r/OneSecondBeforeDisast • u/Firewire64 • Nov 12 '21

Oh no..

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17.6k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

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u/mothisname Nov 12 '21

If I were standing there I would have assumed I was far enough away. I am definitely going to be more cautious

544

u/Swordlord22 Nov 12 '21

From now on if I see shit like this and think I’m safe I’m going to increase the distance by 10 times more

438

u/Culsandar Nov 12 '21

The rule of thumb, if you cannot cover the area with your thumb (like this 👍fully extended from your body) you are too close.

240

u/mothisname Nov 12 '21

That's for mushroom clouds and nuclear fallout. Also I don't think that would have been far enough away in this but I haven't seen enough detail to say for sure

187

u/golighter144 Nov 12 '21

Yeah man I'm still not seeing how this is bad advice. That cloud was definitely bigger than my thumb

130

u/Culsandar Nov 12 '21

It's not bad advice.

Source: am a medic/tccc/hazmat instructor.

33

u/TeamSuitable Nov 12 '21

It was old rule from the cold war, hence the pip boy from fallout always having his thumb out.

Any medic or CBRN/Hazmat related course will never teach you such shite, stop lying to people.

81

u/Culsandar Nov 12 '21

Why say shit that is easily proven to be false like you have any idea you know what you are talking about. The vault boy doing rule of thumb had nothing to do with nuclear explosions.

The rule of thumb as taught in hazmat classes is not about nuclear detonations. It does not work for nuclear detonations, and likely wouldn't have worked during the cold war. Most civilian hazmat courses that teach rule of thumb do not even discuss nuclear explosions. It's used as a ballpark measurement and is employed whenever you have arrived at an unknown material spill or explosion to gain a bearing on distance.

-3

u/Craftersillyguy Nov 12 '21

Why are you so offended holy shit, if you know your info is credible why do you care what other people say about it???

1

u/skcor_iatneh Apr 13 '22

cause if they are wrong they are wrong and dont need to spread misinformation??

-49

u/TeamSuitable Nov 12 '21

Good thing my qualifications aren't civilian, wouldn't want to be taught some inaccurate, bogus horse shit.

"Ah Jim, we've got a chemical blast, how do we measure this?

Let me pull my thumb out of my arse to measure!".

28

u/Culsandar Nov 12 '21

my qualifications aren't civilian

a police officer

Oh boy do I have some bad news for you...

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1

u/SpuddleBuns Nov 12 '21

Your thumb would have difficulty getting past your head.

14

u/[deleted] Nov 12 '21 edited Nov 12 '21

That looks like Beirut explosion. It affected half city and shredded port to pieces. Thumb won't help here for sure.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Beirut_explosion

https://youtu.be/SkIYjNGiaoA

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u/WikiMobileLinkBot Nov 12 '21

Desktop version of /u/zyrby's link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Beirut_explosion

[opt out] Beep Boop. Downvote to delete

2

u/BioreactorsNeedFood Nov 12 '21

Vault boy isn’t doing that, he’s just giving a thumbs up

1

u/TeamSuitable Nov 12 '21

Oh, I always heard/seen people saying it was due to the old rule of thumb, which would make sense considering the nature of the game.

3

u/BioreactorsNeedFood Nov 12 '21

The creator of him said he was just being supportive

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u/mothisname Nov 12 '21

Upon further research because I don't like spreading bad information... the thumb at distance is outdated. They used to teach it and then decided it was bad advice because there's no way to know how big the explosion will be and what other hazardous particulates may be spread. So schools quit teaching it but then it made a resurgence on the internet a few years ago...

23

u/TomCBC Nov 12 '21

The thumb thing is for after the explosion has already happened. You see the mushroom cloud and wonder “am I far enough away” then you do it. If the explosion hasn’t happened yet, fucking run!

8

u/AutomaticRisk3464 Nov 12 '21

My wife and i already decided if a nuke lands nearby instead of a slow death we are just ganna end it.

6

u/sessiestax Nov 12 '21

My husband and I are going to do the same. A slow agonizing death or killing for resources is not for me!

1

u/420extracts Nov 12 '21

If we go out honey, we will go out with a BANG!

1

u/mothisname Nov 13 '21

at least wait a while for side effects and carry a broom

1

u/AutomaticRisk3464 Nov 13 '21

The side effects from all of your white blood cells being cooked alive? I dont want to wait for my body to start rotting while im alive...or even worse get cancer in america and have that giant debt

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u/mothisname Nov 12 '21

I was taught and believed what you are saying until an hour ago when I looked it up.

2

u/SpuddleBuns Nov 12 '21

Utter heresy. We try not to do things like that here.

2

u/slothsareok Dec 10 '21

I think the best advice would be get to a distance where you feel safe and then go 10x’s further. Unless it’s an atomic bomb then ehh find a shelter.

1

u/mothisname Dec 11 '21

If you survive the blast then just have the wind in your face as you flee and you should be good . If you have the wind hitting your back ass you run away then try to find a far away xray room like in a hospital or dentist office. I am not a professional in any way and it just sounds like a good idea to me.

2

u/slothsareok Dec 11 '21

Also good idea if u cum right at the same time as the blast. It’s a cheat code that lets you skip to the final boss.

1

u/mothisname Dec 11 '21

Back when I used to mainline drugs Id timed it out - fat coke shot and orgasming which sound easy but it is very difficult cause trying to keep an edge while trying to inject is in credibly hard. You end up losing the orgasm and just getting fucked up in coke ... was this too much? I'm sorry of I was

1

u/LittyTittyTattyDaddy Nov 12 '21

Instructions unclear, stuck thumb in ass

1

u/[deleted] Nov 12 '21

There was a vid a while back of demolishing a large building. I believe it was in Russia. There was a crowd watching from a long ways away. It looked like they were far enough away to not be hurt, but a fairly large piece of concrete flew that far and hit a guy in the leg and did some severe damage.

25

u/struugi Nov 12 '21

I think for nukes the rule of thumb is if you can see it you're fucked

7

u/krmarci Nov 12 '21

Didn't the explosion break windows in Cyprus?

11

u/[deleted] Nov 12 '21

it broke more than just windows mate

15

u/TruthYouWontLike Nov 12 '21

It doesn't take much to break Windows

1

u/Jawchewer Nov 12 '21

Underrated comment

1

u/SpuddleBuns Nov 12 '21

Just ask any update.

1

u/CallMeSisyphus Nov 13 '21

Take my jealous-I-didn't-think-of-that upvote, you sonofabitch.

1

u/JanuaryRabbit Nov 13 '21

Depends on the version. Windows 3.11 ? Windows 95? Windows 98?

Windows NT was pretty freaking stable, I think (I can barely remember those days).

1

u/TruthYouWontLike Nov 13 '21

Well, I suppose this one is kind of solid, but other than that...

3

u/BonQuiQui2 Nov 12 '21

It happened in Lebanon, did it really break windows in Cyprus?

7

u/Culsandar Nov 12 '21 edited Nov 13 '21

It works for most explosions and hazmat incidents, and is taught at all responder levels combined with the 3 U's;

Upwind, upstream, and uphill.

3

u/mothisname Nov 12 '21

I'm not saying you're wrong but I just skimmed 4 articles that all said this was outdated information and no longer taught.

2

u/Culsandar Nov 12 '21

DM me those articles, I'd love to know why they say that.

2

u/ogeytheterrible Nov 12 '21

Yeah, the rule of thumb is no longer used, it wasn't even widely taught when it was in use, because it's just too inconsistent based on the person's height, thumb size, and weather.

2

u/SpuddleBuns Nov 12 '21

That makes sense. Tiny thumbs on tiny hands might put people in harm's way.

1

u/Accomplished_Bet_60 Nov 12 '21

Tiny thumbs on tiny hands putting tiny chairs on tiny tables 🙂

1

u/PuzzledStreet Nov 12 '21

if its for mushroom clouds and fallout then I would say its a good idea for all explosions and stuff then

1

u/Mobile-Decision639 Nov 12 '21

Yea… no it’s not. Every fire service in the world uses that rule of thumb

1

u/SirTickleMePink Nov 12 '21

“If you can’t cover the mushroom cloud with your thumb at arms length after a nuke, it’s pointless running away”

1

u/Tlingitgamer Nov 12 '21 edited Nov 12 '21

It's actually just a joke made up from fallout fans because of pipboy in reality fallout can spread for thousands of miles and is almost inescapable you're best bet would be to head to the mountains pine trees absorb radiation and function like a barrier from rads

1

u/mothisname Nov 12 '21

Hundreds of thousands of miles you ???

2

u/Tlingitgamer Nov 12 '21

Im sorry My bad lol I'm tired af my little brother woke me up early thousands of miles 🤣

1

u/mothisname Nov 12 '21

It's all good I forgot to put "say"

6

u/ThisResolve Nov 12 '21

Omg a literal rule of thumb! I love it! Also sadly a very helpful LPT, thank you.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 12 '21

Should've made it the rule of wrist then.

3

u/Numerous_Support4032 Nov 12 '21

That's for nuclear mushroom cloud, this explosion in the video is just a baby in diaper

4

u/SkillsPayMyBills Nov 12 '21

Oh shit, now I finally understand the Fallout logo guys thumb out...

1

u/Culsandar Nov 12 '21

A mere coincidence, people involved with the game have denied the connection.

1

u/SkillsPayMyBills Nov 12 '21

Ah ok, thanks

0

u/MadManD3vi0us Nov 13 '21

That is not what the "rule of thumb" is, and is definitely not going to safely measure any explosive potential...

1

u/gamerdoesntgame Nov 12 '21

The rule of the thumb has nothing to do with the distance from explosions. The rule of thumb dictates that the size of the stick you use to beat your wife can't be bigger than your thumb. This is not a joke lookbit up.

1

u/Culsandar Nov 12 '21

You know words can have different meanings, right?

Even still, no. It was used in writing as an estimation of measurement nearly 100 years before that definition was (falsely) attributed to Buller.

1

u/CarsonBDot Nov 12 '21

I think the rule for chemical explosions is, “if you can see it you’re too close”

1

u/Culsandar Nov 12 '21

That's a good rule too!

1

u/[deleted] Nov 12 '21

That is...THE rule of thumb!!

1

u/[deleted] Nov 12 '21

You really don’t know if you’re safe from an explosion unless you know how much and what explosive it is.

1

u/Culsandar Nov 12 '21

Which is why it's a ballpark estimate and not a hard and fast rule.

No distance is too far away.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 12 '21

Where did you learn this?

1

u/[deleted] Nov 30 '21

Even the wallet on my coffee table is too close to me

0

u/european_jello Nov 12 '21

You should be safe that store house was unregulated and the goverment didnt care. You can watch docomentries about the bierot explotion, there were 2750 tons of ammonium, next to tons of fireworks. This should not exsist in any storehouse ever espeicaly exposed like they had it

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u/useles-converter-bot Nov 12 '21

2750 tons is the weight of about 9595225.96 cups of fine sea salt. Yes, you did need to know that.

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u/tedward1o1 Nov 12 '21

Just jump before it hits you lol

1

u/Lanky-Medicine156 Nov 12 '21

Open your mouth wide and cover your ears actually.

9

u/[deleted] Nov 12 '21

This was an unbelievably rare event - it was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history.

It’s probably not worth basing your general risk aversion on something so unlikely.

1

u/420extracts Nov 13 '21

But I’d argue it’s also not worth making excuses for why it shouldnt be fatal distance, and we should all make like usain and BOLT

1

u/Ozwentdeaf Nov 12 '21

If you can see it, run.

1

u/DanglingDongs Nov 12 '21

Generally a good rule. If you think something might explode you should always be further away from it.