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Louisville Sewer Explosions
On February 13, 1981, a series of explosions destroyed more than of sewer lines and streets in the center of Louisville in Kentucky, United States. The explosions resulted in extensive damage to property and infrastructure; there were no fatalities, but four people were injured. The blasts were caused by the ignition of hexane vapors which had been illegally discharged from a soybean processing plant owned by Ralston-Purina and located on Floyd Street. The plant had been a processing facility for cottonseed or soybeans since at least 1900. Repairs to the sewers and streets took about two years. Ralston-Purina paid $18 million to the Louisville Metropolitan Sewer District, about $9 million to about 17,000 plaintiffs in a lawsuit settled in 1984, $4 million to the city, and $2 million to affected members of the public that did not sue the company. The company admitted that it had released hexane into the sewers, but initially did not accept responsibility for t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Explosion
An explosion is a rapid expansion in volume associated with an extreme outward release of energy, usually with the generation of high temperatures and release of high-pressure gases. Supersonic explosions created by high explosives are known as detonations and travel through shock waves. Subsonic explosions are created by low explosives through a slower combustion process known as deflagration. Causes Explosions can occur in nature due to a large influx of energy. Most natural explosions arise from volcanic or stellar processes of various sorts. Explosive volcanic eruptions occur when magma rises from below, it has very dissolved gas in it. The reduction of pressure as the magma rises and causes the gas to bubble out of solution, resulting in a rapid increase in volume. Explosions also occur as a result of impact events and in phenomena such as hydrothermal explosions (also due to volcanic processes). Explosions can also occur outside of Earth in the universe in events su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ashland Oil
Ashland Global Specialty Chemicals Inc. is an American chemical company which operates in more than 100 countries. Headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, the company traces its roots back to the city of Ashland, Kentucky, where it was headquartered from 1924 to 1999. The company currently has five wholly owned divisions, which include Chemical Intermediates and Solvents, Composites, Industrial Specialties, Personal and Home Care, & Pharmaceuticals, Food and Beverage, and Agriculture. Until 2017, the company was the primary manufacturer of Valvoline. History Founding and early years Ashland was founded in 1924 as the Ashland Refining Company in Catlettsburg, Kentucky, by Paul G. Blazer. In October 1923, J. Fred Miles of the Swiss Oil Company of Lexington, Kentucky employed Paul G. Blazer and assigned him the task of locating, purchasing and operating a refinery in northeastern Kentucky. Blazer selected a location on the banks of the Big Sandy River approximately two miles s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1929 Ottawa Sewer Explosion
On May 29, 1929, a series of explosions in the sewers of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, killed one person. The first blast occurred just after noon in the Golden Triangle area, west of the canal; over the next 25 minutes, a series of explosions travelled the length of the main line of the sewer system. The explosions first moved east under the canal and then moved through Sandy Hill under Somerset Street. After passing under the Rideau River, they followed the line as it turned north through what is today Vanier, before going through New Edinburgh to the point where the sewer system emptied into the Ottawa River. The blasts were fairly small, except when manhole covers were involved. At these points, the access to oxygen fuelled towering flames that erupted through the manhole covers onto city streets. The covers themselves were blown high into the air. Most of the damage from the sewer explosions occurred where sewage lines were attached to less sturdy pipes inside houses; blasts des ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1992 Guadalajara Explosions
A series of ten explosions took place on April 22, 1992, in the downtown district of Analco Colonia Atlas in Guadalajara city, Jalisco state, Mexico. Numerous gasoline explosions in the sewer system and fires over four hours destroyed of streets. Gante Street was the most damaged. By the accounting of Lloyd's of London, the reported number of people killed was about 252, although many estimate that the catastrophe actually caused at least 1,000 deaths. About 500 to 600 people were missing, nearly 500 were injured and 15,000 were left homeless. The estimated monetary damage ranges between $300 million and $3 billion. The affected areas can be recognized by the more modern architecture in the areas that were destroyed. Four days before the explosion, residents started complaining of a strong gas-like smell coming from the sewers which became progressively more pungent over the course of those days. They were experiencing symptoms such as stinging in their eyes and throats; and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2014 Kaohsiung Gas Explosions
On 31 July 2014, a series of gas explosions occurred in the Cianjhen and Lingya districts of Kaohsiung, Taiwan, following reports of gas leaks earlier that night. Thirty-two people were killed and 321 people were injured. Event The explosions Eyewitnesses reported a smell of gas and white smoke coming out of manholes near Kaisyuan 3rd Road and Ersheng 1st Road in Cianjhen District on 31 July 2014 at 20:46, over three hours prior to the incident. The explosions occurred later at 23:57 on Yisin Road, Ersheng Road, Sanduo Road and Guanghua Road. Witnesses reported seeing fireballs soaring into the sky and flames reaching 15 stories high. The blasts ripped up roads, trapped and overturned cars and firetrucks, and caused a blackout to the electrical grid. About 6 km of road length were damaged. The explosions reportedly blew cars and motorcycles high up in the air; some vehicles and victims were found at the rooftops of buildings three or four stories high. One str ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Merrimack Valley Gas Explosions
On September 13, 2018, excessive pressure in natural gas lines owned by Columbia Gas of Massachusetts caused a series of explosions and fires to occur in as many as 40 homes, with over 80 individual fires, in the towns of Lawrence, Andover, and North Andover, all within the Merrimack Valley, in Massachusetts, United States. One person, Leonel Rondon, was killed and 30,000 were forced to evacuate their homes immediately. Background According to the NTSB's preliminary report, customers in the accident area received gas from a low-pressure (0.5 psi) distribution network which, in turn, was fed from a high-pressure (75 psi) main pipeline via regulators controlled by sensors measuring pressure in the low-pressure pipes. At the time of the accident, workers were replacing some of the low-pressure piping, but the procedure set out by Columbia Gas for doing this failed to include transfer of a regulator's pressure sensor from the old, disused piping to the new. As a result, when the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WDRB
WDRB (channel 41) is a television station in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Block Communications alongside Salem, Indiana–licensed dual CW/ MyNetworkTV affiliate WBKI (channel 58). Both stations share studios on West Muhammad Ali Boulevard (near US 150) in downtown Louisville, while WDRB's transmitter is located in rural northeastern Floyd County, Indiana (northeast of Floyds Knobs). History As an independent station The first construction permit for channel 41 in Louisville was issued in 1953 to Robert Rounsaville, owner of WLOU (1350 AM), Louisville's first Black-oriented radio station. The station, if built, would have been the first Black-oriented TV station in the country. However, the construction of WQXL-TV depended on the success of the first of three planned stations, Atlanta's WQXI-TV, which failed and left the air in 1955. The permit remained active for several more years; the call letters were changed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
University Of Louisville
The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public research university in Louisville, Kentucky. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one of the first universities chartered west of the Allegheny Mountains. The university is mandated by the Kentucky General Assembly to be a "Preeminent Metropolitan Research University". It enrolls students from 118 of 120 Kentucky counties, all 50 U.S. states, and 116 countries around the world. Louisville is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". The University of Louisville School of Medicine is touted for the first fully self-contained artificial heart transplant surgery, as well as the first successful hand transplantation in the United States. The University Hospital is also credited with the first civilian ambulance, the nation's first accident services, now known as an emergency department ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Interstate 65 In Kentucky
Interstate 65 (I-65) enters the US state of Kentucky from Tennessee, south of Franklin. It passes by the major cities of Bowling Green, Elizabethtown, and Louisville before exiting the state into Indiana. Route description Along its length in Kentucky, major attractions I-65 passes include the National Corvette Museum, Mammoth Cave National Park, Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest, and Fort Knox before entering the state's largest metropolitan area, Louisville. It has interchanges with three of the state's parkways. The first of these is with the Louie B. Nunn Cumberland Parkway north of Bowling Green between Smiths Grove and Park City. At Elizabethtown, it has two more parkway interchanges with the Wendell H. Ford Western Kentucky Parkway and the Martha Layne Collins Bluegrass Parkway. I-65 also has interchanges with I-165 (formerly the William H. Natcher Parkway) near Bowling Green, I-265, I-264, and a complex junction with I-64 and I-71 along the sou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Oil Chemists' Society
The American Oil Chemists' Society (AOCS) is an international professional organization based in Urbana, Illinois dedicated to providing the support network for those involved with the science and technology related to fats, oils, surfactants, and other related materials. Founded in 1909, AOCS has approximately 4,000 members in 90 countries who are active in a total of twelve divisions and six sections, of which only one of the sections is within the United States. History The AOCS was started in May 1909 under the name ''Society of Cotton Products Analysts'' as a group that promoted recommended methods for chemical processes focused on the cottonseed industry. In 1920, the name was changed to American Oil Chemists' Society.National Academy of Sciences - National Research Council (1961), ''Scientific and Technological Societies of the United States and Canada, 7th ed.; National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council, Washington D.C. In 1976, AOCS hosted the first Worl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Environmental Protection Agency
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it began operation on December 2, 1970, after Nixon signed an executive order. The order establishing the EPA was ratified by committee hearings in the House and Senate. The agency is led by its administrator, who is appointed by the president and approved by the Senate. The current administrator is Michael S. Regan. The EPA is not a Cabinet department, but the administrator is normally given cabinet rank. The EPA has its headquarters in Washington, D.C., regional offices for each of the agency's ten regions and 27 laboratories. The agency conducts environmental assessment, research, and education. It has the responsibility of maintaining and enforcing national standards under a variety of environmental laws, in consultation with sta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jefferson County, Kentucky
Jefferson County is located in the north central portion of the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 782,969. It is the most populous county in the commonwealth (with more than twice the population of second ranked Fayette County). Since a city-county merger in 2003, the county's territory, population and government have been coextensive with the city of Louisville, which also serves as county seat. The administrative entity created by this merger is the Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Government, abbreviated to Louisville Metro. Jefferson County is the anchor of the Louisville-Jefferson County, KY-IN Metropolitan Statistical Area, locally referred to as Kentuckiana. History Jefferson County—originally Jefferson County, Virginia—was established by the Virginia General Assembly in June 1780, when it abolished and partitioned Kentucky County into three counties: Fayette, Jefferson and Lincoln. Named for Thomas Jefferson, who was gover ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
