Savannah Sugar refinery explodes!!

[champ007]

Well it looks like my town made the National News with the sugar refinery exploding.
First I have to say the news media, even the local news is so vague its amazing.
This plant is about a mile from my house, and I actually drove past this plant about 5 minutes before it exploded. As soon as I walked through the door and hit the fridge my house shook for about 2 seconds. Within 5 minutes my phone rang notifying me about it and you could see the smoke coming from the place. What gets me is that around 9pm last night I knew there were about 17 to 20 people MIA. The news reported up until noon today that the count was at around six.... then at noon decided to give a more realistic number at 17. But mark my words there is more to this story than what is being reported. All I heard all night was helicopters and sirens, and the FBI came in swarms. There are 32 people they had to fly out to the burn unit in augusta ga who are in critical shape.... its really a terrible trajedy. For the religoius people on the site pray for their families, its going to be rough for alot of people around here.

[Mikekoz13]

Champ............ Those in Savannah that are and will be affected by this tragedy are in my daily prayers.........

[schro]

I hope the loss is as minimal as possible......

[GASlick]

I heard about this last night.  Up here in Griffin we get the Atlanta affiliates and something don't sound right.  It wasn't even the top story at the 11pm news.  You would figure 17 people killed would be a major story.  it was like "in other news, a sugar plant exploded in Savannah.  There are multiple fatalities.  Now a check on the weather." 

Really, it was just like that.  Champ, isn't that place close to the Savannah River plant?

[warhawk]

champ...i didn't know about the tragedy.  my prayers & thoughts go out 2 everyone affected.

WARHAWK

[Paul]

Heard absolutely nothing about it.  My prayers are definitely with those families.

[Sgt. Pate]

Me too... I'll be prayin' fer sure!

[GASlick]

Champ prolly knows more than I do.  A sugar refinery in Savannah had a major explosion last night around 7pm or so.  There are I think 17 people killed.  They found 6 bodies today.  It was so bad they didn't even get the fire out until late this morning.  It is an absolute tragedy.  The thing is though, it is getting almost no media attention and what it does get is spotty and doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.

So, I see Champs point about something not being quite right.  They said the sugar dust ignited.  Has anyone ever heard of that?  Anyway, you can read about it on foxnews.com and wsbtv.com.

[Timmay]

I didnt hear a thing about it either......hmmmmmmmm makes you wonder..what the hell is going on.  Families will be in our prayers...

[champ007]

Champ, isn't that place close to the Savannah River plant?

Yea, its not too far from it. They searched the River for bodies but did not find any. The fire was still going this morning, so they brought up a barge with a hose to help in the efforts. The report locally is they found 6 bodies so far, to my count that leaves 13 missing and unknown. They aren't releasing names yet but a friend of mine's brother was among the 6 they found. The fly over footage shows how bad it was, debri fell for like 10 minutes after the blast, and there were people running with their skin literally melting off. Sugar smoulders and turns to almost a liquid lava when it burning.
And guys, sugar dust is highly flamable when its contained in a silo, the big question is what set it off.
Anyway, thats the latest I got, may not be on for a while, gotta go give support to who I can.

Keep Timmj busy while I'm away.....

[Timmay]

Busy?  BUSY!....what ....whats going on...where did everyone go?  Oh hell I guess I will just pop in my Richard DVD and do some sweatin to the oldies......

Hope everything works out there Champ...prayers to yoru friends family.

[wpruitt]

I just looked on www.ajc.com (the Atlanta Journal - Constitution) :
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2008/02/08/blast_0208.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab

[JDog]

Champ, today here in Australia, I heard about this horrible tragedy while watching the Newshour with Jim Lehrer on cable. My heart goes out to the people affected by this.


Any news to what caused the explosion?

[Mikekoz13]

I know that where highly flammable dusts are concerned, many times static electricity can be the problem....

[champ007]

Hey Guys, I am updating this with some pics that I will have to um.... delete in about 24 or 36 hours so the GBI don't knock on my door. These go beyond what you have seen on the news, and its only the devastation, nothing gory. Here's the link:
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=34937658&albumId=1477355
So far there is still 2 silos burning and they were using the helicopter in the pic today. They have called in a crew that deals in stopping silo fires to put these things out so they can get to the office floors and try to find the remaining bodies. One person missing is a friend of mines father, and she and her step-sister are just kinda lost. I guess the worst part is they know he has passed, but they can't prepare a funeral or anything until they identify his remains, so instead of being able to grieve they can only wait until they are told he has been found. They did fly a coroner down from atlanta and they are looking at the dental records and stuff, its just hard because there is really nothing you can do.
I have to say the cities and people here have been great so far. Drones of people have given blood, supported the personnel working the fires with food and basically anything you can think of. It will take a while for these families to heal because of the stress of just having to wait to begin the healing process.