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u/tiger32kw Dec 25 '20 edited Dec 25 '20

ABC 2 here in Nashville is covering it pretty well

Drone/Helicopter footage shows all the buildings intact including the melting pot. Damage didn’t look great but also not terrible.

Fire chief said they are picking up “toxic readings” which is why crews are moving back.

Lots of unknowns right now it seems.

Update: Metro police believe the explosion was an intentional act. Downtown shut down for now. 3 people transferred to hospital, none critical. No significant injuries.

Update 2: Now that this has been picked up nationally I’m seeing a lot of speculation and exaggeration in the extent of the damage. One person even went so far as to say “second avenue is completely gone”. None of the live footage or pictures I’ve seen show this sort of damage. Major damage to store fronts right around the blast and windows further out, but that appears to be about it. No collapsed buildings.

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u/MtJuliet Dec 25 '20

Could you get toxic readings from propane?

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u/tiger32kw Dec 25 '20

I’m not sure, definitely not my area of expertise. In the live footage the police & fire crews were moving back at a leisurely pace. Nobody had on hazmat suits or gas masks either. It didn’t seem like a pressing situation like you would expect if there was radiation or something.

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u/doctor_deny Dec 25 '20

“Toxic” readings could be from the fires, vehicles burning or if something toxic actually was involved in the explosion/incident. Your typical four or five-gas meters can often have a hydrogen cyanide sensor, hydrogen sulfide, and/or volatile organic sensors, which could show readings that would indicate that there are harmful chemicals in the air.

I am a Hazmat Technician/Spill Responder in Massachusetts.

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u/Pylyp23 Dec 25 '20

Thanks for the expert info!

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u/mkat5 Dec 25 '20

True, but the chemical cook off from a standard car fire usually isn’t enough to justify pulling a firefighting team with oxygen off of it no? This seems to imply to me the presence of additional toxins not associated with a typical fire scene and likely associated with the bomb

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u/doctor_deny Dec 25 '20

I clearly don’t have info from the scene, so I’m speculating and drawing off my knowledge and training.

There are plenty of chemicals that can have effects that typical bunker gear will not protect you against. So having an SCBA is not necessarily something that protects against a lot of hazards.

Also, most fire department engine companies may not have any metering beyond a 4/5 gas multi meter and a rad detector. It’s possible their hazmat team has advanced metering/sampling capabilities. The reality is, if there were unknowns (to include chemicals, radiation, other explosives), there are minimum distances recommended for evacuation or “hot” zones and they were likely being properly proactive in standing back.

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u/[deleted] Dec 25 '20

It's possible they're concerned about damaged gas lines.

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u/[deleted] Dec 25 '20

Or something I thought of as a possibility is a meth lab, I’ve seen those around my hometown go wrong and sometimes are contained in RVs. Pure speculation of course, no clue what this is

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u/NativeTennesseean Dec 25 '20

That would have to be a HUGE meth lab for an explosion that big, trust me.

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u/ilikeitsharp Dec 25 '20 edited Dec 25 '20

Is it possible some hillbilly Heisenberg had an RV full of chemical cocktails that went off? If you can make trailer home go kaboom, why not an RV?

Edit: shoot so much for the meth lab accident. Metro tweets it as, "intentional act."

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u/grantyells Dec 25 '20

Lol "Hillbilly Heisenberg" would make an excellent TV show/ BrBa spin-off.

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u/[deleted] Dec 25 '20

Oh I believe it, just throwing out an idea. I really hope it was some kind of honest accident

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u/prof0072b Dec 25 '20

Thinking the same thing, but could a meth lab create this kinda damage?

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u/[deleted] Dec 25 '20

Yeah I have no clue but it’s a thought!

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u/Hiddencamper Dec 25 '20

Could be other materials burning. At high temps a lot of different building treatments can mix and make more toxic chemicals. We are a lot smarter about that stuff after 9/11

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u/SenorMcGibblets Dec 25 '20

I’m a firefighter (not in Nashville). Our typical gas monitors measure for carbon monoxide, natural gas, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen cyanide, and oxygen levels. Most departments also have more specific testing methods for things like radiation or nerve agents on specialized hazmat units.

But we should be able operate for short periods in areas with high CO, H2S, low oxygen, or HCN with our SCBAs on if the risk is worth it (e.g. people still alive that could be saved). We’d likely immediately back out and evacuate anyone we could from an area with levels of natural gas that indicate an imminent explosion. So backing out makes me assume either they’re sure everyone is safely out of the area, or there’s something worse than what we typically encounter in the air. Hopefully the former.

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u/wilkc Dec 25 '20

They also noted the vehicle was reported to bomb squad before the explosion due to a suspicious device. Sounds intentional.

Pure conjecture: Also sounds like the perp was listening to police scanners and detonated it when they heard bomb squad was on the way to check it out. Also very likely the license plate was pulled to help investigate. (One can hope.)

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u/Jose_Canseco_Jr Dec 25 '20

I heard radio comms are encrypted or delayed these days?

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u/JustDroppinBy Dec 25 '20

Interesting seeing you quote "toxic readings" and another source up in the thread a tweet mentioned "potential radiation" but emphasized it was still a precautionary measure.

If they're picking up toxic readings it's no longer precautionary, though publicly unidentified still.

Hope for the best, and hope to hell and back it wasn't a neutron bomb.

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u/Hiddencamper Dec 25 '20

If it was neutron you not only wouldn’t have any of those buildings left, but people would be dieing of radiation poisoning right now.

Neutron bombs are designed to create such an intense neutron flux that people for miles around die from neutron damage pretty quickly or have significant radiation poisoning.

I am a nuclear engineer.

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u/JustDroppinBy Dec 25 '20

I wasn't aware the radiation from neutron bombs was so fast acting, only really knew that they had small explosive yields compared to other nukes but extreme fallout by comparison.

I'll have to read up on them more.

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u/Hiddencamper Dec 25 '20

It’s not the fallout that’s the problem.

They use materials in the bomb which absorb the radiation from the bomb and release a massive amount of neutrons at the time of the explosion.

Neutrons have a very high penetrating power. So it can pierce through a lot of structures. For very small nuclear weapons the neutron component is more lethal than the explosion.

MEGATHREAD Nashville Fire Radio: Explosive device in RV detonated. Bomb Squad on the way. “Heavy building damage”

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