Prax Air in St. Louis (Exploads)

[Las Vegas Glass]

Wow, I turned on the news and they have footage of a Prax air Exploding in St. Louie. It looks bad. Check out the news and see if ya can get a visual. It was pretty awsome looking.

[Zed]

Dude, I'm watching that now, its huge... one explosion after another as dewars or whatever just keep blowin up.

If the fire gets over to the otherside and lights up some of those huge standing tanks, man that'll be big. The smaller tanks still shoot flames like 100 ft. up

Man, I hope this fire doesn't cause more regulation/fees to be added to the cost of tanks.

Everyone working at praxair got out okay according to the news, so thats good.

[somberbear]

Explosions estimated as high as 100 feet have been ripping through the Praxair Company site

full story (http://www.ksdk.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=81101)

[Julian]

Argh! I love giant explosions, but I hope nobody was hurt.
The oxy guys always told me about the dewars : "Oh yeah, this thing would take out the whole block! Hah ha!"

[homer]

all of the employees have been accounted for...thats good to know

Homer

[jeffbuchs]

man, it's crazy seeing a place that big go up in flames in real-time! I'm glad all the employees are accounted for

[PyroChixRock]

I'm wathing it on tv, fucking scary!

[Mark F]

Yeah I just saw that too. Wow, those explosions were nuts. Glad everyones okay

[Zed]

Did anyone else see the "spinners", K tanks where the valves have shot off rather then just having the tank explode, turning them into spinning rockets flying up in the air, looks like jumping jack fireworks. I've seen a few of these go this way, pretty intense.

[WORLD FAMOUS]

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?idq=/ff/story/0001/20050624/1804758213.htm

Fire, Explosion Rock St. Louis Gas Plant
By BETSY TAYLOR

ST. LOUIS (AP) - A blaze at an industrial plant sent huge fireballs shooting into the sky Friday afternoon and cast a towering cloud of black smoke over the area.

There were no immediate reports of any injuries and no word on the cause of the rapid-fire series of spectacular explosions at Praxair Distribution, which processes propane and other gases for industrial use.

Company spokeswoman Susan Szita Gore said she wasn't certain how many of the plant's 70 employees were there at the time of the explosions, but all employees were evacuated safely.

The explosions appeared to come from tanks outside the plant, and from the plant itself. Cars and trucks parked nearby caught fire.

Firefighters held back at first before trying to battle the blaze.

Homes and businesses were being evacuated in the mostly residential area south of downtown.

Angelita Deppe, 38, who works at a nearby United Parcel Service facility that was evacuated by police after the explosions began, said cylinders that had been blasted into the air landed on the ground.

The explosions sent flames more than 150 feet in the air. The fire and smoke could be seen for several miles.

The company is part of Praxair Inc. of Danbury, Conn. A spokesman had no immediate information on the fire.

The company's primary products are atmospheric gases such as oxygen, nitrogen, argon and rare gases, along with process and specialty gases like carbon dioxide, helium, hydrogen, semiconductor process gases and acetylene.

Leland Darrow, assistant area director of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration office in St. Louis, said he was not aware of any safety violations at the plant.

Mayor Francis Slay said the city was monitoring air at the site to make sure no hazardous materials were being released. ``So far we have not detected any,'' he said.