Ker freaking boom !!!

[Shannow]

We've got the luxury of having a 900m rifle range in town (The Small Arms Factory was established here in 1918), so the town is pretty used to loud noises and bumps in the night (50 cals fired from helicopters inside town limits etc).

Last night we heard the mother of all explosions. The curtains puffed in nearly a foot with closed windows - I need to do some sealing works for sure.

Thinking it was just another exercise at the Small Arms Factory, we dismissed it as big, and another taxpayer funded window replacement for those close to the Factory.

Wake up this morning, and find that Howard and Son's Pyrotechnics, a local fireworks company (did the work for the Sydney Olympics IIRC) went up last night.

http://www2.skynews.com.au/news/article.aspx?id=205660
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/12/09/2113566.htm?section=justin

The fireworks factory is nearly 20km away, and it still puffed our curtains.

I've two workmates whose properties back onto Howards. I'm sure that they'll have good stories on Monday.

 

[benjamming]

Good thing that no one was in the plant at the time or R.I.P.

Hmm. Fireworks not made in China. Can the public buy them? I think there is a law here that only made in China fireworks can be sold.

 

[Shannow]

Nope, public possession of fireworks was banned here a decade ago.

This is an industrial grade factory that produces the large celebratory fireworks...State Govt relocated them from Sydney, gave them a few big contracts, then let the next 5 years of New Years' Eve celebrations go to the Chinese.

It was a pain in the freckle when they came to town and before they got their security systems working properly.

Employees would steal some of the big stuff, and let it off in town (out the front of my place twice). You'd hear laughing, screeching tyres as they speed away, then kerblam the house would shake.

 

[Shannow]

Starting to look like a Darwin candidate at work.

It appears that there was a break-in, and someone was rummaging through containers of fireworks due to be shipped.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/12/09/2113597.htm?section=justin

 

[Gary Allan]

I watched a documentary done on fireworks manufacturing. It basically concluded that it was never a matter of IF ..but WHEN the explosion would occur.

My old supervisor, before being booted out of Solvents and sentenced to Waste Treatment (a hole for a bit until it turned into the best job in the plant), worked at a place called Foot Mineral. They had bunkers all over the place where you could duck into if something took off. Apparently the dust control wasn't so good and it would be common to see a chain of sparks arching across the ground ..until they (hopefully) ran out of material.

Anyway, the reason he came to C&K was that he was fired for blowing up a vessel. He apparently had his crew put water in it before he checked what was in there last. It was something that didn't like it ...blew the vessel up ..and he got fired. He was proud of the fact that there were no deaths on his watch.

 

[Shannow]

I saw one from ADI (Australian Defence Indstries, now Thales nowthat it's been sold) on what would have been the loneliest job in the world...a grenade assembler.

They each had their own concrete bunker, with a torturous concrete passage leading up to it. Components fed in through holes in the bunker wall.

 

[Silk]

I used to work close to a steel recycling mill,melting down scarp metal.Often there would be a loud explosion,like a quarry blast - the windows would all suck in and out,always expected them to shatter.I asked one of the workers what the explosions were one day - they were aerosol cans exploding.They used to toss an uncrushed can in sometimes for a bit of fun.These guys were all Pacific Islanders,and their arms and chests were white with scar tissue.

I went past the mill one night and the road was blocked,there had been a huge explosion that blew out the side of the building.It was an oxygen bottle that had gone into the vat.I doubt if anyone put that one in for a bit of fun!

 

[Pablo]

They showed the vid here....what a show!

 

[sprintman]

Definitely a break in but no word if any remains will be found. On TV they showed a house lifted off it's foundations and broken windows etc.

 

[Shannow]

Guy I work with had three windows smashed, two glass sliding doors smashed, some interior gyprock (drywall ??) smashed, and had his shed half blown down.

His neighbour was the one whose house will be bulldozed.