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Old 08-22-2002, 12:52 PM   #29
SlowGT
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Join Date: Jun 1999
Location: Columbia Co, PA
Posts: 303
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You're welcome. I've picked up a tip or 2 from your posts in the past.




I figured I'd have some nonbelievers when it came to the properties of oxygen. I don't know what happened in TX, but I can assure you that no oxygen burned/exploded by itself. If you had a flood around a refinery, I'm guessing there was probably some flammables floating on the water that the pipe was in. The pipe broke (causes a spark), the fuel was ignited and the presence of oxygen caused an explosion ten times worse than the flammables alone could've produced.

I'm not posting this to be a 'know-it-all', because I'm certainly not the sharpest knife in the block, but I'm pretty well versed when it comes to industrial gases. It's a huge misconception advocated by TV/Hollywood. I've got years of experience with this stuff. Why would I lie? Without being able to give you a personal demonstration, the following websites are the best I could do. They are the MSDS sheets from 2 of the 3 world leaders in industrial gases (Air Products and BOC Gases). I'm a former employee of the 3rd (Praxair) but I couldn't find one of their's.

Check out the 1st page:
http://avogadro.chem.iastate.edu/MSDS/oxygen.pdf

See page 2 here under NFPA & HMIS Hazards and page 3 under 'Fire Fighting Measures':
http://www.mwsc.com/MSDS/21.PDF

If you still don't believe me, call your local welding supply shop and ask them. Better yet, go down there and tell them you'd like to see what color is emitted when oxygen burns.

Once you believe, share it with all your buds.

Peace and safe street racing to all
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Last edited by SlowGT; 08-22-2002 at 01:00 PM..
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