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@WhiteSn95

25 күн бұрын

Did you use ai for commentary on this video? Alot of the pauses seem...unusual

@CatsCatsCats-qs6cx

25 күн бұрын

If you want to cover something really, really dark, cover the history of "red rubber" in the Congo Free State & Belgian Congo. "Heart of Darkness", a novel, is a good starting point, then read " King Leopold's Ghost". There is plenty of other academic research material from there. A closely related subject is how unsanitary colonial medical practices and the Belgian colonial practice of encouraging men to migrate to mining camps and cities, while barring their wives led to extremely high rates of sex work, which contributed to the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS long before it was introduced to the West. The Belgians also introduced TB, which spread rapidly, went untreated, and caused a long delay in recognizing HIV/AIDS, as the symptoms of HIV often mimic TB and most people in that time who had HIV were co-infected with TB, and died of TB whether as the primary cause of death or as an opportunistic infection.

@Moshmaschine

25 күн бұрын

Hey there! I was looking at the thumbnail for this just now, and the Enschede fireworks disaster popped into my head for some reason. Any chance you might cover that in the future? Thanks!

@patientallison

25 күн бұрын

​@@WhiteSn95Nah, that's just how he talks. He's been doing this since before AI was a thing.

@bsadewitz

24 күн бұрын

​@@WhiteSn95A synthetic voice would sound too syncopated--too regular--if anything. His pauses are idiosyncratic. Personally, I find it appealing. I even imitate it sometimes, lol, especially "which is here on a map". To use an AI model to produce a unique voice like that would cost $$$. You have to rent the computer time to train the thing, which would take at least days.

The worst part is they thought they did everything right. No one employed shortcuts or escaped their responsibilities. They just genuinely didn't account for the total effect of the hazard. And the company was legitimately looking after the safety of their employees making the loss of life and injuries so much more frustrating: there were no villains here. Interesting story, thanks for posting!

@curbyourshi1056

25 күн бұрын

I agree, although having a pretty much uncleanable suspended ceiling above a production line is a bit stupid, frankly.

@TheEDFLegacy

25 күн бұрын

​@@curbyourshi1056Yep, but like how it was pointed out, the standards didn't exist at the time, and they thought they did everything correctly. Rules are made of blood, but in this case it feels unfair because it was rules made out of misunderstanding the risks, not negligence.

@a24396

25 күн бұрын

@@curbyourshi1056 Absolutely agree, in retrospect this was obvious and could have been avoided... If only they realised the risks...

@tonymorris4335

25 күн бұрын

@@TheEDFLegacy Yea, it's like blaming people for using asbestos very early on. Why wouldn't you? It seemed like a win win, you can keep people from being burned and save energy etc. They thought it was the right move. Can't hate someone for just not having all the information they need.

@darthkarl99

25 күн бұрын

I wouldn't completely agree. Clearly standards were updated in the time after the plant was built and a proper audit on the sites construction vs updated best practice would have identified the problem. Likewise awareness of the danger dust accumulation could cause amongst the workforce would likely have resulted in those who noticed the dust buildup raising an alarm over the danger presented. To be clear though the faults for all this lay with offsite upper management, everyone onsite thought they were doing everything right.

Used to work in a large scale bakery. One day I see an old hand vacuuming a pile of flower... with a regular shopvac. I asked him why he wasn't using the special anti static vacuum, he replies: "Oh, that's too heavy to lug around!" If only people knew how bad it *really* is out there.

@murdermatics

25 күн бұрын

I have a penchant for work safety and people straight up laugh at you when you suggest they replace the fucking mop heads when they start stinking.

@KidarWolf

25 күн бұрын

A lot of people don't understand the risk factors, and wrongly assume that vacuum cleaners are safe tools. Of course, some of us, primarily those who have worked in areas where vacuums are not necessarily safe have learned otherwise, out of necessity. I do wonder if perhaps it's a conversation that needs to happen in schools - there are many risk factors people simply don't realize are risk factors, and our best opportunity to educate people on this is in the captive audience that is mandatory education.

@murdermatics

25 күн бұрын

@@KidarWolf I was involved in a discussion wherein someone thought that teenagers were lazy if they didn't want to work in fast food. I had to mention that vat fryers are scary as fuck and when your working with your weight in 300° oil it's ok to be fucking scared. People just don't have a grasp on what makes the world seemingly go around THEM.

@l3176l

25 күн бұрын

Yeah, I used to work a job where one day I need a sharps disposal bin… only to find out we never had one in the first place. Removing piles of paper and dust from around mounds of electrical cables, blocked access to circuit breakers, mold in the walls, and I had the manage hunt down the proper kit before I was willing to clean up blood. Everything was disorganized and either hard to find or missing.

@mimsydreams

25 күн бұрын

​@@KidarWolf Good point! I never knew about dust explosions before watching this channel. I never worked anywhere (that I know of...) where this was a risk factor, so I never had a reason to know about it. General education would be great and preventing at least a few of these major disasters.

1:38 How does that supervisor keep getting hired? He's literally responsible, if only partly in a few, for every single disaster on John's channel.

@WhiteWolf-lm7gj

16 күн бұрын

Nepotism at the highest level! This goes all the way to the top

This episode hits harder for me than most because I think this is the first one I've ever watched that felt like everyone was doing everything right, but the risks were misunderstood. Most rules that are written in blood in response to negligence or corner cutting. This one was written out of learning something new about a nasty phenomenon. Those poor families. 😢

Large dust explosion mostly follow the patern seen in this tragic case: There is first a smaller dust explosion that causes a lot of new dust to become airborne, then causing a secundary much larger dust explosion. It is very important to avoid even smaller amount of flamable dust to become airborne, in such facilities.

@WTFoolproof

25 күн бұрын

grease fires when cooking follow a similar pattern where a small burn cause a small spill which ignites and spreads to the pan.

4:00 'Mostly clean and tidy' wasn't what I'd expected. My next guess will be that they had areas they couldn't properly clean. OK I TOTALLY didn't think of an area they just never THOUGHT ABOUT. I've been in some false ceilings and they're always filthy...and mostly forgotten about. This was an easy mistake to make.

@Pfooh

25 күн бұрын

That's why in areas where dust explosions are a risk, lowered ceilings are usually not permitted. Sound reduction must be done with panels directly against the real ceiling. Pipework for ventilation and such cannot have horizontal surfaces at the top on which dust can accumulate.

@katiekane5247

25 күн бұрын

Maintenance cleans the bugs in the florescent fixture but doesn't think about the ceiling it's hanging from.

@jamesharmer9293

24 күн бұрын

I used to install computer cabling. Every suspended ceiling I've ever been in, has been thick with dust.

Shoutout to USCSB, I personally think it's an example of government working well. Their channel is awesome too, their videos have suddenly become top notch the past few years.

@phils4634

25 күн бұрын

An organisation that seems to ALWAYS have funding problems. In the US, Safety isn't regarded as important, until there is litigation.

@Mrshutter

24 күн бұрын

I love the uscsb. I think we need a similar organization but for police incidents. No joke. Where they analyze situations and come up with recommendations.

@TheSoonToBePurgedJackMeHoffIV

24 күн бұрын

Government working well? The Devil must need a jacket

@FayeVert

23 күн бұрын

Their videos have always been great, just the last few years the quality of the animation has caught up with the information and writing.

@FayeVert

23 күн бұрын

@phils4634 they shouldn't have to resort to Patreon, but I would support the **** out of them if they did.

I took part in the 1964 Skule Nite musical revies at University of Toronto. During the writing of the script, a fire breathing dragon was envisioned - but laws did not allow for flammables. One of the engineers(we were all engineers at this Engineering school) suggested a plume of corn starch that would created a transient plume of flame, which was limited to 25 grams to create a limited flame. The dragon body was wire mesh with fiberglass cloth over it. It held 3 people, the head man and one man for each leg. Dress rehearsal worked fine, plume worked, and opening night went forth. As St George faced the dragon they lite the flame - which was a squib - at ignition, a puff was heard, but no flame, however a disseminated flame propagated through the dust and filled the dragon space with a black cloud of scorched starch - this choking stench caused the 3 dragon operators to have a severe desire to be elsewhere and they tore their way out of the dragon's frame. The curtain was dropped, the stage cleaned and the rest of the show went on. The dragon was restored, but the following night there was no attempted dragon flame, just dragon like actions as it was slain by St George...

@erintyres3609

23 күн бұрын

“It is not good to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you happen to live near one.” J.R.R. Tolkein

@EXROBOWIDOW

22 күн бұрын

"laws did not allow for flammables" vs. "a transient plume of flame" Hmm... Maybe having a couple English majors at the school would have averted this form of dragon slaying?

@aurizon

22 күн бұрын

@@EXROBOWIDOW Knights in shining armour slay dragons, English Majors are a dragon subclass...

@thing_under_the_stairs

20 күн бұрын

@@EXROBOWIDOW Nah, working around the precise wording of the rules for the purpose of having cool stage effects is why you have an English major as part of your crew!

@zombiedoggie2732

18 күн бұрын

@@erintyres3609 Don't most fake it with flame cut cloth and wind blowing through them?

I’m from Kinston, I was in Atlanta and my mom called me and told me. She said the explosion knocked pictures off the walls and damaged glass. We live about 6 miles away. She said it sounded like a bomb went off. Being in close proximity of Seymour Johnson AFB, 15 miles to the west, they thought they were being attacked. Schools went on lockdown and the whole town was shut down. Rescue personnel were responded from all local fire departments full time and volunteer Fdcs. It was truly a disaster. There was a set of twins that worked there and one was ,killed instantly. Its a miracle and wonder more were not killed than it was. Rest in peace fellow Kinstonians, and my God be with the families.

I started working for one of West's Florida facilities in July, after that explosion. We made rubber the same way as Kingston. Many Kingston employees spent more than a few years at the Florida plant waiting for their new factory to get built and open. West took dust serious before the Kingston explosion. They tripled down afterwards. The false ceilings all over the rubber mixing areas were dropped and cleaned twice a year.

@thomaskositzki9424

16 күн бұрын

Nice! That's a company living up to it's responsibilities. 🙂

I was always wondering why they require to run the rubber through a live music concert hall, of course it's for the fans!

@TheEDFLegacy

25 күн бұрын

I see what you did there.

@thorned10

25 күн бұрын

Tell me this is an AI video without telling me

@Z4Zander

24 күн бұрын

Was it a rubber band?

@mitchgisborne1369

24 күн бұрын

​@@thorned10 You must be new here

@samuelfellows6923

22 күн бұрын

🙃 ~ the multiple meanings of the word “fan”

"Dust.. Dust has caused more explosions & death in the US than happened in Pearl Harbor, and it's not even close.." "...We rightly remember Dec 7 and it's victims, but US industrial disasters...not so much..." My OSHA safety instructor (he was & is historically accurate BTW...)

@Ken-er9cq

25 күн бұрын

It is only in the last probably 50 years that industrial and construction accidents have been considered avoidable. Before then they were considered as something that just happened.

@katiekane5247

25 күн бұрын

​@@Ken-er9cqand it crosses so many sectors of industry. From farmers to bakers to blacksmith. It took a minute to understand the similarities.

@ArKritz84

24 күн бұрын

As long as we're being historically accurate, motor vehicle crashes cause more death in the US every 3-4 weeks than happened in Pearl Harbor... 🙄

Dusts are underestimated. Rice dust in silos at Kellogg's were our concern. We even had an [unexplained] smouldering fire in one silo, but it was 'controlled' at the silo base. No, we didn't risk dumping more rice [dust] in ofc, but smoke was damaging the rice. "9% rancid rice" passed final taste testing for rice bubbles lol.

@EXROBOWIDOW

22 күн бұрын

Ooh, rancid for flavor! I bet the kids loved it! (Though I would not...)

Happened about 30 minutes from my house.ill never forget the stories a paramedic friend at the time told me

@macaylacayton2915

25 күн бұрын

Oh shit! Everyone you know was okay right?

@dimebagdave77

25 күн бұрын

@@macaylacayton2915 they were👍 thanks so much for asking

@henryturnerjr3857

25 күн бұрын

Strangely, I don't remember hearing much about it on the news at the time. I think I used to pass that place coming back from the beach.

@macaylacayton2915

25 күн бұрын

@@henryturnerjr3857my parents watched it on the news and one of my uncles was a first responder in this case as he was still a firefighter at the time, retired due to age at some point

Dust explosions are some of the more somewhat obscure yet deadly and terrifying disaster types.

@goosenotmaverick1156

25 күн бұрын

They're the ones I've always been most fearful of. They seem to come out of nowhere comparative to actual explosives. I worked in a cabinet shop for a while. That place was... Concerning.

@Ken-er9cq

25 күн бұрын

@@goosenotmaverick1156Anything that is flammable, it seems that if you turn it into fine particles and let it float in the air will explode if lit.

@zh84

25 күн бұрын

In my fifth year at secondary (high) school, when we were studying rates of reactions, we did a classic experiment to demonstrate how dangerous a dust explosion could be. The chemistry teacher first invited Neil Roberts to set fire to a pile of flour, which of course he couldn't do. Then she put the flour in a tin with a press-on lid along with a lit stub of candle, pushed the lid on, and invited Neil to blow into a rubber tube connected to the tin that would disperse the flour into a cloud. The cloud of flour ignited, the lid of the tin blew off, a ball of flame shot out, and Neil, despite dodging back like lightning, got his eyebrows singed off. Perhaps not a truly safe experiment given that Neil literally got a face full of fire, but an unforgettable one. I can still remember him going back to his seat with burnt eyebrows and a shocked expression.

If you want more dust explosion stories look into silo fires here in the US. It's been a problem for decades as far as I know.

@shannonpincombe8485

25 күн бұрын

Sugar, grain all sorts of silo explosions. The dust is super flammable.

@katiekane5247

25 күн бұрын

​@@shannonpincombe8485and if you put it up too wet, to minimize the dust, it self ignites from THAT. Seen many a hay barn go up, I've personally opened a bale and seen it smoke. Alfalfa gets HOT

@leechowning2712

25 күн бұрын

He has a few... but silo bombs are so common it is hard to even list them all.

@Archangelm127

25 күн бұрын

@@shannonpincombe8485 Any sort of organic dust seems prone to some sort of fuel-air explosive phenomenon.

@phils4634

25 күн бұрын

@@Archangelm127 Halogenated polymer dusts have the added problem of VERY toxic gas production on combustion.

The paper mill where my father worked fought a constant battle against dust hazards. He was one of the company's in-house mechanical engineers for his whole career and spent a fair bit of his working time on the problem, when he wasn't managing internal construction projects or dealing with another head of the industrial explosion hydra, boiler safety.

USCSB has the best YT channel on the entirety of youtube.

Dust explosions are absolutely concerning. I was a (volunteer) firefighter in the 1990s. The area just outside of our city had a rough cut saw mill, this included two very large vertical 40 and 60 feet tall respectivly) saw dust collection structures with the saw dust collected on sheets within each structure. This was collected to make 'engineered' wood products and waffer board and was stored this way to dry the saw dust prior to being compressed into formed 6x8 sheets. On three separate occasions, due to the moisture content of the dust in the structures, just the right weather conditions on a metal sided, opaque roofed structure the saw dust spontaneously "exploded". Exploded here is a bit of a misnomer as it was only the saw dust that after caught fire. automatic dampers within the structures prevented a " full blow ". However, it took hours upon hours to get the fire out. In one fire, the dampers failed. In that case we had to destroy the structure before it did explode as the temperature was rising about 3° q 5 minutes. It's amazing how fast 5 minutes passes when you realize how low the temperature needs to be for the dust explode. Thankfully, this mill kept staff to monitor the mill even when they where not in operation as in all three situations the mill was not in actual operation and caught by the lone operating employee.

OH I know about this one, one of the first ever CSB videos on their channel, IIRC. Gonna need a second bingo card for this one

@ferretyluv

25 күн бұрын

No the one on CSB was about a sugar factory.

Aw, you're growing up, John. You said 'links' instead of 'linkies' this time. Just don't stop your animation. I love my Saturday morning cartoons!

@nlwilson4892

25 күн бұрын

I particularly like the "past some fans" bit!

I worked at international paint in Felling and we had a similar, all be it must smaller, incident. They make solvent based marine paint in part of the site and an explosion was caused when some powder was being added to a large container thanks to a static spark, as managment had been buying standard dumpy bags instead of antistatic ones, causing a static spark that ignited the solvent fumes in the tank. A blast of fire shot out the small hatch of the tank, severly burning the worker making the batch. This kicked up the dust all over the factory as it was (and as far as I'm aware still is) poorly maintained. The secondary dust explosion blew a hole in the roof and blew out all the windows. The company ended up paying £800,00 in fines and an unknown amount of compensation to the worker. I moved to work in that area of the factory from from the powder coating area about a year later and safety was still abysmal, with plenty of air extraction units that didn't work and terrible earthing set ups. I left about a year later for personal reasons, but how there hasn't been another accident is beyond me. I spent most of my time there in powder coating and it was a daily occurance that milling machines would back up and spew kilos powder coating into the air thanks to the woefully inadequate extraction for build up overflows and, incredibly, I'd say powder coating was one of the SAFER areas to work on site.

In my experience, rubber dust doesn't need any excuse to combust violently. If the dust is fine enough, it will do so spontaneously. Back in the 90s I used to make rubber hoses for peristalaltic pumps in the mining industry. We had to machine to close tolerances and that created a lot of dust. I installed a dust extraction and filtration system to deal with it. I knew that the dust was highly flammable so I used lightweight concertina type ducting (air conditioner duct) to lead to the bagbouse. About every year we would have a spectacular and entirely harmless flash fire which would destroy the duct. There was no obvious source of ignition, other than the possibility of static electricity (but it was all grounded). Even the waste skip for the larger chunks would sometimes spontaneously combust. All it needed was a hot sunny day to set it off. Never any danger, just very interesting.

@oldphart-zc3jz

21 күн бұрын

Brilliantly elegant solution on your part. Like blowout panels on tank ammo racks, it's wise to vent explosions vs (failing to) contain them.

@gregculverwell

20 күн бұрын

@@oldphart-zc3jz Yes I thought of it as a fuse. I also specified the haghouse with a large blowout panel, but the explosion never got that far.

I seem to remember an explosion at a Birds Custard powder factory some time ago. If the conditions are right (or wrong) powder explosions can be worse then a gas explosion. I remember back in 1977 when houses and factories over here (UK) were blowing up due to a hot summer (1976) drying out all the clay in the ground followed by a wet winter (1977) swelling the ground with rain water and the gas mains cracking and leaking all over the place. Scary times....

@dogshome7110

25 күн бұрын

My work has involved ATEX and Hazardous Areas for many years since Piper Alpha. I can report things have come on a great deal in the last 15 years and still improving with respect to dust. It's still imperfect in some sectors, particulalry with low cost bulk materials, but getting better all the time. Like most accidents though, nothing can be completely safe. Search ALARP.

@TheEDFLegacy

25 күн бұрын

😳

@CATASTEROID934

25 күн бұрын

A relative of mine worked at a dairy some time in the 50s or 60s and a large portion of their powdered milk preparation and packaging halls was demolished in a powdered milk or milk product product explosion, hard to appreciate just how readily substances you'd consider relatively stubborn to ignite will burn if mixed thoroughly with air until it bops you on the nose by going pop

@rcrawford42

25 күн бұрын

Grain dust and other food powders are made of starches -- carbohydrates. Made of the same stuff as hydrocarbons, just arranged a bit differently. Plenty flammable.

@theairstig9164

25 күн бұрын

KZread myth busters dairy creamer explosion

One day and over 105k views. John does a fantastic job of exposing the root causes for disasters. I was a union steward for 27 years and I agree with the flour vac guy. A lot of employees just didn't care about hazards because it wasn't their job to do so. Until the surgeries or deaths.

@PlainlyDifficult

24 күн бұрын

Thank you!!!

John really looked up stock footage of fans, realized his mistake and just rolled with it, huh? 🤣

@NeedsMoreBirds

25 күн бұрын

I thought it was an intentional joke

@thorned10

25 күн бұрын

Ai video

I've been watching your videos for years now and you always go into detail some other narrators don't. You're nearly a million subscribers now and you deserve it. Keep up the good work!!!!

I'd like to say how much I like the editing and animating done on this channel in the videos. While other 'creators' have stooped to using easy ai slop you show that you actually care about the videos you make and the animation gives these videos a charm unparalleled by image or video generation

I used to work in a sheet metal processing facility that used lasers to cut parts out of flat stock. The problem is that neither of the dust collectors attached to the lasers worked properly so metal dust was always thick in the air and all over every surface in the place. It really made me nervous when people would "clean up" by just blowing the dust around with compressed air and it motivated me to get the hell out of there when people would give me attitude for telling them not to do that. Ever since I've just been waiting to hear the news that there's been a dust explosion there.

I’ve come to love these videos over the years John. Hope you enjoy making them as much as we enjoy watching them 😊

@PlainlyDifficult

25 күн бұрын

Thank you!!

I work in a company that uses milk powder by the pallet and I didn't realise how bad it was!

Hey John, have you had time to look into the idiocy that was the Oppau Explosion at Ludwigshafen/Germany in the early 1900's?

When I think of dust explosions I think of grain elevators but there's plenty of other potential disasters caused by all kinds of dust

I only learned about the dangers of dust when I microwaved a snow wafer with chocolate sprinkles. It caught fire and the plate was split in two

@TheEDFLegacy

25 күн бұрын

😳 ...Did the snow wafer make it? 😢

@rcrawford42

25 күн бұрын

Our high school physics teacher demonstrated a dust explosion with flour, a candle, a coffee can, and a tub to blow through. Then a year later the local Farm Bureau caught fire. It didn't explode, thankfully, but the decades of dust from grinding feed and tons of fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides made for an interesting fire. We lived downwind, and grampa was staying with us, so we evacuated.

@ferretyluv

25 күн бұрын

I learned about dust fires from Mythbusters when they made coffee creamer explode.

@MeyganLoveyDovey

25 күн бұрын

I learned about the dangers of dust from an episode of Goblin Slayer.

@ferretyluv

25 күн бұрын

@@MeyganLoveyDovey Oh yeah I know that episode. As they were setting it up, I realized what he was going for and even called out loud “DUST EXPLOSION!”

So some workers knew about the dust in the ceiling and (apparently) didn't report it? Hell no. I'd be all over management about it. It SEEMS they were at least making the effort to keep dust under control.

@empireoflizards

25 күн бұрын

Not many people really understand the explosive potential of dust.

Out of sight, out of mind. They fell victim to a "known unknown".

I worked for West Pharmaceuticals in St. Pete Fla. We were the factory that took up the job of ramping up production to make up for the loss. West is an amazing company to work for and this was a tragedy.

I used to work in a Dairy factory producing dehydrated milk powders, lactose and whey powders but also powdered coffee creamer and baby formula. It was at the time the biggest of its kind in the world. Dust was a major issue and few years before I started working there Dry tower 1 developed a blockage in one of the high pressure spray nozzles as the tower was making a batch of high fat milk powder... to make a long story short it blew the place to pieces.

I worked in the textile printing industry for about 12 years. Our biggest hazard was lint fires. Luckily, it was rare and never got out of hand. The cleaning sink(mineral spirits) and screen making areas where away from the presses. We had visible fire extinguishers and always looked out for each other. We had one or two but it always burned out before it got bad. Still scary though.

This is probably the earliest ive ever been to an upload

@goosenotmaverick1156

25 күн бұрын

Same here! 😂

My grandmother worked there during the explosion. She wasn't injured luckily but I don't think her hearing ever fully recovered.

With how common these are I’m surprised my bedroom hasn’t experienced a dus explosion yet.

I've learned to fear two things in this life, explosive/toxic dust, and scalp-ripping/bone-grinding torque.

That is scary, there are so much factories that have unreachable roof structures gathering dust. As mentioned by others vulnerable for 2 stage explosion.

The British TV advert interval stripes. Oh I love it

I remembered your video about the DeBruce Grain dust explosion and how little was paid attention to the dust buildup..

Seen the aftermath of a dust explosion/fire at a grain elevator, amazing what a little dust of something you don't think can explode like corn can do

@karinbinnie1862

6 күн бұрын

When I was a child the grain elevator in our town caught fire. The smoke was so thick no one saw that the canned food warehouse next to it was also on fire. The farmers in town stood around making bets on when the grain elevator would split. And it did, dumping almost a million bushels of charred wheat that stank up the town for weeks.

From The Area And I Remember Everyone Thought That A Jet Trying A Landing At The Nearby Airport Had Crashed At First. No One Living There Really Thought Of The West Company As A Place That Could Blow Itself Up Until Afterwards.

You might also want to look up the November 2006 explosion of the paint manufacturing facility in Danvers, Massachusetts. There's a great USCSB videon on it. As I recall, when the facility was built, it was in a remote area, but over time residential housing had creeped up next door. So when the facility blew up, the results were catastrophic. Thankfully, there were no deaths, though 77 families lost their homes.

Thank you for covering this topic. I live 2 miles from the site of the disaster and I remember that day very well. I was returning to work on my lunch break and was about 1/2 mile from the West plant. When the explosion occurred, I remember the back of my car jumping as if I had hit a huge pothole (which is very common around here). It wasn’t until I returned to work that I found out what happened. In 2005 I joined a volunteer fire department that responded to the explosion and I am still a member currently (almost 19 years). I hope an incident like this never happens again, but the county is better prepared to deal with it if it does. My condolences are offered to all who were affected.

As soon as the conveyor belt showed up I knew lol

Thank you for another upload!

opening view shows the roof was held up with the same light trusses as used in Twin Towers and Charleston Furniture store.

Fantastic work, as always, sir.

i think america just loves the word west... after all, there's no east virginia

Lived not too far from this. Just moved into my first house, and it was EVERYWHERE on the news. WRAL’s coverage was non-stop. You should cover the 2006 EQ Industrial fire/explosion in Apex, NC.

dust fires are scary

Even when you think that you have all bases covered to mitigate a disaster, there's always that something, somewhere that is just sat there waiting to cause trouble... :\

I worked for West during the time of this disaster (In a different location). I remember making frantic calls trying to find out if my friends and coworkers were still alive.

I’m always impressed with the detailed research you do for these videos…great work

@PlainlyDifficult

25 күн бұрын

Thank you!!

I worked at a furniture factory for over 20 years, and one of the few places they did not cut corners was the dust collection system. Every month, we would shut down the entire mill and blow down the mill from top to bottom to get rid of all the dust that had collected. We also had a custom dust collection system that was configured to blow out the back side of the mill in the case of a fire in the collection system and not blow back into the mill. Dust is so dammed deadly in manufacturing and is too often overlooked as a safety hazard.

Love these episodes, some I've never heard about and your narration is spot on, love the weather descrption too, keep it goin john

Thank you for you videos. As always they captivate us from start to end

MSDS= Material Safety Data Sheets for anyone curious.

3:32 “Next it runs past some fans” … I see what you did there, hilarious mate. I laughed out loud.

I don't know why but I'm dead when the rubber process "passes by some fans." thanks for the levity amidst a grim tale.

I once worked on a site here in the U.K. - next door was a derelict factory awaiting demo - turned out to be a well known biscuit plant devastated by a flour dust explosion. It was an extremely chunky well built concrete structure which mostly survived but practically every nut, bolt and thingamegig that used to be inside was shredded and fired outside through window openings. Glad I wasn't around to see it - most of those windows pointed in my direction!

*Psssst.* I thought I was clicking on a recap of the one you had it mixed up with. Don’t sweat it, John.

John Another comment: at the end of each video you should say "if you enjoyed this and thought it was worthwhile, please GIVE ME A THUMBS-UP" You've got a lot of subscribers and viewers. There is nothing wrong with asking them to acknowledge you, and help you put some bread on your table.

4 hours old? Cool! Love your work, John. Long-time subscriber here, stopping by to say Hi 👋☺️

@PlainlyDifficult

25 күн бұрын

Hello!

Have you covered the Robena Mine Frosty Run Explosion in Waynesburg PA? I saw the monument for it and was curious.

Thank you Plainly!

A list of failures that long and the class action was thrown out?

@TheReduxGB

25 күн бұрын

I have a feeling it's because they attempted to mitigate dust build up with cleaning teams so the company was at least attempting their best to prevent this from happening, just the cleaning teams avoided the ceiling.

Those fires caused by flour or fine dust are just the scariest, something so seemingly unharmful can cause that much destructions feels like a nightmare instead.

Cheers John, another cracking vid ;)

This dust build up on top of acoustic drop ceilings is common to factories and businesses. There really is no way to clean those areas except to remove all the tiles and "try" to clean them, but given their texture this is difficult, plus some/many can get damaged/break when removing them . Replacing them is usually the only good option. If you're in a building that has dirty dingy ceiling tiles, you can bet there is alot of dust/lint/etc. on top of those tiles , sometime inches deep if the business creates a lot of dust/powder. Woodshops and any place that uses powdered materials is really bad. I've replace the tiles in factories, stores and other businesses, and some houses/home workshops and that is an extremely dirty job (plus being on a ladder/scaffolding). Worse if hot, and you gotta wear a respirator and googles the whole time , if not a whole chemical suit/coveralls for fiberglass filaments . Plus we won't mention some old acoustic tile has asbestos in it, because if that gets out, EPA and OSHA regs make that beyond super expensive to the extent the whole building might get condemned rather than just replacing tiles

We get to hear about this and the sugar plant explosion every year at work as part of our combustible dust training.

Dusty the bear says: "only YOU can stop dust explosions"

@o.o-vt1rc

23 күн бұрын

Dusty the Bunny? Could pop up behind Smokey's ankle and add "and dust explosions!" after he says his line.

Kudos on the "fans" joke!

Dust explosions used to be a big issue with lumber mills, too. What's really scary is it doesn't even have to be commonly combustible compounds like wood dust or flour. It can be anything that's chemically reactive with oxygen, like aluminum or iron powder.

I remember this day, I was at home with my future (now ex) wife, our 2 -1/2 month old son, and her grandmother. It was surreal watching it unfold on the local news. Many years later (about 15) around 2018 I was actually on site surveying for environmental monitoring wells, and was at awe that there were still pieces of sheet metal, from the building, in the tree foliage. RIP to the 6 that died, your story lives on through the memories such as this video.

Thank you, i look forward to my Saturday morning with these. Seems like they go by too quickly tho :p

HEY, I live not too far from there, and I remember that event! Great video John! 💥

Consider covering the ThyssenKrupp fire of 2007.

love your videos every week. you have a typo for the date in the description

I've watched a number of these videos with dust explosions and one of the common scenarios is this; a small explosion rattles all of the structural stuff overhead while simultaneously starting a fire; the overhead structures that have been accumulating powder shake their powder loose where upon it falls through the air whereupon it too causes an explosion shaking more stuff loose until sometimes the entire structure is destroyed by those propagating fires and explosions . Moral of the story is if you're working in a place that you know generates dust of any kind and you hear a blast, run like hell before it makes it to you.

My mom worked at one of their other facilities and I remember how distraught she was over this, but I was too young to really understand the gravity of it. Interesting to see a video on it now as an adult

Always good,thanks for content

I'm from central NC, but I was too young to remember this happening. The danger of dust was underestimated, and it ended badly. And this happening even with the company having policy in place and being used.

Love your work

Really like your stuff keep uo the good work

@PlainlyDifficult

24 күн бұрын

Thank you

If you are like me, and prefer the less hassling way to make coffee in the morning by using ready mixed coffee powder sachets, then you will know, as I do, that any dust that comes out of the cup when it is near the gas burner heating the kettle will cause the flames to be agitated and burn with a red colour instead of the normal blue. Not something you want to see on a large scale. And they say smoking is dangerous...huh. Go figure.

One of the cleaner dust explosions - considering what in some industries is permitted in dust collection despite being composited from very flammable powders and yet they only relay on that there is no spark - which is to come on day.

I remember this, I live twenty five miles away and knew some people assisting in rescue.

Thank you for the visual pun. In case you missed it, it was about fans

I feel like a lot of industrial disasters could be summed up with either "can't be bothered to clean up all this dust" or "Corroded metal!? Out of sight, out of mind."

John, why are your videos so addictive? 😂😂😂😂

“Now….” “Now….” “Now….” “Now….” It does get tiresome.

I think that more accurately it is better to say that it was a hazard that was not readily apparent to all. If the dust had been on equipment, on the floors or exposed surfaces they had a diligent cleaning process. But above the suspended ceilings it requires going in to spaces that people often do not consider. In my line of work I often needed access to such locations to install cables. The rest of the facility would be pristine; polished floors, perfectly maintained machinery and excellent safety and training programmes. Humans look at their surroundings for signs of hazard but most have this illusion that the ceiling over our heads is the end of the space that we are in. They do not think about what is behind the walls, over the ceilings or under the floors. Even facilities people who are trained on maintenance do not go up there unless there is a specific need to. Popping up ceiling tiles and poking around is fraught with its own problems. Those tiles are fragile, easily damaged and a bit of a pain in the behind to be running around popping them off looking for things that you do not suspect. Whilst in school I worked part time at a recreational sports facility that burned down one night. The cause of the fire was an overheated lamp ballast that was mounted above the ceiling. If it had been in sight, within the area then the overheating and leaking pitch (tar) would of been seen and the fixture replaced. Instead it overheated to the point of starting a fire and it burned half the building down at 3am. After university (for an engineering degree where I was also trained on safety and hazards) I learned to investigate places that are less obvious. While dust collection above ceiling tiles was not part of my responsibility I often warned the management or engineering staff of facilities I had been called in to do some specific task about a problem that was completely unrelated to my duties. I had to step outside of my role to do that and most times the informed parties had this look of dread on their faces when advised. Only a few times was I given a rude brush-off and told to keep to my own business. Sometimes it was overloaded circuits where they did not know that some electrician had done a bodge job twenty years earlier or corroded or damaged support structures that you would not see unless you specifically went looking for them. Having a trained and experienced eye in the right place oftentimes makes all the difference. Even after I showed them the risk I often had to explain it to them in detail and finally they would get-it.