Rocket Fuel Contributes To Apartment Fire

I know the person whose apartment this was. He didn't have any AP in the apartment. What they are calling rocket fuel was two nitrous oxide tanks that burned.

I wish the media was calling it nitrous oxide tanks and not rocket fuel. Plenty of people have nitrous oxide for cars and trucks to make them go faster.

Brian Elfert

You should write the paper and let them know about their error, asking for a correction. All you bitter people go ahead and laugh, but there is a chance they may actually publish it. Any negetive press hurts us all.

Thanks, JohnG

Yes indeed. The story should correctly read "Rocket Oxidizer Contributes To Apartment Fire" :-/

Anthony J. Cesaroni President/CEO Cesaroni Technology/Cesaroni Aerospace

Word has it that the individual had two nitrous oxide bottles, used for HPR hybrid motors, in his apartment. His girl friend's young children were left unattended in the apartment and started the fire. As the fire made contact with the nitrous bottles the heat caused the bottles to rapidly over pressurize, burst, and expel the nitrous, augmenting the oxygen to the fire. Whether the nitrous, caused the fire to spread more rapidly is not known: One thing for sure, the nitrous didn't help contain the fire.

Fred

JohnG wrote:

apartment. What they are calling rocket fuel was two nitrous oxide tanks that burned.

Plenty of people have nitrous oxide for cars and trucks to make them go faster.

Ask any biker about helmets in the media if you wonder about distortion. Some poor sot gets splattered so bad a suit of armor wouldn't prevent him from becoming a grease spot by some speeding idiot running a red light and what does the media zero in on? "...he wasn't wearing a helmet..." Whatever makes the story more sensational they'll do. And if it's false and they get called down for it later? So much the better, they get to cover THAT sensational story too. Sigh!

Chuck

You have to read it, and look at it, like the average citizen would. "Uh...rok-kit...ah (dat wurd got too many sylables)....FIRE! Me go work now, drag knuckles. Talk 'bout rok-kit cause fire. Dem bad." As a youth I use to think it was amusing that the newspapers write at the 5th grade level..........

What a schlock piece of reporting and sensationalizing the headline. Her's a snipped version of the story:

...

Officials said one of the residents was a model rocket enthusiast who kept rocket fuel in the apartment, which may have contributed to the fire.

...

Doesn't say the rockets were the source of the fire. Doesn't even say they burned. Says "may have"...

Time to write some nasty letters.

Bob Kaplow NAR # 18L TRA # "Impeach the TRA BoD" >>> To reply, remove the TRABoD!

Turns out (per reports posted by some who are more familiar with the details) that the "rocket fuel" was nitrous oxide...

-dave w

Yea, and it probably contributed to the fire, about as much as a can of hairspray when it cooks off.

Fred

Early word is the children of the tenant's girlfriend may have started the fire.

The rocket fuel was actually two tanks of Nitrous Oxide. The tanks appear to have burst in the fire. I really doubt the Nitrous Oxide accelerated the fire. It certainly was not the cause.

Brian Elfert

hmmmmm. I wonder if a suit can be brougt against them for such errors.

Here is an article from the Des Moines Register that was a bit fairer:

Jeff

You are wrong. Rocket propellant (APCP) consumes its own oxygen and only contributes flame and temperature to a fire.

N2O is an Oxidizer and contributes OXYGEN to a fire. It is a form of accelerant.

Jerry

Okay, I should have written that I doubt the nitrous oxide greatly accelerated the fire. I don't think the volume of NO2 was very much. A five gallon can of gas would be far worse.

Brian Elfert

How about 'Laughing Gas Contributes to Apartment Fire', watcha tink?

TBerk

Wouldn't it be better if it were phrased - "Laughing-Gas Contributes to Apartment Fire"...? :-)

After all... if you saw the coverage of Rutans' X-Prize flights, they referred to his propellants as "Laughing-Gas and Rubber"

I highly agree it was minimal in overall impact and TIME.

Wood with a nominal composition C=0.3, H=0.5, O=0.2 (atom fractions) yields a stoichiometric o/f mass ratio of 3.92

Assuming 5 gallons of liquid N2O at 0.742 g/cm^3 gives a total N2O mass of about 14 kg.

Wood burned by N2O = 3.5 kg (less than 8 pounds)

Conclusion: The N2O was probably not a major factor in the overall heat release. It is also very unlikely that the N2O accelerated the fire in its early stages since the bottles wouldn't rupture until they were hot. The overall effect of the presence of N2O on the severity of the fire damage was therefore probably negligible.

Brad Hitch

Thanks for providing a qualifying technical explanation of my emotional descriptive comparison. (:-)

Fred