Mpls Explosion

Anyone know more?
web page

Looks like its right by the crack stacks…

Our son-in-law is a captain in the Minneapolis Fire department and is on site there right now.

who is your son-in-law??? I work with him.

as far as it being an explosion, I would wait and see what the final report says. when the fire breached the windows, someone might think it was an explosion when in reality, it was just the fire getting fresh air and rapidly expanding.

Scott Bosell

Stop, drop and roll.

I know him quite well. I graduated with his older brother. Edison high school is represented well on the mfd. with all the time he has worked out of grade as a battalion chief, he should have been given a field promotion.

The call came at shift change so Scott went out on it. He just now got back to the station.

a little overtime on news years morning, a fine way to start the year. he most likely was on the first truck to arrive on scene, Ladder 3, that is his assigned rig anyway. seeing people jumping out of windows sure does get the adrenalin pumping.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/01/us/minnesota-blast/

just looked at the cnn report, it looks to me that is scotty, the fireman with the red helmet, setting up a blitzfire nozzle in the front of the building

We have been following the news and have seen video that I thought was Scotty but never got to see the back of his coat.

Sounds like there are missing people in the fire too. What a way to start the new year. Prayers….

Cnn just said that there was 3 people missing, didn’t hear anything else @ 4.02 pm.

Thoughts and Prayers to everyone. Good job to the emergency personnel in the extreme weather conditions.

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Thoughts and Prayers to everyone. Good job to the emergency personnel in the extreme weather conditions.

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Ill second that. Watched the video and kept thinking that building is going to be a frozen popsicle when they are done.

So do you guys run drills to train for fighting fires in these conditions? Concerns about hoses and equipment freezing up? Dont they turn off the fire hydrants and blow them out in the fall?

Hydrants are connected directly to water mains. They are never “shut off” so to speak.

Yea but thought they blow them out at a certain time during the year. Sure cant have water right up to the head of them this time of year or they would never turn on.

Works just like your home hose water connection. The valve is inside the house or in this case, below the frost line.

In areas subject to freezing temperatures, only a portion of the hydrant is above ground. The valve is located below the frost line and connected by a riser to the above-ground portion. A valve rod extends from the valve itself up through a seal at the top of the hydrant, where it can be operated with the proper wrench. This design is known as a “dry barrel” hydrant, in that the barrel, or vertical body of the hydrant, is normally dry. A drain valve underground opens when the water valve is completely closed; this allows all water to drain from the hydrant body to prevent the hydrant from freezing.

I believe the “blowing out” is to clean out any rust particles from the valve and lines….and to make positive proof the water will flow when needed.

Minnesota and areas that are subject to freezing use hydrants that drain out underground when they are shut down,this prevents them from freezing.
Water to all hydrants remain on during the winter months. The actual valve seat is buried at a depth of 7′-6″. The valve opens against the water pressure much like a Chicago faucet stem. The valve stem extends from the top of the hydrant to the actual valve seat under ground, the valve stems are also a two piece breakable stem.
This design prevents a hydrant from opening up and flowing water if it is hit and knocked over by a vehicle.

So like Mike says, why do they flush them? Is that just to check them and make sure they have full pressure and no blockages?

They need to do something with you tax money.

The water system in Minneapolis is very old and when there are water line breaks, dirt and rocks get into the system. We have screens on the intakes of the fire trucks to filter out anything larger than 3/8’s of a inch. I have seen nozzles plugged with gravel and rocks. That is not common, but does happen. The reason they flush them is to clean out the lines. The water that comes out of a Minneapolis fire hydrant is the same water that comes out of your faucet in your house. With the amount of water they were flowing at that fire, there were toilets that would not flush right until the hydrants were shut down. There are two different color hydrants in Minneapolis, all red and red with a white bonnet. The white bonnet indicates the it a main and is at least 2000gpm. The all red hydrants are on smaller lines and are less than 2000gpm. The ladder that was on scene with the bucket, has 2 1000gpm nozzles on it, so when you need to flow some water at a fire like the one yesterday, if we can, we supply it from two different white bonnet hydrants.

If you ever looked into a cut of old Cast Iron water main,you might wonder how clear water flows out of your house taps.