The explosion of a building in Villa Biarritz this Friday morning moved this neighborhood of Montevideo like few times.
How can such an explosion occur?
The national director of Firefighters, Ricardo Riaño, explained to Underlined (channel 10) that there was a gas leak “abundant and concentrated in more than one environment” and that, according to the expert team, There was not “just one explosion, but there were several chained together.”
“The first and then the others that were in environments with an abundant concentration of gas mixed with oxygen. With a suitable explosive atmosphere, that determined that there was not only a shock wave but that there was more than one, that’s why the great structural damage of that wave”, expressed Riano.
When asked why it is possible that no one has noticed such an abundant gas leak, the National Director of Firefighters pointed out that the gas has an odorant (product with a characteristic odor that is incorporated into a gas to facilitate the detection of leaks) and that there may be a “habituation of the organism by which people do not detect it”. “This habit often leads us to not determine that we are in a gassed environment,” he said.
However, Riaño maintained that although the gas concentrations “were not sufficient to determine intoxication”, mixed with oxygen they generate a “rich atmosphere” so that “any minimal ignition source” –such as a doorbell or the turning on of a light– can cause these consequences.
An engineer’s version
An environmental engineer specializing in these issues – who asked not to be identified because he does not have the elements to analyze the case – explained how a phenomenon of these characteristics happens and why it happens.
According to the expert, there was a exploitation from the inside out, which “means that inside there was an overpressure with respect to atmospheric pressure and that is why the windows exploded”. “It is a combustion with high temperatures and that is why you can also see what is burned,” he explained.
In what he called a “simplified diagram,” the engineer indicated that a loss of gas that expands over time in the nearby atmosphere makes it flammable and any spark can lead to ignition, which is what happened. “There was a violent expansion due to the high air temperatures inside the building, that makes the windows explode out and as the temperatures rise, you can see everything burned and the black walls,” he noted.
Diego Battiste
When asked if the explosion could have been due to a natural issue in the functioning of a house, the expert stated that it may have been someone who tried to turn on the gas in the kitchen and remarked that “something created the first spark”. “There is a mixture of fuel, gas, air and when there is that spark, which generates the first focus, that mass of fuel ignites, generating a high temperature, a strong expansion of the gas and, consequently, an outward rupture of the glass of the windows that are closed”, he pointed out.
Another of the explanations given by the engineer to The Observer is that if the gas is not in contact with oxygen it cannot be ignited but there always needs to be air. “It’s not that everything was filled with gas. There is some gas in an air mass that allows inflammation. Then, having ignited, the combustion temperatures rise, which makes the air expand violently due to the increase in temperature and that destroys the glass”, he explained.
