There appears to be some degree of interest in the explosion that occurred at Holton Heath in 1931. I am, at present, researching this topic and present this précis account of that fateful day. There exist varying accounts of what led up to the fateful occurrence of that day but using the various source material I have at my disposal the sequence of events seems to be this. The morning of June 23rd 1931, we are told, was bright and sunny; spirits were high as people prepared for a carnival that was rapidly approaching. The relief morning shift arrived at the AB house and were informed that one batch of NG had been processed. There were 2 nitrator/separators in AB and certainly one of these contained spent acid, the NG having already been run off to the pre-washer. The other, as it transpired still retained its NG awaiting the pumping of more acid to rise it up and transfer to the pre-washer. This would have been checked by the Hill Man on a gantry which ran atop the nitrators. He then moved down and opened up and earthenware stopcock which would allow the spent acid to travel to the Kestner elevator (egg) and hence to be manipulated and probably re-used for another charge. It is probable that he also began running acid into the other nitrator to send the NG to be washed. However, upon his return to the gantry, to his horror he found one nitrator still full of ident acid and the other empty. The realisation was he had emptied the wrong nitrator and had inadvertently sent a charge of NG to the egg. This was highly dangerous having the highly volatile NG in an area it should not be in. The duty foreman, the duty chemist and the superintendent were informed and duly arrived at the AB house. It was decided that the NG charge be moved from the egg via the pipelines to the charge house and hence back to the nitrator/separator to be then processed correctly. This was extremely hazardous since it required a highly organised and choreographed opening and closing of valves. Moreover, this could not be achieved gravitationally but required the mixture to be moved by the use of compressed air. A man was placed on a gantry between the AB house and charge house and using hand signals was to ensure the smooth transfer of the NG/acid mix to the nitrator. This process had been underway for about 10 minutes and was certainly almost complete when, at 10.43 there occurred a tumultuous explosion. The force of this blew apart the charge house but, worse still, set up a chain reaction along the pipes to the AB house (these retained residual NG). Subsequently the AB house disintegrated in a violent explosion. Since the day was still this threw a mass of debris into the air (there are reports that this was so violent that this debris remained airborne for several minutes before falling back to earth). The conflagration continued along guttering and subsequently blew apart the associated wash house. In all, the 10 men (including the chief chemist) who were overseeing the transfer process were killed instantaneously; a further 19 suffered a variety of injuries. What exactly caused the NG to ignite is not known but it could have been the fact that the last dregs of acid/NG went too fast and collided with a cold iron container causing the volatile NG to ignite.
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 07:22:53 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015