How "Inert" Salts Caused A Massive Detonation - BASF Oppau (1921)

BASF is one of the world's leading chemical producers. As such safety concerns are paramount, however, the history of the company is not without incident. The Oppau blast ranks as one of the largest accidental chemical explosions of all time.....
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[@theravenseye9443]

Re upload. Original version was set by YT to "Age Restricted" (?) No idea why.... So apologies if you have already seen this one.

[@BleachDemon99]

I’ll watch it again 👌🏼

[@MaverickHunterDaniel]

I knew I watched this one before sometime ago. Thanks for the reupload, KZbin is and will continue to be an anomaly.

[@nowinter7355]

It should be "Mischsalz", not Michsaltz. Misch means Mixed in German, while Mich means me. Trust me, I am german. BASF refers to the site as a mixed salt plant, so misch salz is the obvious translation. And, of course its Salz, not saltz, german for salt. Reading my lenghty explaination I realize how redundant my remark about being a german is. Sorry! But lenghty know-it-all explainations about questions that no one asked is what being a german is all about. So, most importantly, Thank you for your detailed Documentary about this disaster. And don't change a thing, Michsaltz sounds very occult, and not as profane as Mischsalz...

[@debbieellett9093]

I had never heard of this one. Thanks raven, you are awesome!

[@BIOHAZARDRUSGaming]

I had a feeling this looked familiar

[@zodarian6705]

Other KZbin creators take note! You don't have to put annoying music behind your videos to make them good. This guy is a perfect example. Thank you sir I appreciate it

[@marks1638]

During a chemistry class many years ago, one of the students mentioned the BASF Oppau disaster as several of her relatives were involved in it. One was killed working at the plant and several more in the houses in the town were injured, including a Great Aunt (at the time only about 7 or 8 years old) who had scars from facial injuries from flying glass from the house windows imploding. The chemistry teacher (a former Westinghouse Chemical Engineer) had done a paper on it for his master's thesis. He brought in his paper and we got to review and discuss it for our high school chemistry class. They (BASF) had combined equal parts of ammonium nitrates and ammonium sulfate to make it stable and safe (supposedly). The problem was decomposition, heat from the weight of tons of packed materials, and the fact ammonium-based chemicals draw in moisture which in turn changed the chemical composition of the combined chemicals into an unstable chemical mass (not quite pure ammonium nitrate or ammonium sulfate, but not safe either). That single warehouse that exploded had over 4,500 tons of the mix and not all of it exploded. The other warehouses (several were far larger) around the area had over 50,000 plus tons of the mix. If the entire warehouse area had been similarly unstable (not just that that one warehouse) the explosion would have been on order of magnitude somewhere between the first two atom bombs used in Japan combined (up to 50 kilotons versus 37 kilotons (for the two bombs) depending on how much of the ammonium nitrate/sulfate mix actually detonated). Oppau and BASF actually got off lucky that entire warehouse district didn't detonate.

[@alexmartin3143]

😬

[@m1t2a1]

That is very interesting.

[@johnknoefler]

Question: since it is to be used for fertilizer wouldn't something like calcium carbonate be a good additive to prevent it from becoming a huge block that's hard to move? And wouldn't calcium carbonate make it more stable? I'm really curious.

[@marks1638]

Don’t know as it’s been 45 years since that class and the ensuing discussion. Remember both chemicals compounds were fairly new at that time and not fully understood.

[@1ukjunglednbraver]

@@johnknoefler calcium carbonate would make the soil alkaline that could be a good thing or bad thing, the ammonium nitrate would still be hydroscopic and it would still form a block as for insensitivity I really couldn't tell you. like yeh it would work but mixes always find a way of separating like the same thing that happened in this case ultimately if anything can go wrong it will and their is only one way to find out over 20000 test blasts.

[@VideoDotGoogleDotCom]

BASF tells this story on their global site, which is admirable. Many companies hide or at least downplay their disasters or dark past if you check the ’history’ section on their site.

[@mikepalmer2219]

That is unusual. That makes have a bit more respect for them.

[@charlesburgoyne-probyn6044]

It takes courage to acknowledge but will gain appreciation and respect

[@XXSkunkWorksXX]

Germans are taught from a very early age to atone for their ancestral crimes - not so much in the sense of taking responsibility for their father's and grandfather's past but to not hide it, nor sweep it under the carpet. Reconciliation. I very much as an Englishman respect modern Germany in this respect.

[@charlesburgoyne-probyn6044]

@@XXSkunkWorksXX fair enough but there is a point where letting go is important it was Germany guilt tripping over ww2 in 2015 invited and foisted upon Europe masses of Muslims mainly males and wondered why it caused a problem. Don't worry of we get a cataclysmic ww3 we will forget about ww2 quite quickly

[@kotnapromke]

IG Farben скрывает свое прошлое. Например. Главный спонсор Гитлера. Производитель химического оружия Третьего Рейха. И газа Циклон-Б.

[@adamabele785]

I visited the BASF factory as a student decades ago. There is a street named "Trichterstraße" which references to the crater left by the incident, which was still visible for many years. They also told us the story. The incident was never forgotten. BASF is a company that takes environmental protection and worker protection serious to this day. I have seen the impressive waste water treatment and the rotary kilns for treatment of toxic waste. Despite its large scale, the factory does not produce substantially amounts of harmful pollution, dust, or fumes. Workers get regular health checks to prevent health risks.

[@No_Way_NO_WAY]

you can smell it though ^^ especially in Oppau. I also think i can smell it on the other Rhein side, but im not sure since there are more plants on my river side.

[@jens5906]

As a chemist working for a competing company it kind of hurts to admit that, but BASF would have been the morally more correct decision. They are of course not infallible, no chemical company is that, but they were and are very much ahead of everyone else when it comes to the environment.

[@herobrain8889]

@@jens5906 I can just agree, im living next to the BASF and my father is working there, producing Menthol, and the BASF is realy ahead for environment protection. They had used Catalytic conversters since the 60s, and are very nice to there Employes, Like my father was so suprised when he turned 55, the BASF just gave him 20 more Vacation days per year.

[@Urbicide]

BASF had a plant in Norwood, Ohio, USA, that blew up during the 1980s. It was no where near the size & scope of this plant, but there were fatalities. One girl told me that her father worked in plant maintenance & was there on the day the place blew up. He had gotten into an elevator just moments before the blast, & the metal body of the elevator car saved him although he was trapped & severely injured.

[@adamabele785]

@@No_Way_NO_WAY Some things smell, it does not mean the fumes are dangerous. Some amount of emission is not avoidable with todays technology.

[@jmowreader9555]

This was one of the first plants to install a Haber-Bosch reactor for the production of ammonia. Most places thought these were dangerous, and the US wouldn't allow one to be built here. When the Oppau Works blew up, American chemical experts were quick to blame the Haber-Bosch reactor for the blast. Shortly thereafter, it was discovered that one of the few buildings at Oppau that had NOT blown up was the one with the Haber-Bosch reactor in it. This led to these reactors being built in the US.

[@GarrettHypes]

This is so reminiscent of the PepCon explosion here in Las Vegas when they over stockpiled ammonium perchlorate (solid rocket fuel oxidizer) due to the shuttle disaster. I watched that blast live from 20 miles away. Never underestimate the oxidizer.

[@lunam7249]

both events + lebanon bierut 2021 all planned...by evil people

[@fbksfrank4]

“Everything is fine, until it isn’t” same thing electrician said about the big electrical panel next to my dishwasher in an oil camp in Alaska. He covered it with a plexiglass shield.

[@WeldinMike27]

You don't have a problem until you do.

[@murraystewartj]

I had never heard of this disaster. Germany, at the time, was one of the most advanced nations in chemical processes. But making stuff AND knowing how to store and move that stuff, as well as dealing with unintended consequences of things like chemical dust, are very different things. we humans have a short attention span, as Beiruit showed. To think that there may be other ticking time bombs of this sort out there with the capability to level huge swaths of cities shows that we haven't learned very much.

[@nigeldepledge3790]

Yes. Also, though, bear in mind that Germany was in social and political turmoil in that period, only settling down in the later 1920s. The German economy was crippled by the reparation payments demanded by the Treaty of Versailles, so any means of producing food - and of increasing the yield of crops - would have been held as massively important.

[@elliotkane4443]

What a load of bunk, Beirut was out and out corruption and incompetence, not 'humans having short attention span'. The lesson from this is that every safety rule and engineering proper practice is written in the blood of the men who went before.

[@joanhuffman2166]

Learning how not to do things is only done by doing things wrong, and then figuring out what you did wrong, then teaching others, and actually persuading others that you know what really happened and what was done wrong. Knowledge is costly

[@joanhuffman2166]

​@@elliotkane4443we humans vary considerably in how conscientiousness we are both as individuals and as societies (at least on average). It can be costly to live in a society with lower average consciousness.

[@vHindenburg]

I have heard of it before hand a few years ago, there was a section on the local radio station for that day in rememberance.

[@thejudgmentalcat]

I regret not paying attention in high school chemistry class 😫 You must be around my age, BASF gold/black 90min. tapes were the best and I paid good money for them. Back then if your car didn't have a cassette deck, you'd put one in (rural USA) Good times

[@cris_261]

BASF cassettes were pricey, so I went with the next best option: Memorex. I still have some of the mix tapes I made in the 80s and 90s packed away in a box.

[@-Jethro-]

Memorex, TDK, BASF, Sony were all pretty good. Anything but Realistic (from Radio Shack)!

[@JosieJOK]

Heh-memories of the 80s. I remember BASF as being on the more expensive side, too; I tended to use Memorex as well. I, too, have a pile of useless tapes from that era rotting away in my basement! 😂 Of course, I had no clue what the letters BASF actually stood for. I do remember there was some kind of BASF chemical facility in northern NJ, but I have no idea what it made, or even whether it’s still there.

[@zetectic7968]

I too remember the cassette & video tapes made by BSAF. It seems any fine powder has the ability to explode or catch fire even seemingly innocuous ones like sugar & flour. Thanks for the video & the reminder of this awful tragedy.

[@rosswhite-chinnery5725]

As my housemate found out a few years ago when she blew up the microwave with a frozen pastry!

[@zetectic7968]

@@rosswhite-chinnery5725 😱

[@dx1450]

When camping and after eating MRE's, I'd take the unused packet of coffee creamer, open it up, and throw it into the fire. It would always flame up.

[@billhale9740]

Don't forget fine saw dust never sweep it up into a dust pan and throw it into say a wood fire in a potbelly stove it will most likely go ca boom instead sweep it into a paper grocery bag and force the air out if it and roll it tight then place it into the stove. Let's not forget coal dust explosions either

[@trespire]

@@billhale9740 Fine metal dust has ben the cause of many explotions. Combustable iron dust being the most common.

[@grapeshot]

I remember when you could get a big thick pack of cassette tapes from that brand.

[@robertbruce7686]

But "is it safe" 😂?

[@user-vl5ye1sn3v]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/haWamnR_er5ofpo&pp=ygUZYmFzZiBjYXNzZXR0ZSBjb21tZXJjaWFsIA%3D%3D

[@thisissparta789789]

Good news from Chennai: The ammonium nitrate has been confiscated and the process to move it out of the port began as of August 2020.

[@seneca983]

I wonder if the Beirut explosion earlier the same year affect that decision.

[@HerrAirburst]

I think it is very interesting how many disasters from around this time have been forgotten. I'm not sure whether it is due to time, or just that these events seemed rather insignificant when compared with the loss of life due to WW1 and the Spanish Flu. Great coverage anyway, really love your content, mate!

[@thegeneralist7527]

Just like all the great wars, famines, and meteorological disasters of the past are forgotten.

[@mikepalmer2219]

That is a good pint about it being in the shadow of ww1 and the Spanish flu.

[@mrz80]

One that very few people I've encountered have heard of is Boston's Great Molasses Flood of 1919.

[@apseudonym]

the horrors persist but so do we

[@HenryLoenwind]

@@mikepalmer2219 Even the Spanish Flu was nearly forgotten like most of what happened between WWI and WWII until three years ago.

[@damonroberts7372]

Another explanation for why the ammonium nitrate / ammonium sulphate mix may not have been homogeneous, is if the hygroscopic ammonium nitrate had fully liquified at some point, and then re-crystallized where it pooled.

[@Hartford1992]

I always get excited when I get a notification that a new Raven's Eye video is uploaded, even if it's a re-upload. Keep up the great work!

[@frenchshark2000]

Exactly 80 years later (September 21st 2001) there was this huge ammo-nitrate explosion in Toulouse.

[@lunam7249]

high luciferian enjoy aniversaries

[@AConcernedCitizen420]

The Beirut explosion is the latest recorded. The Texas City explosion was another industrial disaster that was crazy. I heard of it while I was working on a ship on the Pasadena ship channel as we were passing by ground zero of the incident. They said the prop was found miles away.

[@TCFamas]

I worked as an IT contractor for BASF a few years ago and they take safety very seriously. Even as an contractor rolling out their new PCs I had to cross 2 meters in a hangar in order to access the office where one particular PC was and it was outside of production hours and for those 4 meters they outfitted me with security boots. I another plant where I needed to go into an production office in an explosive atmosphere setting same antistatic safety boots, helmet safety glasses and gloves all that for 2 flights of stairs... And I don't tell you when I got in a bit of trouble because I carried a pc down 3 stairs instead of taking the ramp up and then the elevator because I didn't had 3 points of contacts as I couldn't hold the handrail while carrying the pc... They really take that shit seriously!

[@robertopsahl2626]

As much as I am drawn to more modern disasters, your storytelling and attention to detail makes every one of them that you cover truly gripping. I'm a social studies teacher with a flair for the macabre, so I've learned about and used some of the incidents you've covered in my classes! I would love for you to take on the Collingwood School Fire of 1908 which happened here in the city I teach in. Truly a terrible tale that led to a lot of superstition in the community but also was instrumental in sweeping fire code regulation updates across the US.

[@reachandler3655]

Collingwood school fire was a devastating tragedy. I'm curious about the superstition you mentioned?

[@ItsJustLisa]

You should edit out the G. It’s Collinwood. But what’s the superstition? Personally, I wish KZbin had existed when I was teaching 6-8th grade, especially with all of the history content.

[@BudTheDrummer]

In the '80's I used alot of BASF and Memorex Metallic cassette tapes as they were superior in sound quality and my dual cassette deck with dual 1/4" mic inputs had a switch for Metallic tape. I also used 8mm tape in my Camcorder into the 2000's. In the '70's in Graphic Communications/Offset Lithography training, my chosen profession in Trade School, chemicals were donated by BASF, Kodak and 3M.

[@coloradostrong]

WOW! But you never learned the difference between the town of _Alot_ in India, and multiples of something called _a lot._

[@kayjay7585]

The explosion was in the same order of magnitude as Halifax or Beirut, about half as destructive as Hiroshima (10x yield ≈ 2x damage radius). I'm german and I never heard of it until I procrastinatingly was researching the Halifax explosion. That was a couple of months later Beirut happened. Really eery

[@Packless1]

...and in Tolouse (France) the same happened exactly 80 years to the day later...! 😱☹

[@kayjay7585]

@@Packless1 omg, just looked iz up. That's eery...

[@KuK137]

LOLwhat? Hiroshima was 20K of TNT equivalent. This was 0.5K (only 10% of material exploded, and I am being generous here because TNT is stronger explosive than unstable fertilizer, too). It was at least 50-100x smaller explosion, which should be obvious to you if you had any clue as factory buildings next to it were left standing...

[@josephvisnovsky1462]

Ammonium nitrate has a Relative Effectiveness ( R.E. ) of 0.32 compared to TNT. You cannot make a TNT assessment of AN unless you factor it's lower potential.

[@josephvisnovsky1462]

And saying that BASF, or even Halifax were half of Hiroshima is a gross misunderstanding. Sorry. Beirut was 2,750 tons of Nitropril™ ammonium nitrate. That's not equal to 2.75 kt of TNT, more like 880 tons of TNT or a generous 6% of Hiroshima

[@agranero6]

I worked at BASF in Brazil. There was a book commemorating some anniversary of the company (I can't remember it was 43 years ago), a beautiful coffee table book with more pictures than text, in there was pictures from office equipment (a beautiful mechanical calculator that made subtractions by adding complements so the number on the keys ran backwards in red for the subtraction, one group of 10 keys for each position) and there was a picture of the plant at Ludwigshawafen with the crater very similar to that one. I found interesting since companies tend to try to forget those incidents, but they acknowledge it as part of company history.

[@jameswebb4593]

This is one the greatest podcasts ever placed on Utube , extremely well done. I do have a personnel interest in BASF , as was fortunate enough to be a guest at Ludwigshafen in March 1996 . Shall never forget that date as the Dunblame shooting occurred the day I arrived. There is nothing like it in the UK , 8 km long and 1.5 km wide , 45000 employees of which 8000 were technicians . Two railway stations within the site , Alas the crash of 2007 reduced the workforce ans as is the norm , research techs are the first to go.. The seminar I attended was about Paper manufacture , guests from 30 countries from around the world , and all lectures were conducted in English , so I took some pride in that. Had a tour around the site on our last day , some wag said how come the allies didn't bomb the place to smithereens during the war . To which the reply was quite simply , you have seen how big it is .

[@s.a.3882]

Hi James. I suggest you research the huge chemical works ICI had in Teeside in the 1970's, which I believe at the time was one of the largest in Europe and occupied a site shared with BASF and other chemical manufacturers. It's hard to get good information these days. However, the site comprised multiple divisions of ICI and was essentially a single huge sprawling complex that ran from Redcar to Billingham and employed thousands.

[@notracefromraytraceinhisface]

3:00 i think its called "Mischsalz", because "michsaltz" isn't a word. It would make more sense. Misch = Mixture Salz = Salt Greetings from Germany and keep up your impressive videos. I'm always astonished by your quality and your research, especially how you present these stories.

[@spacecat85]

yeah, it should be Mischsalz. and agreed on the great quality and presentation of the stories!

[@tempus_fugit7366]

Don't forget the Pepcon blast in Henderson, Nevada in 1988. They were one of the primary producers of the solid rocket fuel used in the Space Shuttle. The Shuttle program was on hold at the time because of the Challenger disaster. Pepcon was continuing to produce and stockpile the primary component of the rocket fuel, ammonium perchlorate, which is nearly identical in most aspects and uses as ammonium nitrate but I believe is more powerful and expensive to produce. A fire began in an area where barrels were stored and it quickly spread and got out of hand. After several large blasts, the largest and most destructive one happened when over 1500 tons of AP detonated. The resulting shockwave damaged widows and buildings in neighboring Las Vegas. There is a video here on KZbin of the fire and blasts, it's incredible!

[@charlesburgoyne-probyn6044]

Interesting how one bad thing leads to another

[@mauricedavis2160]

Another excellent episode Raven's Eye, and I agree with your comments about it's bound to happen again, unfortunately!!!🙏😢❣️

[@loupgarou-dj3tm]

My first job after high school was in a small fertilizer mixing plant with a 250 ton silo for nitrate. As the level went down, someone had to climb down the ladder inside, stand on the contents, and knock big chunks off the wall with a sledgehammer, which often struck sparks off the concrete. Nobody said a word about it being dangerous.

[@qwopiretyu]

I work at an asphalt plant and it's a fucking environmental disaster waiting to happen. I hope to find work miles away as soon as possible (the wage is decent so I may end up a casualty)

[@worldcomicsreview354]

I remember a story about a farmer who had tons of something freeze halfway up a silo, so he went in with a big stick and started hitting it to dislodge it. FROM UNDERNEATH

[@coloradostrong]

@@qwopiretyu 🙋

[@CsibeBiGa]

Ammonium nitrate will not explode from sparks. It need very strong blast from an explosive material to blow up.

[@15kr]

@@CsibeBiGa Or a bad fire...

[@deeayenn]

Your commentary is excellent, as always. Thank you.

[@saragrant9749]

Very well done and detailed explanation of this disaster. A very hard lesson was learned through this, not because of negligence but through simply not knowing any better. Another problem suspected of causing the explosion was moisture that had gotten into the ammonium nitrate, changing its composition to something very explosive. I doubt we will ever know the real reason.

[@Wooargh]

How DARE you excuse this disaster. This could literally have been averted if HEALTH AND SAFETY were given enough power. Look at COVID. HEALTH AND SAFETY were given the power to close down ALL OF SOCIETY and the world was literally SAVED FROM THE PANDEMIC. HEALTH AND SAFETY needs to be EVERYWHERE AT ALL TIMES and if there's even the slightest chance of danger they need to have the power to ORDER ANYONE TO DO ANYTHING. DO AS YOU'RE TOLD.

[@saragrant9749]

@@Wooargh you seriously need to get a grip and grow up. The knowledge that was around at this time period- nearly 100 years ago- was minimal in comparison to today. You also need to gain at least a passing grasp on the fundamentals of the English language, considering your response contains the prose and syntax of a three year old. In terms of Covid 19, you clearly fail to comprehend the amount of ambiguous language spoken by the media and the CDC, the government and others. The level of misinformation- particularly as pertains to the toxic vaccine - that was hastily developed without an ounce of proper testing or research and subsequently forced on the population with no regard or concern for any consequences is staggering. The number of people who have received it and subsequently developed serious heart issues, nerve damage and neurological problems, mammary inflammation and more is despicable and completely unacceptable. When a woman goes in for a mammogram and is immediately asked if she’s received the covid vaccine due to the massive increase in inflammation seen in those who have, it should clue all into the dangers associated with it. When airline pilots are seeing a dramatic increase in heart issues after the vaccine- when none existed before- is yet another indication. You seem ignorant of all of this, only wanting to venomously spread your own misinformed agenda. Please return to the conversation after you have gained a more accurate, coherent and educated response to both subjects.

[@alanagnew3451]

@@Wooargh You're a troubled person, or just an outright robot. What sins did you commit that made you mad?

[@DaveC2729]

Another possible reason this may have happened is that as you mentioned, the ammonium nitrate is hygroscopic. The moisture attracted by the chemical may have caused leaching to occur, separating the components in some areas and resulting in some parts of the stored material having a more unstable mixture.

[@thomasneal9291]

that was my first thought. also: that sulfur being used for gunpowder may have lowed the amount in the mix and made it less stable.

[@heatherking8689]

Dude i absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE your channel.. I'm so addicted since i tried it few days ago and thats all it took im hooked

[@jeffrenman4146]

definitely got my thumbs up… Refreshingly honest especially the ending. Did a fantastic job of which more videos would be this clear

[@user-vd3lv9fw3c]

This was around the time my grandfather was born. So amazing to think about the disasters that happen when they were born. It’s just proof that stuff never really changes. People make bad mistakes no matter the time.

[@corrinaclark2910]

I love your videos and the way you present them.

[@ronsmith7739]

In the early 1970's in Galveston, Texas, there was a large wheat silo / silos and it blew up. It leveled the entire area and killed many people. Wheat dust can be very, very dangerous.

[@krautyvonlederhosen]

While wheat dust is quite dangerous, the Galveston/Texas City blast was caused by a ship loaded with ammonium nitrate which caught fire. The blast hurled an anchor from the ship near 3/4 of a mile away which is displayed where it fell to this day as one of the memorials.

[@ronsmith7739]

@@krautyvonlederhosen You are mistaken, it was in Texas City in 1947 when the ammonium nitrate that blew up. I am talking about the large wheat silo in the early 1970's in mid summer with hot and dry. Normal practice was to spray water inside the silos and keep them damp. The workers failed to do this when the silos were only partially full with dust every where. The wheat dust everywhere and any spark would blow up and did. Couple of weeks later I went down to see this and it was bad. Most of silos were blown down and never rebuilt it. This happened in the early 1970's in Galveston.

[@krautyvonlederhosen]

@@ronsmith7739 Ron, I didn’t read your comment thoroughly as is evidenced by the Texas City blast reference. You see, I have the big humility which unfortunately has gone the way of manners and normal behavior in this insane world we now occupy.

[@somedumbozzie1539]

Paper dust is just as dangerous when the Fairfax newsprint store went up in the 70's it tool six weeks to put it out, print rooms are as dangerous as a coal mine, lots of paper dust and hydrocarbon cleaning fluids.

[@NFS305]

@@krautyvonlederhosencould have just recognized your mistake but nope gatta take the opportunity to criticize society. Ugh.

[@russellnixon9981]

Fascinating storey of a subject I have not herd of, very well told and produced.

[@algorithminc.8850]

Great handling of the topic. Thanks much. Subscribed. Cheers.

[@Rosie-yt8nd]

interesting additional note: putting something into powder form *alone* can cause it to ignite, even if the substance itself usually doesnt burn. that's how you get flour explosions

[@ironmonkey1512]

Not ammonium nitrate it doesnt need air to burn

[@jonathanpeterson1984]

It’s crazy how dangerous “dust” can be.

[@mikepalmer2219]

I know it’s crazy. When I am using my woodworking tools I always spend a lot of time after making sure I shop vac all the saw dust because of the videos I have watched like this.

[@Reaktanzkreis]

@@mikepalmer2219 To vacuum saw dust with an ordinary vacuum cleaner can also be dangerous. Sparks from the commutator can easy ignite the dust. So happend in a wood work shop some years ago near my place, after the explosion the whole place burned to the ground. Suitable vacuums got motors without commutators, like induction Motors. Nowadays the dust will be collect, compressed to tiny bricks and sold as heating fuel.

[@fernandomarques5166]

Once a grain elevator/silo complex in my town exploded due to grain dust build up, they found a piece of the conveyor belt frame 5km away and concrete debris rained around as far as 2km away

[@nilo9456]

I'd read of this event years ago, but little to no details. Thank you for this video, it explained the explosion in fuller extant.

[@paulperry7091]

The most exciting moments of my childhood were "experimenting" with ammonium nitrate. I think it is possible that the hygroscopic nature of the nitrate may have led it to separate out and concentrate in some areas. Looking at old containers of some chemicals sometimes shows an efflorescence around the top of the bottle.

[@madmattdigs9518]

Definitely. A mix of salts like that, over time, with moisture and environmental conditions, and all the blasting… I’m sure there were sections of the mass that were recrystallized ammonium nitrate. No longer mixed with the sulphate salt. You’re talking about a huge mass. And only 10% of it detonated. It seems very probable that’s what happened.

[@darylcheshire1618]

In the ‘70 ammonium nitrate was sold as a freezing agent in ice boxes or Eskys. Adding water to ammonium nitrate in a plastic bag is an endothermic reaction and the instructions say when it is finished can be used as fertilizer.

[@madmattdigs9518]

@@darylcheshire1618 it still is used in instant cold packs here in the US. I have a couple right now in the first aid kit at work.

[@darylcheshire1618]

@@madmattdigs9518 Thanks, I don’t think you can buy it in Australia in the supermarket but it might be sold as a specialty ambulance kit. Also potassium nitrate could be obtained in the US as a tree stump remover but not in Australia. Everything is considered as a precursor to drug labs and has resulted in ignorant kneejerk reactions.

[@mrmaestrouk]

I’m surprised your still alive… after all it’s only the Flu

[@Shannon_Dobbs]

Child of the 80s right here, Brother. I still have some of those old BASF cassette tapes. Great video!

[@christophermerlot3366]

Ha! I had a few BASF mix tapes back in the day. Never knew what it stood for--thanks!

[@MichaelDisney]

Amazing channel. Thanks for your content.

[@TheAlchaemist]

This reminds me of the PEPCON ammonium perchlorate detonation in the 80s, the beauty of that event is that it is filmed, and you can see the expansion wave in the video.

[@gchampi2]

Respect due to BASF. They seem determined to remember this accident, and learn from it.

[@4drobertson]

Awesome vid as always!

[@dp-sr1fd]

Never heard of this. Excellent upload, well done.

[@Youcanttouchmyhandle]

RIP❤ Thank you The Ravens eye for covering these stories

[@markwilliams2620]

Yep had my walkman and BASF tapes. Now I have hearing loss. It was worth it.

[@dennis2376]

Thank you and have a great week.

[@MAZZI100]

Very interesting and frightening as always. I remeber the 5 1/4 Floppy Disks!. My best regards from Argentina!.

[@richardwebb9532]

In the right combinations, any type of "dust" and air can explode. In South Africa, we had a massive explosion at Modderfontein AECI in the early seventies, when I was about 10, they also produced fertiliser and explosives, 17 years later, I worked on that plant. 🇿🇦👍🍻

[@None-zc5vg]

A cat-litter factory blew up in England some seven years ago, killing four or five people, The likely cause was ignition of a dust/air mixture.

[@lewisdoherty7621]

If caking was a well known problem, it would seem the material would have been stored in storage areas which had dividers which could be peeled off creating columns of material which would fall and shatter.

[@pgtmr2713]

Did they have plastics back then? Bakelite? I don't think so.

[@vincentsutter1071]

@@pgtmr2713 why would assume that the dividers must be plastic????

[@deineroehre]

With the knowledge of hindsight it is always easy. There are so many accidents in the past where everyone in hindsight said:"Why didn't they think of that?" or "Why didn't they think this throught?"Even today there are so many - in hindsight - poor decisions being done.

[@jonathandevries2828]

subscribed, commented, liked...thanks man

[@derekstocker6661]

What an absolute tragedy, those dear Folks that knew probably absolutely nothing about the explosion and the families that lost people and also lost homes and businesses, pets and vehicles. The ending of the video about still masses of this stuff stored is frightening! Thanks for this heart-breaking but needs to be told, account.

[@johnwashburn7423]

Excellent video and I like your occasional editorializing. The nighttime photo of an explosion reminds me of one of the four “Goliath” (Prime Video) stories in which a worker was killed on a barge explosion; that barge being full of illegal military weapons.

[@GeneralThargor]

It probably wasn't meant to be funny, but I burst out laughing when you said they didn't make the chemical again for another forty years!

[@jake-ps3bq]

On July 19. 1990 in Cincinnati they were a explosion at a BASF plant. On that day I heard a very loud sound like how a train on the metal rails sound. I went outside to see a ball of fire and other stuff going up in the air over 100 feet. Then I was hit by a shock wave that about knocked me down. Then the heavy black smoke was chocking us. What was in it I don't know but were that building was the ground was so bad that they gave it away and now is blacktop over and is a parking lot.

[@markthomas9703]

Xavier sure bought up the entire area and who checks the tax records?

[@dinascharnhorst6590]

I appreciate your research and retelling of this forgotten disaster and especially appreciate your reminder that those workers of 102 years ago believed the material they were working with was stable. These materials also make me think of the Texas City explosions.

[@baksatibi]

Bhopal was a Union Carbide plant, how is it related to BASF?

[@dinascharnhorst6590]

@@baksatibi oh, dear. You are absolutely right. My error. Thank you.

[@hwd7]

Your dry British humour at the end made me burst out laughing. Greetings from Australia.

[@mikepalmer2219]

That is crazy to think that only a small percentage exploded. That whole area could of been vaporized.

[@patmcbride9853]

Sounds like the sugar factory dust explosion in Georgia in 2009. The actual ignition source was not determined, but was thought to be an overheated conveyor belt bearing.

[@5roundsrapid263]

There was also a deadly sugar mill explosion in Louisiana in the early ‘80s.

[@patmcbride9853]

@@5roundsrapid263 Sugar is too dangerous! Make it impossible to buy, like ammonium nitrate.

[@allangibson8494]

Any finely divided organic (or metallic) powder is flammable. Add air and they go boom. Flour mill explosions are quite frequent. Ammonium nitrate doesn’t need air. Add hydrocarbons and it’s high explosive. Add aluminium and it’s an impact sensitive explosive (look up “Tannerite”).

[@zaphodb777]

I bet it was 3 or 4 very equally spaced charges, that went off very simultaneously, and created a Mach stem, which can pretty much detonate anything that can detonate, even TATB.

[@grapeshot]

Those ruins look like this town in China where they were testing a rocket and it went astray and landed in the middle of the town blowing it to pieces.

[@hostrauer]

The Intelsat 708 disaster. The government of China claims that the village of Mayelin had been preemptively evacuated and only six people died. Yeah, right.

[@sixstringedthing]

But according to the CCP, the only casualties were two chickens and a small dog (I think the official figure was actually around 50 people, which is still a very obvious lie... a large part of the town was almost totally flattened by the blast).

[@Atsah]

This is the incident Qxir made a video on right? The worst part for me is the fact that that entire village just vanished over night. Imagine being a CCP soldier and having to work through the dark to erase an entire village of survivors, corpses and rocket fuel. I’m pretty sure that Launch site also used to be a nuclear test facility although I’m not sure. That’s was probably just nearby

[@SemourKlitz]

Excellent documentation & research into this story. I find it insanely hard to imagine with all those chemists employed at BASF none of them considered this new chemical caking agent as being a catalyist for igniting a catastrophic fire. I want to know how a company could destroy an entire town could still stay in business after such? Would like to know how that happened.

[@geraldhenrickson7472]

That was then, this is now. The first half of the 20th century has such spectacular mistakes as radioactive toothpaste for children and adults alike, as well as spraying entire towns with DDT for mosquito control. I will never forget the smell of DDT.

[@johnnyrats7083]

I subbed! Love your videos

[@steveshoemaker6347]

EXCELLENT VIDEO.....Thanks very much 👍 Shoe🇺🇸

[@TheSilmarillian]

Amazing watch indeed hello from Australia

[@herobrain8889]

5:18 : My Father is Working at the BASF, making menthol at "Tor 12" since the last 20 years he always says:"We have to at least blow at 4-6 times a year, when we blow up, then there will be now Ludwigshafen, Mannheim or Maxdorf (next village were i live)" at 5:18 this is the Picture in the Anniversary book from 2016. A co Worker from my father said: " HAHAHA, Our working place has been build exactly where the funnel from 1921 is" Many people even in germany dont know about the BASF, but when you live near it, it gives you another way to think about it.

[@herobrain8889]

Pss: The stuff that exploded in Beirut, was similar to the Oppau disaster, just a more modern mixture

[@andycampbell5491]

An interesting disaster similar to this was the "RAF Fauld explosion". Fortunately the explosion of an estimated 4000 tons of high explosives was below ground, but left a hole 30m deep and over 300m wide. Perhaps a documentary on this would be worth a go? There's quite and eerie feeling as you stand on the edge of the, very overgrown, crater.

[@patanouketgersiflet9486]

10 days after 9/11, parts of a factory near Toulouse went up. Given the climate at the time, some thought the blast was due to a terrorist attack. Nope. Just 300 tonnes of good old ammonium nitrate. Utter devastation. Storage conditions and handling were bad, you know, gotta save those nickels and dimes. Besides the dead, the chaos and the destruction, thousands upon thousands of people went deaf, completely or to some extent, due to the huge blast. Oh and Tianjin too, nice fireworks there.

[@marcokl1]

I live near Toulouse and I remember well

[@caleb1345]

Can't say enough how grateful I am, that we as humans, choose to preserve info, both the beautiful and ugly.

[@Mephistopholies]

Good show! The lesson we learned that taught us about ammonium weewa.

[@randylahey1232]

I love this channel

[@aptroed]

Well researched!

[@lanebrady9810]

So glad you brought this one back.

[@markfarminer5319]

Wow 😮 As a young lorry driver contracting to an engineering company back in 94,I was delivering the lads/welders gear to a BASF refinery in the UK. Seal sands in hartlepool. I think I've lad said there was syanide running through some pipes?? Scary shit. Have been to ICI at Middlesbrough and conoco,just glad I wasn't welding.

[@fk4515]

Interesting, I served in the US Air Force as a Munitions Maintenance Officer (4054B) in the mid 1980's. During one of the training blocks on safe storage we watched a documentary on the incident at Bien Ho'a Air Base during the Vietnam war. Seems the leadership at the Air Base got sloppy and neglected inter magazine distance and parked loaded and armed aircraft as densely as they could (easier security), one blew up and the explosion propagated down the flight line. We were told that that was the primary reason why our job hadn't been merged into the larger aircraft maintenance field. The regulation for storage and handling of explosives was AFR 127-100, there was a big bold face "inter magazine distance cannot be waived" statement in that one. Just before I got out they merged the Munitions and Aircraft maintenance career fields, so far they haven't had any major explosions but have lost or misplaced things that one simply shouldn't loose or misplace.

[@tech9auto223]

Ammonium nitrate is a fertilizer but when mixed with diesel is a low explosive it was a favoured weapon of the IRA they'd have 90% nitrate mix with 10% Semtex core as a kind of booster to ensure detonation of all the nitrate in fact it was exactly this that was used in the Canary wharf bomb in London

[@Rammstein0963.]

It was also the explosive of choice for navies like the USN to fire their big naval guns.

[@joshjones3408]

The voice an the way the video is narrated is perfect when you are working on sumthang an this video stop me in my tracks it got my attention 👍👍👍👍

[@lewiemcneely9143]

Look up the Chemical Safety Board/CSB and their findings on explosions about dust. ANY kind of dust. Good job, Raven

[@kuukeli]

thank you for the video

[@rayraycthree5784]

As a kid in Massachusetts, I knew BASF from their building a few miles from home that I rode my dirt bike by and from their oft broadcast commercial "We don't make things, we make things better".

[@TheHi-FiHour]

It is still to this day, the largest accidental explosion in 🇩🇪 history. And its also still the 4th largest accidental explosion in history.

[@darylb5564]

You could probably make a series out of all of their explosions. They had a big one in the town I grew up in

[@denverdanoreno]

Thank you sir, well-produced documentary. The Oklahoma City bombing took out a federal building is another example of ammonium nitrates power.

[@Epic_C]

I love how they built an entire city around the rebuilt plant. What could possibly go wrong again?

[@Wasper216]

They don’t make ammonium nitrate anymore and BASF is leaving Germany now anyway due to high energy and production costs.

[@richardcranium3579]

@@Wasper216High energy costs……hmmm…..Germany is the biggest solar energy production country in the world…… Seems as if their energy cost would be lowest. Hmmmmmm……..interesting. High cost energy with the highest “free” energy renewables. Yep. Confirms the scam.

[@maikelfeskens9322]

​@@Wasper216Most likely because germany made the dumb decision to close all nuclear plants. It makes every other form of energy pretty expensive

[@seneca983]

@@maikelfeskens9322 It's not just that. It's also that natural gas also became expensive. Natural gas isn't just used for energy but it's also used directly in many chemical processes.

[@stephenmanning1553]

Thank you, a great video. Many things in a fine powder form can explode. Maybe you could do a video on the "Birds" custard powder explosion?

[@BA-gn3qb]

BASF - We don't make explosions. We make explosions Better.

[@muhdiversity7409]

wow, 4500 tons of fertilizer exploding. Yikes, I'd want to be far, far, far away from that sucker. That explosion at the PEPCON plant that made space shuttle solid rocket fuel was probably a fraction of this blast.

[@detroid89]

It's a good thing the explosion took place in the smaller silo. I can't even begin to imagine the degree of devastation had the other silos been affected in the chain.

[@allangibson8494]

The two 1947 Texas City blasts were exactly that size (yes their were two - 12 hours apart). The largest of the 12 explosions on the Pepcon site had a 250ton equivalent TNT yield.

[@thomasandreasson9572]

WOW...i never heard of this accident!

[@TheMrHeave]

The reason was a new production process altering the combination of the mixture in the silo so the mixture wasnt stable anymore but no one realised that..

[@maaaslo81]

well narrated story. thank you for that. regarding the Beirut blast, the numbers are well known, owner of the stored material too. it was a case of gross negligence

[@wchougland1]

It was also very old material

[@mikepxg6406]

Interesting video.

[@disconnected22]

I remember BASF being on so many of my VHS tapes

[@davidgrisez]

This video brings up one of the big problems with the storage of large amounts of ammonium nitrate. It does not take much searching on the internet to find that there have been about 35 ammonium nitrate explosions over about the last 100 years. The largest recent ammonium nitrate explosion was in Beirut Lebanon.

[@nostromo4269]

Fascinating

[@ArchTeryx00]

I can easily imagine what would have happened if even part of 50 kilotons of AMN/AMS had gone up. You'd have gotten a blast bigger than the Halifax Harbour explosion, probably more akin to Hiroshima without the radioactive fallout. Considering how densely populated the area was, you'd have had a Hiroshima-like death toll as well. Frankfurt, for one, would have been flattened, and Oppau would have disappeared off the face of the Earth as well as every single man, woman, and child in it. As completely awful as this explosion was, the terrifying thing is that it could have been *orders of magnitude* worse. It's possible to inert ammonium nitrate better than you could a century ago, but the stuff will *never* be completely safe. And a lot of the cheaper governments and corporations don't bother with inerting it at all.

[@HenryLoenwind]

I think you're severely over-estimating Hiroshima. Had Little Boy exploded at Oppau, the blast wouldn't even have reached halfway to the city centres of Mannheim or Ludwigshafen. Frankfurt, 80 km away, would have been fine. It would take the largest nuclear bomb ever exploded to reach 2/3 of the way to Frankfurt with its heat wave (the blast only goes 1/4 of the way).

[@ArchTeryx00]

@@HenryLoenwind Yeah, I wasn't fully aware of the distances involved. Just keep in mind the Halifax explosion - which flattened everything within about 2.5 km and badly damaged buildings out to about 20 km. It was heard over 120 km away. And this was the equivlaent of about 2.5 kt of TNT. Now imagine an explosion up to 20 times bigger than that.

[@HenryLoenwind]

​@@ArchTeryx00 I only concentrated on nuclear explosions with that comment and I have already commented on chemical ones in another comment thread, so I'll keep this brief: There's some major difference between chemical and nuclear explosions in where the energy goes. Chemical ones put most of it into a blast wave as their mechanism is expanding gas. Nuclear ones primarily produce heat, which then creates a blast wave as a tertiary effect. Much of the energy goes into heat, sweeping the area first as light (visible and infrared), then comes a firestorm and only then a blast wave when the superheated material finally notices it needs more space than as a solid. And even that blast wave first wastes energy breaking the sound barrier. So yes, that 2.5 kt chemical explosion you cited had about the same blast radius as the 15 kt nuclear explosion at Hiroshima. Guesstimating from those numbers, a 50 kt explosion would have about the same blast radius I cited for that big nuclear explosion. Which would put me right at the edge of it, so please don't try it out ;) ;)

[@ArchTeryx00]

@@HenryLoenwind Very informative! Yeah, I hope NOBODY ever tries that particular experiment. The Beirut explosion was a modern-day version of this and it was more than bad enough. And until nuclear bombs, the Halifax explosion was the largest man-made explosion in history. It was especially deadly, even without radiation because it occurred in winter. If you survived the blast itself and ended up trapped in debris, you either burned in the firestorm or froze to death. It may have been non-nuclear but it was horrific on a scale barely comprehensible to this day.