportation head Pete Buttigieg, who must not be criticized or blamed (although some of that is happening anyway). It's all a matter of whose ox gets gored.
Two accidents, one on rails and one on the roads, in different places at different times, out of how many under way? "Two" barely qualifies as "multiple." The nature of random events is that they are not uniformly distributed, so there will be occasional "clumps" when events occur close together. This is called "coincidence," and it is a fact of life. No acts of war. Learn more about the volume of chemical products carried by rail and you will be amazed at how few accidents there are.
"many, many, many"? How many? Let's face it; these events do not last in memory. Remember the Gold King mine fiasco? Remember the Mount St. Helens eruption? Remember the explosion of a natural gas pipeline in Bellingham, Washington? These things happen.
If it's a gas at room temperature and pressure, would it not have reverted to gas on release? If not, why not and if so, how do you drain that into a ditch?
It still takes time for the evaporation to happen, which is why they were at pains to get that drained and lit as quickly as possible. Boiling water turns to steam, but does a pot of boiling water turn to steam all at once? (They apparently dug the ditches in place and used shaped charges to puncture the tank walls. Easy drainage if the space above the liquid was filled with compressed gas.)
No contradiction. You have to appreciate how much chemical product is transported by railroad. It is immense. All the time. We just don't pay attention because it is safely transported and there is no upset. Accidents are rare. And it is simply more cost and risk effective to deal with a spill than to attempt a risky process of transfer pumping. When an automobile is in an accident and a fire has started, do we first think of pumping out the gas tank? Inconceivable. And no equipment for it. Plus, even the equipment would function only in controlled settings. A derailment is anything but that. Safety is obtained by careful procedure and well-designed containment.
Well, this sort of thing doesn't happen "daily." The idea is for it not to happen at all. And it does seem that there was contingency planning to the extent of knowing what to do in order to prevent a tank explosion (worse event). In this case, a deliberate burn was necessary in order to consume the vinyl chloride on the spot.
You have to realize that fire extinguishers are for the purpose of dealing with a minor fire. If there is a major fire, we have fire departments equipped and ready to handle it. For chemical shipments, unless there is a minor leak that is not progressing, there is no such thing as a "minor fire." And there are no fire departments. Safety depends on defensive design practice and transportation procedures. We are lucky to have anyone available in the event of an emergency to advise crisis response and remedial action. In the final event, vulnerable bystanders must be evacuated. There is no timetable to work to. Sooner is better, but you don't want to jeopardize safety with haste.
Sometimes the completely unforeseeable happens. I read of an incident where a tanker truck of liquid oxygen developed a leak and poured its load all over the asphalt roadway. No big deal? It turns out that liquid oxygen + asphalt forms a deadly sensitive high explosive, so they had to prohibit anyone on the roadway until everything had warmed back to ambient temperature.
The other thing, that doesn't seem much considered here, is that the truly responsible party is the railroad company. I am surprised that journal boxes in railcars have a potentiality for catching fire (but grease and oil are combustible). The direction to "Keep on going" was surprising, but it may have been desired to get the train to the nearest siding that could take its length, so as not to block the line for following traffic. The actual cause of the derailment is also of concern (we had derailment sabotage from environmentalist activists in our neck of the woods, several years ago). In my own view, people have too cavalier an attitude toward the railroads, not realizing that they are important to us and that nothing should be done to compromise the integrity of the tracks.
This is the most rational, well informed, and clearly conveyed post I've read about this entire incident. It's like this is the first time people have ever heard that trains are being used to carry hazardous material around the country. Or that certain chemicals can only be handled in certain ways.
No. Vinyl chloride is a gas at room temperature and pressure. The tanker contained liquid vinyl chloride which is maintained at a high pressure in order to be liquid. The failed journal box on the train caught fire. The fire was increasing the pressure of the vinyl chloride. The choice was: (A) do nothing and let the vinyl chloride tanks explode, turn into vapor, and descend upon everyone, or (B) pre-empt the explosion by draining the tanks into a burn ditch where the vinyl chloride could be safely converted into carbon dioxide, water, phosgene, and hydrogen chloride. Admittedly, it was more like a five of one, seven of the other kind of choice. Not negligence. Just a bad set of options.
There was no option to transfer the vinyl chloride. Not enough time to muster the required equipment and trained personnel, and no assurance that the plumbing would be oriented to permit evacuation of the tanks. It is by no means clear that any such equipment exists, because it would not have been a standard occurrence. It was, after all, a train derailment scene.
Pay attention to what is being carried on the rails. This is the way we transport many dangerous chemicals, because any other method involves more danger. Pipelines are not practical for most of these chemicals. Tanker trucks are exposed to more hazard on the highways. Things you wouldn't imagine (like molten sulfur). Our modern industry depends on these chemicals. Like I mentioned elsewhere, this has been so for nearly two centuries. These events are rare, but what has happened recently is not a bolt out of the blue. Past events have come and gone, and we have no social memory of them if they did not affect us personally.
You make a good point that this is something that could have been an accident and they didn’t have a good solution and had to choose the best of 2 evils. However if it’s really the case that it’s an accident, then why the media blackout? The media was more than happy to publish up to the minute covid deaths for 2 years..
Also, why did the CDC edit their phosgene profile two weeks before the derailment? They did the same thing with midazolam, the drug used to kill elderly patients in quarantine during the first wave of 'covid' deaths. With midazolam, the CDC increased the prescribed dosage to a lethal one on their website, which medical practitioners referred to during that time. During this time of silent war, I don't believe there are coincidences.
It was an accident. It is not reported because it occurs under the watch of present Department of Transportation head Pete Buttigieg, who must not be criticized or blamed (although some of that is happening anyway). It's all a matter of whose ox gets gored.
Why are their multiple hazardous chemical derailments and tankers across the country. All at once. Acts of war.
Two accidents, one on rails and one on the roads, in different places at different times, out of how many under way? "Two" barely qualifies as "multiple." The nature of random events is that they are not uniformly distributed, so there will be occasional "clumps" when events occur close together. This is called "coincidence," and it is a fact of life. No acts of war. Learn more about the volume of chemical products carried by rail and you will be amazed at how few accidents there are.
What a joke. There a many many many this week. Are you fucking kidding me?!
"many, many, many"? How many? Let's face it; these events do not last in memory. Remember the Gold King mine fiasco? Remember the Mount St. Helens eruption? Remember the explosion of a natural gas pipeline in Bellingham, Washington? These things happen.
If it's a gas at room temperature and pressure, would it not have reverted to gas on release? If not, why not and if so, how do you drain that into a ditch?
It still takes time for the evaporation to happen, which is why they were at pains to get that drained and lit as quickly as possible. Boiling water turns to steam, but does a pot of boiling water turn to steam all at once? (They apparently dug the ditches in place and used shaped charges to puncture the tank walls. Easy drainage if the space above the liquid was filled with compressed gas.)
No contradiction. You have to appreciate how much chemical product is transported by railroad. It is immense. All the time. We just don't pay attention because it is safely transported and there is no upset. Accidents are rare. And it is simply more cost and risk effective to deal with a spill than to attempt a risky process of transfer pumping. When an automobile is in an accident and a fire has started, do we first think of pumping out the gas tank? Inconceivable. And no equipment for it. Plus, even the equipment would function only in controlled settings. A derailment is anything but that. Safety is obtained by careful procedure and well-designed containment.
Well, this sort of thing doesn't happen "daily." The idea is for it not to happen at all. And it does seem that there was contingency planning to the extent of knowing what to do in order to prevent a tank explosion (worse event). In this case, a deliberate burn was necessary in order to consume the vinyl chloride on the spot.
You have to realize that fire extinguishers are for the purpose of dealing with a minor fire. If there is a major fire, we have fire departments equipped and ready to handle it. For chemical shipments, unless there is a minor leak that is not progressing, there is no such thing as a "minor fire." And there are no fire departments. Safety depends on defensive design practice and transportation procedures. We are lucky to have anyone available in the event of an emergency to advise crisis response and remedial action. In the final event, vulnerable bystanders must be evacuated. There is no timetable to work to. Sooner is better, but you don't want to jeopardize safety with haste.
Sometimes the completely unforeseeable happens. I read of an incident where a tanker truck of liquid oxygen developed a leak and poured its load all over the asphalt roadway. No big deal? It turns out that liquid oxygen + asphalt forms a deadly sensitive high explosive, so they had to prohibit anyone on the roadway until everything had warmed back to ambient temperature.
The other thing, that doesn't seem much considered here, is that the truly responsible party is the railroad company. I am surprised that journal boxes in railcars have a potentiality for catching fire (but grease and oil are combustible). The direction to "Keep on going" was surprising, but it may have been desired to get the train to the nearest siding that could take its length, so as not to block the line for following traffic. The actual cause of the derailment is also of concern (we had derailment sabotage from environmentalist activists in our neck of the woods, several years ago). In my own view, people have too cavalier an attitude toward the railroads, not realizing that they are important to us and that nothing should be done to compromise the integrity of the tracks.
This is the most rational, well informed, and clearly conveyed post I've read about this entire incident. It's like this is the first time people have ever heard that trains are being used to carry hazardous material around the country. Or that certain chemicals can only be handled in certain ways.