Father and son die in blast making firecrackers at home

A father and his two sons were making firecrackers in a warehouse at their home in southern Styria on Monday evening. 

Just after the eldest son, 33, left and returned to the house, an explosion destroyed the warehouse, killing his brother and their father.

According to the Austrian news website, Kleine Zeitung (in German), the warehouse, located next to the family home in Kapfenstein, was completely destroyed.  The father, 57-year-old Josef F. and 28-year-old Bernhard were most likely killed instantly.

Wiener Zeitung reports (in German) that according to police the explosion could be heard a kilometer away and the warehouse reduced to "just dust and ashes."  Police are still endeavoring to recover the remains.

The man's 55-year-old wife and her surviving son are in shock and were uninjured by the blast. A neighboring house was apparently also badly damaged by the explosion and according to the local fire service, other neighbors phoned in to say their windows had been broken by the blast.

According to neighbors, the father and his sons often experimented with explosives, and they were used to hearing loud bangs coming from the property.


Photo: Firecrackers CC by-SA G36

Mexican state oil company HQ explosion - 32 dead, 121 injured

An explosion rocked the high-rise headquarters of Pemex, a state-owned oil company in Mexico City on Thursday. At least 32 people were killed and around 121 people have been injured.

Mexico's Foro TV reported details of the blast and that the Red Cross are urgently seeking blood donors to help the injured. The blast is thought to be the result of a gas buildup in the building's basement.

President Enrique Peña Nieto directed the rescue effort from inside the building in Mexico City and said, "The priority at this time is to attend to the injured and to safeguard the physical integrity of those who work [at the site]."

Shortly after the blast, the building was evacuated with the help of police, city rescue crews and Mexican Army personnel. Initially there were reports that people were trapped in the building after the explosion, but the claim was soon dismissed by the country's interior ministry.

The Government has reportedly taken tentative control of the building's administration in the aftermath of the explosion. The President's office tweeted that many of those injured were taken to Pemex Central Hospital.

Shortly after the explosion, President Nieto vowed to discover the cause of the disaster.

"We will work exhaustively to investigate exactly what took place, and if there are people responsible, to apply the force of the law on them," he told the media before visiting survivors in hospital.

María Concepción Andrade, 42, a resident on the same block as the Pemex building, told the media, "We were talking and all of sudden we heard an explosion with white smoke and glass falling from the windows."

"People started running from the building covered in dust. A lot of pieces were flying," she added. Gabriela Espinoza, 50, a Pemex secretary for 29 years, was reportedly working on the second floor of the building when she heard two loud explosions and a third smaller one. "There was a very loud roar. It was very ugly," she said.

Reuters is reporting that Pemex had confirmed the explosion and had claimed that they have had electricity problems. Images and local news broadcasts from the scene showed people being carried out on stretchers, with smoke billowing from the base of the building.

 According to a government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, preliminary investigations are pointing to a gas boiler explosion. However, he stressed that nothing had been confirmed as certain. 

To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/342609

Highway collapses after fireworks truck blast in China, 6 killed

At least six people have been killed and several injured after a fireworks truck exploded, causing a section of a highway to collapse in China’s central Henan province

The truck, heavily laden with fireworks, exploded on an elevated highway on the G30 expressway near Sanmenxia, to the east of Xi'an in China's Henan province. The G30 is apparently the country's longest road.

The force of the explosion sent six vehicles plummeting off the highway into a ravine 30 meters below. Survivors are being retrieved by emergency teams.

Initially, Chinese radio put the number of dead at 26, but this has since been removed from their websites. 11 injured people were rushed to two nearby hospitals, three of whom have died. 

Citing local officials, Chinese state news said that the explosion happened at 8:52am local time (00:52 GMT) and that it has destroyed an 80-meter section of the road. Xinhua is reporting that the Ministry of Public Security has sent a team to the blast site to establish the cause of the explosion. 

In the run up to the Chinese New Year, happening on February 10, accidents involving fireworks are relatively commonplace. Due to public demand, large quantities of fireworks are transported throughout China, often under unsafe conditions.  Apparently in 2006, a fireworks storeroom exploded in Henan province, killing 36 people. 

Chinese road safely has recently been under discussion as the government apparently delayed plans to introduce harsher punishments. The public has been complaining about traffic violations, as fatal road accidents are quite common in China, with over 60,000 people dying on the roads in 2011 in accidents largely attributed to lax safety regulations.

Regarding firework related accidents, the Chinese government reportedly outlawed fireworks from 1993 to 2005, but ultimately lifted the ban due to intense public pressure.

To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/342615

Massive sewer explosion destroys road in China

One advantage of being under constant surveillance by CCTV cameras is the amazing array of videos that are produced for the media. In this one, a sewer explodes massively, but luckily with no injuries.

It happened in downtown Beihai in the Guangxi Zhuang region of southern China. As we can see on the video, a sewer explosion tore through an 80-meter section of road, shaking the surrounding area, but fortunately caused no injuries.

Apparently the underground sewer tunnel contains natural gas pipelines and high-voltage cables. Initial investigations into the explosion showed that waste pipelines and a cable junction in the sewer were completely destroyed.

However, natural gas pipelines were apparently undamaged. The local gas company shut down the gas supply in the areas around the accident site, just in case.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/342013

Explosion and fire on Oil Rig in Gulf of Mexico (video) - Breaking News

Reports have surfaced that an explosion has occurred at an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Two people have died from the fire, four are injured and two are current missing.

The explosion and ensuing fire was reported by KHOU television in Houston, who supplied the video footage of the oil rig spewing smoke above.

The United States Coast Guard has confirmed that an offshore platform is on fire and that they are investigating the incident. 

According to parish officials, the rig is not drilling at a deepwater site, as with the Macondo well that blew out in 2010.The blowout in 2010 led to the worse offshore spill in US history and killed 11 workers.

 

Jefferson Parish Councilman Chris Roberts told WWL-TV that the platform is a shallow water platform in the Gulf of Mexico.The platform is in West Cote Blanche Bay, south of New Iberia on the south-central Louisiana coast.

Kirk Trascher, spokesman for Black Elk Energy in Houston said that the four injured workers have been air-lifted to a hospital in Jefferson Parish, La.

Initial reports are that maintenance workers were cutting into a pipe and that oil may have escaped, causing the explosion.

“We cannot confirm or deny anything at this time, but we are assembling an incident command team right now,” Trascher said.

There have currently been no reports of oil spilled in the Gulf and according to the Twitter account of KHOU television, the fire has been successfully extinguished.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/337019#ixzz2CPGo043b

At least 14 dead from huge oil tanker explosion in Saudi Arabia

At least 14 people are dead and around 60 more were injured when an oil tanker exploded east of the capital Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. 

The oil truck tanker is reported to have exploded in a traffic accident under a concrete flyover east of Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. 

 Al Arabiya correspondent Khalid al-Matrafi reported that the blast occurred near one of the capital city's transport arteries, at a junction on Khurays Road, damaging neighboring cars and houses in the explosion.  

It is feared that the death toll could rise as it took several hours for firefighters to extinguish the blaze. Columns of smoke were seen rising from the area. 

 Speaking on condition of anonymity, as they are not authorized to speak to the media, civil defense officials said that, based on witness accounts, there was no immediate suspicion of terrorist links.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/335938#ixzz2AxdjUS4J