Dallas refinery fire, 2nd in two days

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The noon news in Oklahoma City is reporting another refinery fire in Dallas, the second such fire in two days in Texas. Hmmmm. . .

-- robert waldrop (rmwj@soonernet.com), August 11, 1999

Answers

On the way to put the garbage out this morning I tripped on the cat - second time in as many weeks. Hmmmm. . .

-- Y2K Pro (y2kpro1@hotmail.com), August 11, 1999.

I trust the cat is doing well.

-- Spidey (in@jam.com), August 11, 1999.

He is thanks, although I fear he has been infected by the Doomer virus. He wears a little tinfoil hat and seems to have trouble seeing clearly...

-- Y2K Pro (y2kpro1@hotmail.com), August 11, 1999.

hahahahaha, black cat, run!

To all morons: Explosions are escalating.

-- bang (boom@pow.woosh), August 11, 1999.


If I was the cat, I'd find a different spot to snooze.

But in the meantime, I have updated the explosions page:



-- robert waldrop (
rmwj@soonernet.com), August 11, 1999.



Mr. Pro

I you tripped over the cat, it is obvious that you are the one who cannot see. Those who walk blindly will end up with pug nose.

-- i. see (idr@officecall.com), August 11, 1999.


link to explosions page

-- robert waldrop (rmwj@soonernet.com), August 11, 1999.

pro, please, don't trip over that cat again. when you do, refineries and plants seem to have explosions.

Classic Tom & Jerry line:

remember folks--- THE WHITE MOUSE will NOT Explode!!!!

-- SupL (slfsl@yahoo.com), August 11, 1999.


THANK YOU Robert Waldrop! Excellent list.

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), August 11, 1999.

Robert, the list makes for very interesting reading and it seems that these incidents are on the rise. It would be good to know how many new facilities have been brought on-line during these time frames to average out percentages (this could include the number of oil and gas wells as well). You have done a great job of collecting this data and we hope you continue this effort..Thanks. BTW 'Pro', you sure the cat didn't trip over you?

-- For (your@info.com), August 11, 1999.


Robert:

I didn't get a chance to listen to the news at noon, but I live a stone's throw from Dallas and I would have thought my local internet news would have mentioned this. If you run across a link confirming this, would you be so kind as to post it?

Thanks.

-- Anita (spoonera@msn.com), August 11, 1999.


Nice list Robert.

-- a (a@a.a), August 11, 1999.

Hi All,

Listen up its not a Y2k issue - just some careless welders fixing a pipe near a petroleum storage yard. I live in Dallas (very close to the area in question) and was at home when the explosion occurred...Lets not jump to conclusions with regards to every man-made or natural disaster. Regards,

-- paul dirac (pdirac@hotmail.com), August 11, 1999.


Disasters are disasters, and fires and explosions -- whatever their cause -- reduce capacity. Y2K is not an event that happens in some kind of vacuum. It exists in a context. The purpose of piling up data is to look for whatever it might tell us. E.g., I lived a couple of miles from the Hawthorne generating plant in Kansas City when it blew up last February. In one big kaboom, KCPL lost 15% of its generating capacity. I hear from friends who still live there that there's a lot of power problems this summer. KCPL used to sell power, now they are importing it. The drive towards deregulation in the electricity industry has reduced the building of new plants. That's not a Y2k bug, but it does mean "less capacity." Even if y2k turns out to be a Kahoutek, the power industry itself is telling us that "on-site cogeneration" of power is going to be a hot growth area for the 2000 and 2010s.

A large number of refinery and pipeline explosions is significant, whatever the cause. We could be under attack by very skillfull terrorists, we could be suffering y2k-related degradation of the infrastructure, we could be dealing with an epidemic of drug and alcohol abuse in the energy workplace, or it could be all three plus a couple other causes not mentioning. The point remains: these things are blowing up, there seems to be more of them these days.

-- robert waldrop (rmwj@soonernet.com), August 11, 1999.


"Seems" is the key word. Beware of the red pickup truck effect. If you buy a red pickup truck, it will seem as if there are an awful lot more such vehicles on the road than there were last year!

Only way to resolve this is a source that can pretty much guarantee that all such occurrences are recorded, such as a government agency to whom all such events must by law be reported.

-- Nigel Arnot (nra@maxwell.ph.kcl.ac.uk), August 12, 1999.



I agree that a nice comprehensive government database would be the best choice, but I have yet to find one (and I've been looking). I'm surprised that in our highly regulated, counted, and sorted society that such a list doesn't exist, but i can't find it at the Chemical Safety Board or Osha of our federal government. I have a theory that it might exist, on a state by state basis, at some kind of state occupational safety office, but i don't have the resources or time to check all fifty states.

In the meantime, the list I am compiling is composed of news reports, so you could say we are using "news reports of pipeline and generating plant fires and explosions" as a proxy for having a nice comprehensive government list.

Besides this list, however, there are mentions in the chemical industry and mainstream press of an upsurge of incidents, so I am confident in saying that the increase exists. Why this is happening can't be derived from the mere fact that the incidents are increasing, but I think the burden of proof will be increasingly on those who say "it ain't happening" to show this.

Now is a good time for people to check their exposure to risks of chemical, pipeline, and generating plant explosions.

-- robert waldrop (rmwj@soonernet.com), August 12, 1999.


I listened to the T.V. news for 2 straight hours yesterday evening and have checked the Dallas Morning News this morning and NOTHING was mentioned. I would think this news would be greater in import than the heat wave or the drought if anything of substance really happened.

-- Anita (spoonera@msn.com), August 12, 1999.

And the world keeps spinning. You absolutely right, Y2K doesn't happen in a vacuum. But somehow we live from day to day without even noticing these events. Let me speculate here (something this thread is doing) but explosions are not on the rise, they always have happened with the same frequency. The only difference now is this wonderful medium called the internet.

Question for the day: Why is it that everything happening in 1999 is related to Y2K except for the Joanne effect (which was really supposed to be related to Y2K)?

Y2K Pro, I think your cat needs to don the new and improved doomer hat. It will not force him to jump out like that and trip innocent garbage collectors.

-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), August 12, 1999.


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