Evacuations in Knoxville-Explosives???

[AuEagle]

 

[Erik88]

Yes we got the push notification to our phones yesterday and we're not even close to the evac zone. And the notification came over an hour late. Nice job government 

 

[Hozzie]

36 minutes ago, Erik88 said:

Yes we got the push notification to our phones yesterday and we're not even close to the evac zone. And the notification came over an hour late. Nice job government 

 

Being involved in how this works this is an easy misconception.   It’s harder than you think to target exact phones in a situation like this and it isn’t necessarily a representation of when the agency actually activated the notice to when you received it.  That doesn’t even take into account hardwired phones and where and how to get that data.   

Edited October 11 by Hozzie

[Erik88]

Update from KPD

 

UPDATE: Earlier this morning, an explosive ordnance robot was deployed to get a sample of the suspected explosives found inside of a box at CMC Recycling on Thursday afternoon.

The sample tested positive for ammonium nitrate, as confirmed by lab scientists at Quantico, which is consistent with dynamite.

Currently, Bomb Squad technicians are actively working to remove the dynamite from the box and safely dispose of it. In order to dispose of dynamite, technicians will methodically remove it from the box, douse the dynamite in diesel fuel, and burn it.  

Those efforts are being supported by the Knox County Sheriff’s Office and Metro Nashville Police Department Bomb Squads, including advanced MNPD robotic equipment. 

It was initially reported that the box contained around 200 sticks of dynamite. Technicians have not yet verified how many pieces of dynamite are in the box.

There is no evidence to suggest that the box was left on the site maliciously or with criminal intent. CMC Recycling is a metal recycling facility that purchases material to be salvaged. The box, which was locked and unmarked, was on the site for at least several days. On Thursday, CMC Recycling was using a torch to salvage the box when they unintentionally set the box on fire and discovered the dynamite. 

The box is no longer smoldering or emitting smoke. 

The evacuation zone will remain in place until Bomb Squad technicians have completely disposed of the contents of the box and it is deemed safe to return to the area.

That work is expected to continue into tonight and potentially into tomorrow morning.

[i1afli]

Why would somebody throw a box full of dynamite into a scrap pile for recycling?  And what does dynamite do when doused with diesel fuel and burned…does it just burn like firewood?

Edited October 11 by i1afli

[Sleep profit]

Some of those homes are pretty old could it be a left over of days when dynamite was used to get rid of stumps and clear fields. Put up then someone found it did not know how to get rid of it  this is just a theory. As I don’t know 

[Handsome Rob]

5 minutes ago, i1afli said:

Why would somebody throw a box full of dynamite into a scrap pile for recycling?  And what does dynamite do when doused with diesel fuel and burned…does it just burn like firewood?

DO NOT GOOGLE "what happens when you mix Ammonium Nitrate & diesel"

And don't mention sugar for a couple of days. 

You'll end up on a list..... 

[Handsome Rob]

2 hours ago, Erik88 said:

CMC Recycling was using a torch to salvage the box when they unintentionally set the box on fire and discovered the dynamite. 

The box is no longer smoldering or emitting smoke. 

I bet the poor barstard that was using the torch is still emitting smoke though. 

Jeez. Imagine how it must've felt when the box popped open.....

[leroy]

1 hour ago, i1afli said:

Why would somebody throw a box full of dynamite into a scrap pile for recycling?  And what does dynamite do when doused with diesel fuel and burned…does it just burn like firewood?

I can help y'all with this...

First a bit of background; about 60 years or so ago, dynamite was a normal staple for construction guys, farmers, loggers most everywhere. 

Ya could buy dynamite at the hardware store a long with fuses n caps. 

When I wuz a young boy and early teen, a friend of mine's dad regularly kept a case or two of dynamite around to break rocks and shoot stumps as needed in his small excavating business.

One of my first jobs was drilling and helping to shoot rocky excavations for a small road building contractor.  That was in the mid sixties.  We had portable " magazines " not unlike the one described in the article.

We kept the dynamite and caps separate, but the dynamite was almost always housed in a steel box magazine which sounds exactly like what the squalling is about. 

I've handled and played with dynamite lotsa times as both a boy and worked with it as a young man in the construction trade.

I'ma thinkin someone found an old " magazine " and brought it to the recycle center.  I'ma also guessin the " owners " are long since gone home to their reward and are resting from their earthly labors, abandoning their magazine.

That said, dynamite is not particularly dangerous when not struck directly ( as with a sledge hammer )  or shocked with a blasting cap.  I've dropped a many a stick of 3 1/2 inch diameter " powder " as we called it down 30 or 40 foot blast holes in rock and I'm still here. 

Dynamite will burn if split open like a hot dog( that's how we used ta get rid of old dynamite ). 

Dynamite generally deteriorates by " sweating " out droplets of nitroglycerin.  If stored in a cool place, it never goes bad.  The " sweating "  makes the dynamite more sensitive because the nitro is separating from the filler materials.  That can be dangerous, but is manageable.

All the hand wringing about dynamite and prilled ( diesel fuel mixed ) ammonium nitrate and the " chain of custody and licensing of explosives " came, as I remember, from the Terrorist/ Kansas City bombing incident. 

Dynamite n prilled ammonium nitrate now can only be handled by " licensed " and certified blasting contractors with a requirement of 100 percent traceability for the explosives.  It wasn't always that way though.

blasting leroy..

One time " powder monkey "... Now retired... With all my digits n appendages.

Edited October 11 by leroy

[Alleycat72]

1 hour ago, i1afli said:

Why would somebody throw a box full of dynamite into a scrap pile for recycling?  And what does dynamite do when doused with diesel fuel and burned…does it just burn like firewood?

We had a live artillery shell on the ground once. Guy in the military wanted to take it home and got scared. Put it in the scrap bin for recycling. It ended up falling out. LOL

[Garufa]

@leroy Do you have any good stories from back in the dyn-o-mite days like old Jimmy Ferris?  

 

[FUJIMO]

[Erik88]

39 minutes ago, FUJIMO said:

Welcome back. You don't call, you don't write. We were worried. 

Suspicious timing on your part. You return the same time the dynamite is discovered....

[leroy]

Garufa...

I simply can't come up with a story as great as Ole Jimmy's..!  It's fantastic Brother...!!!

We did; however have a shot go bad right about half way between the crossover bridge to the UT AG campus and the light at 23 d street n Cumberland AVE  in the UT area about 1965 or so. 

We shot some boulders in a cut we were excavating to boulevard 23 d Street that were poorly covered. 

We broke a bunch of glass out of the old AG campus greenhouse and scared a poor gardener almost to death who was working  at one of the stately old houses that were about a block east of 23 d Street. 

We searched and notified everyone in the area about the blast in the neighborhood prior to setting it off and closing the road, but evidently the ole guy was forgotten by the lady he worked for. 

I'ma guessin he was asleep in a garden shed or small greenhouse right next to the excavation when the blast went off.

The blast evidently scared him so bad he ran home and we couldn't find him, nor could his employtress.

She panicked n swore we blew him up, and she was a retired city judge's wife; so we were concerned. 

We also cracked a bunch of window glass in her house from the shock wave of the blast. 

As the rocks rained down, a long with the dust; we were converged upon by Knoxville City Police, UT officials of various flavors, and the Trainmaster of the old L&N ( now CSX ) West Knoxville yard.

The Trainmaster was livid and wuz swearing horrible epithets and ordering us to get the " damned rocks off the track so he could run trains ".

At the same time, the Knoxville Police wanted to know " who the hell was in charge " so I fingered my ole boss who was the powderman in charge and the project superintendent. He had actually set the shot off. 

We were all severely threatened by everyone, called everything but a " Child of God ", our heritage was questioned,  and we were all  thoroughly cursed in the process of all this. 

I made myself scarce and went to cleaning rocks off the tracks. 

Mista John, the powderman and job superintendent, continued to catch hell hell from everybody; including our company owner and the insurance company that wrote our blasting insurance.  

We were all thoroughly threatened and told to clean this mess up, while our owner worked valiantly to keep us all from being lynched on the spot.   

The Gardner was found at his home about a week later, but he refused to come back to work for his last until we finished our project.

It wuz, indeed, a helluva sight.

" Powder monkey " leroy...

Now retired...

 

[MacGyver]

1 hour ago, Garufa said:

@leroy Do you have any good stories from back in the dyn-o-mite days like old Jimmy Ferris?  

 

Truly one of the greatest stories ever told.  

[Garufa]

13 minutes ago, MacGyver said:

Truly one of the greatest stories ever told.  

It really is.  Even if it’s been posted before  (by me at least once) it needs to be kept alive.

[FUJIMO]

9 hours ago, Erik88 said:

Welcome back. You don't call, you don't write. We were worried. 

Suspicious timing on your part. You return the same time the dynamite is discovered....

Well I don't have your address and I was only allowed that one phone call

[Erik88]

KPD posted some drone pictures. It's too bad we probably won't know where this came from. It might have been a cool story. 

 

 

[gregintenn]

18 hours ago, Garufa said:

It really is.  Even if it’s been posted before  (by me at least once) it needs to be kept alive.

He could sure tell it!