Just for interest, let's bet on the cause of this explosion in Burnaby School

[bossi]

Okay - in the absence of any evidence, let's assume this was a gas leak ... or was it?
Conspiracy theorists, unite!!!
(don't worry - if this thread sucks, I'll put it out of its' misery quickly.      MB)


Explosion rocks B.C. technical campus, collapsing roof, injuring five
By STEVE MERTL
   
BURNABY, B.C. (CP) - An explosion rocked the B.C. Institute of Technology campus in this Vancouver suburb on Tuesday, caving in the roof of one building and sending glass from nearby windows flying.

Five people were injured after getting hit with shards of glass, an RCMP spokesman said.

No one was seriously injured.

"We heard an explosion and felt the ground shake while we were attending class," said Amanda Collinge, a broadcast student.

"It was a loud boom. It sounded like a really big door closing.

"The whole classroom shook for a couple of seconds and everyone thought it was a door closing or a minor earthquake."

She said an ambulance was on the scene quickly.

RCMP said the blast took place in a plumbing building. Collinge said water could be seen spraying out of the building.

The skylights of nearby buildings were blown out and large bits of twisted metal were scattered around the area.

The explosion took place about 2 p.m. in a small outbuilding housing the campus technology centre boiler, said Paul Morrison, associate dean of mechanical engineering.

"I've heard it's no longer standing," he said. "It's surrounded by buildings. (The explosion) would have been contained."

Police said the building was totally levelled. There were no students in the building, although somewhere between 7,000 and 8,000 were on campus at the time.

David Bernard, head of public affairs at the school, said counsellors will be on campus Wednesday for students who were nearby when the explosion occurred.

The gas and electricity were cut off at the campus and fire officials are investigating, but the cause of the explosion is not yet known, said Bernard.

"We only know there was an explosion. We do not know the source of the explosion."

Bernard said there may be some minor disruption to classes Wednesday.

 

[Spr.Earl]

Just on the news now,it was the boiler used for teaching Stationary Engineers that blew up.
The boiler room is levelled!

After some thought why did not the safeties blow?

Where they gagged?(tied down)done when you do a hydrostatic pressure test on a boiler to 1.5 times the operating pressure to test the boiler vessel for leaks and they forgot to remove the gags?

 

[kaspacanada]

Disgruntled student fights back. :threat:

Didn‘t like the water that came out of the fountain?
Toilet wouldn‘t flush?
Didn‘t wan‘t to write his exam?
Angry about his engineering grades?
Sexually frustrated, wanted to ‘blow‘ his load?

I think this could be a case of ‘someone throwing the pin and dropping the grenade.‘

 

[muskrat89]

That‘s interesting. Earl - I was a Boiler Engineer here in civvie land. Like you said the safetiES (plural) would have had to fail. Not sure about BC, but in Maine, we had to test the function of all the safety valves, sight glasses, blowdown valves - everything - each shift!

 

[mattoigta]

Conspiracy theory you say - I blame the Khadrs

 

[stukirkpatrick]

I agree with the disgruntled student about exams theory...

...It would suck to be some sort of cooking professor with angry students at a college somewhere

 

[Korus]

Didn‘t wan‘t to write his exam?
Angry about his engineering grades?
Sexually frustrated, wanted to ‘blow‘ his load?

You just described my life...

 

[kaspacanada]

lol, sorry.

I should make a correction to that post, I assumed it was a single male person. It might have been a group of disgruntled students or a single female.

(SHARP catching up with me????)

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Just to make it interesting, the DFO/CCG/EC office that I work in had a bomb threat the same day and another yesterday, where they found a package, although we think based on incidents that it is a disgruntled employee. Also there were threats made this weekend to my office. A new gang of five?

 

[Spr.Earl]

Originally posted by muskrat89:
[qb] That‘s interesting. Earl - I was a Boiler Engineer here in civvie land. Like you said the safetiES (plural) would have had to fail. Not sure about BC, but in Maine, we had to test the function of all the safety valves, sight glasses, blowdown valves - everything - each shift! [/qb]

Same with my job,blow down the glass‘,test the low level alarm‘s and shutoff every 4hrs.
Another thought was did she just boil away and the water p/p‘s fail but there again the low level cut offs should have cut in shutting the boiler down.