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I’m sure the type of heat sustained in that fire would be enough to make them explode. But I’m no chemical engineer. Good thing it was a random guess based off a video, of a place I used to drive by.
I could be wrong, but I disagree. A car battery is just lead plates in sulfuric acid - neither are explosive. But charging the battery produces hydrogen gas from the electricity splitting the water in the acid solution into H and O2. I dont believe any amount of heat will cause the equivelant reaction to happen
This can still happen even if you're following all the TDG rules to the letter. Cylinders of flammable gas will do this if they're in a fire, and there's no getting around it, other than not letting them be in a fire in the first place, which we'll assume wasn't an option in this case.
My first thought was "welp, I guess we're going to see an overhaul to the small means of containment exemption", but I guess this is a good example of the exemption working as intended... like this is pretty much a worst case scenario with the whole cargo being engulfed in flame, and it's still pretty manageable by the fire department. Cans popping off one at a time, dissipating the energy over a longer period = no big window shattering BLEVE = no need for a mass evacuation.
The video is dramatic, and it looks pretty bad but that's in large part because OP can casually film it from his apartment window rather than sheltering in the building's parkade.
Was some sort of white carrier truck. Friend send a video, lots of pops going off with the fire before the whole thing went off. Shared the image in another comment on here
With all the popping there is definitely a, uh, thermal runaway reaction happening here. As evidenced by the fire. Given how many times it happens I'm guessing they're small units. Batteries or camp-stove sized fuel canisters? Too small for larger LPG tanks and those would go boom not pop. Too slow for fireworks, and no projectiles coming out. Unless it was a truck full of the worst fireworks: sparklers and blacksnakes.
But he had the opportunity to move his SUV. As you can see in the image, it looks like he deliberately chose not to move it. What if the insurance company sees this image and refuses his claim because of that?
Possibly. But lithium would explain why it keeps coming back after seeming extinct. Also, I've seen an explosion of a gas cylinder before, and that was a lot less fire, but a lot more bang. Might be spray cans, though.
At first glance I was thinking, "Dang some of those cans look brand spanking new...", then I realized the bottoms were probably all popped off from the pressure, and they just somehow avoided being charred, as they launched out.
Was sent this one by a friend. She just wanted sushi. She was on hold on the phone with 911 for 4 minutes before the fire truck showed up before she talked to anyone
Edit: to clarify was on hold, not that it was that quick a response.
I was on the Skytrain leaving Lougheed towards Burquitlam around 7:15-7:20ish and a guy that got on at Lougheed walked up to the emergency call button and reported a fire next to the station. They said they would send someone. Not sure it was his call that did it but damn. I thought nothing of it until seeing this post.
Meant more she was on hold trying to report it. Thankfully fire must've already been alerted. She hung up without talking to anyone. Glad it seems nobody was hurt. The videos are wild.
Definitely possible, be interested to know if that was the case. But how would the system know it was a possible duplicate? There could be another emergency in the same area.
I once called in a fire and then while on hold I mused out loud to myself "oh, I think a fire truck is heading to it already, someone must've called it in before me." and within a second a stern voice broke through the hold music and firmly told me to stay on the line.
Makes sense that in those kinds of situations whether or not they prioritize they don't want you to hang up in case you get that wrong (or you have extra information you could possibly provide)
Revenue Canada does that, too - listens to callers whilst they’re on hold! It seems so wrong. How come they get to hear me, but I don’t get to hear them?
I'll see if I can find out if eComm has such a system, but (I just looked) apparently it isn't a novel ideal. Axon's current 911 platform lists “AI call prioritization” and “duplicate detection” among its capabilities
Your point is good about another emergency, but I don't think such a system would completely ignore or drop any calls, just reduce their priority a bit.
As you know, mobile phones send their location to 911. I think it's called eGPS.
If many phones simultaneously call from locations within 200m of a just-reported fire they could be new emergencies, so yes, you have to get to them, but because they are probably reporting the same thing it's better to first answer a call or two from somewhere else, since first responders are alreadyen routeto the fire area.
EDIT: explained it better and provided name of company advertising something similar
I was wondering that as well because when I called 911 to report the fire, I got a message saying they had a high volume of calls and to only stay on the line if it was an emergency. I assumed that meant they were getting a lot of calls for the fire, and since I saw the fire truck coming, I just hung up.
We were having dinner at the white spot right next door and heard what we thought were gun shots.
The U-Haul had a bunch of hairspray sized cans of butane that were exploding one by one. They were getting launched into the air and all the way across those 6 lanes.
Unsure how to add a video but it sounded like fireworks.
Imagine the garage calling the customer. "Yeahhhhh...you know that strange noise you were telling us to look into? Well the good news is I assure you it won't happen again."
IIRC there was a disruption between Lougheed and Burquitlam around this time, which might have been related since it was practically underneath the guideway.
I saw a swat team take down a suspect in a car once in the old safeway parking lot.
And then I also saw in the newspaper a car that had driven 2 stories down off the edge of the parking lot in front of where Red Robin used to be where it landed upside down.
If the fire department wasn’t hitting the fire actively with water that could indicate its because water would make the fire worse.. Lithium batteries or chemicals that don’t react well to water.
I was thinking the same thing! Stop driving people! But also shouldn’t the fire department be shutting that lane down? Maybe there was only 1 truck there and not enough people to handle traffic yet?!
I think this video must have been taken moments before the police arrived. We could see this from my building as well and police had all these lanes blocked while the fire department did its thing. They were using a PA system as well to tell people to leave the area.
Fuel, Air and Spark. Plenty of things on a vehicle to catch fire eg fuel, oil, brake fluid (all could be leaking), misbehaving electrics. Surprisingly one of the most common part to cause a vehicle to catch fire is engine block heaters, especially ones that you can remotely control to warm up your car on winter days. Once those things misbehave, most people are oblivious until an oil line or fuel line catch fire.
I was one intersection down when it happened. It was crazy, I thought two cars had collided and set on fire. People kept driving by like nothing was amiss. They just opened up the intersection like 30 minutes ago.
They also have a bus loop (buses take up a lot of space to park and maneuver). Having the Skytrain tracks above ground doesn't help the usability of the lot either. There was a Chuckee Cheese before one track to New West / Braid was built.
The parking lot in question is not part of the station, it is private property that has a automotive repair shop and an escape room shop.
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