Texas Fertiliser plant explosion

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Underdog said:
Reading the reports, this is horrific. Estimated 60-70 dead thus far, hundreds injured. Houses in a 5-6 block radius are destroyed or heavily damaged. This is going to get worse... :(
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Weird thing is all the Australian news sites say 60-70 dead hundred injured.

Then you look at the American sites

At least two people are killed, more than 60 are sent to hospitals and residents are evacuating after a massive explosion erupts at a West, Texas fertilizer plant
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http://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/17/us/texas-explosion/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
 
Absolutely nuts.

Ammonium nitrate is highly explosive when ignited. So lots of flames + lots of fertiliser = BIG BOOM. As well as toxic gas being expelled when it combusts.

That vid is, just wow. There's also the possibility of more explosions considering there's more tanks that could go up.

EDIT: was actually a tank of anhydrous ammonia that went up. Same deal with ammonia nitrate. highly explosive when ignited
 
Did not read article. What caused it?
 
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**** me, that was huge. Will be a fair death toll from it.
 
Cmarsh said:
And once again we will get widespread, rolling coverage of this event, simply because it is in America and therefore the world's media becomes fascinated. This, after suicide bombers killed dozens of people in Iraq and Somalia in the past few days, yet it is barely mentioned.
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Bombings are much more common in warzones like Iraq and Somalia so they have less impact/interest.

The media is definitely skewed towards events in western countries though, in particular the UK, US and NZ but Australia has closer ties with those countries than any others so it's understandable.
 
Cmarsh said:
And once again we will get widespread, rolling coverage of this event, simply because it is in America and therefore the world's media becomes fascinated. This, after suicide bombers killed dozens of people in Iraq and Somalia in the past few days, yet it is barely mentioned.
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Very few in Australia identify with Somalis or Iraqis. Most people identify with Americans. Surely you understand the concept of selling papers?
 
Underdog said:
Very few in Australia identify with Somalis or Iraqis. Most people identify with Americans. Surely you understand the concept of selling papers?
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it's still unfortunate that incidents in non western countries become very much second rate news. fwiw i'm not entirely convinced it's down toe selling papers either. i think a lot of people would be very interesting and horrified if they really knew the depths of what happens in some of these places. but people like being spoonfed information. and despite the recent protestations at the media control bill conroy was trying to pass, there is still a lot of pressure placed on major news agency as to what news is given priority. they just can't really admit it.

anyway, all of this discussion is for a different thread.
 

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Texas Fertiliser plant explosion

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