ECN Forum Forums Photo Discussion Forums Photos for General Discussion Power substation smoky firey failure

Coreman:
Thanks for sharing these! I saw the m-peg of the air-break switch about two weeks ago. I passed by a large HL&P (now Centerpoint Energy) substation a couple of days ago and saw several of these switches in there.

Sure makes you think...

Mike (mamills)

Coreman:

Good Stuff!

Bill

The buzzing/growling that quit ~21 seconds into the mpeg probably resulted from a primary-voltage circuit breaker tripping that may have been miles away. Heated mineral oil can burn like gasoline, especially mixed with gammatron crystals.

Regardless of the detailed and elaborate “official” explanation, it was really another flying-saucer crash. Lately, in an attempt to add more believability, “sources” are starting to add “meteorite implosion” to their mysterious-incident repertoire. ;-) ;-) ;-)

Coreman,
That video is great.
Thanks for the link!.

Is just me or does anyone else see what looks like a water spray pattern from a large diameter hose, such as those used in the fire services? baout half way through the video you see what appears to be water coming thru the fire from the left to the right. Now I do not mean to pick on the fire service, as I was employed in that service for several years, but I would not put it past some fire companies to put water on this fire. The massive explosion follows the spray pattern. Anyone have any details as to what happened?

Bryan Haywood www.SAFTENG.net

I think that "mist cloud" is a cloud of vaporized oil from the transformer, probably when the pressure relief valve let go.

At least that would explain the ball of flame a split second later.

As to the loud bang and the humming coming to a sudden stop, I assumed that that was an expulsion fuse feeding the transformer primary...

At any rate, GREAT video!

"...water spray pattern from a LDH..."

Hi Bryan:
When I first saw this video, I thought the same thing. Then I thought...what firefighter would be crazy (or stupid) enough to get anywhere close to something like this, much less try to put water on it . Seems to me that any fire department would definitely be out-classed by an event such as this, and defer decision-making to the POCO.

Mike (mamills)

Mike, if you have the time, do a search for the term BLEVE. Of all the things firefighters have to watch out for...

Bjarney:
Out local fire department almost wound up in an up close and personal way with a Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion at a house fire about 5 years ago, out in the county. The geniuses who were renting this house had a propane gas cylinder INSIDE the house, in a corner of the living room, connected to two space heaters. En route to the fire, we heard (and saw) a tremendous explosion about 3 miles away. We found the remains of the cylinder half buried in the ground about 800 feet away from where the house once stood. It's a miracle that half of our department wasn't wiped out by this incident.

We used to have a fairly cavalier attitude about house fires. Not any more...

Mike (mamills)

It is indeed desirable to learn from near misses instead of serious incidents. (…and to be there to tell others about your own up-close-and-personal “events.”)