Incident at Canberra Hospital

wow, thanks for the info meconium!

I just went over to have a look and it turns out there was no earthmoving involved – it must have exploded above ground (hence people hearing the bang several kilometres away).

A local woman walking her dog told me that something in the Pathology department had got wet that wasn’t supposed to, had formed shock-sensitive crystals, and there was a risk of explosion. The substance was taken out to the oval (open space, makes sense) and dozens of police, fire and bomb squad people showed up for this minor emergency.

I presume they were trying to burn the chemical slowly so as not to detonate it all at once, but it exploded anyway. From experience in the lab I know that there are many common chemicals (the IBN News page specifies “acid”) that must be kept away from moisture in order to avoid the production of shock-sensitive crystals. Perchloric acid is an example – it must be stored under a layer of oil with a stick of sodium in the jar, to avoid absorption of moisture from the air. The explosive substance was likely a crystalline form of this, or something similar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perchloric_acid

I was thinking it might be nitroglycerine, because that stuff is really unstable… it sounds to me like some really friction-sensitive substance, because that makes sense that they disposed of it here rather than driving it out of town (probably nobody wanted to be the driver). Nitroglycerine makes sense because it’s used in hospitals for heart conditions.

Still, someone should really let us know what happened rather than the riotact community simply gossiping and speculating about what went on…

Probably someone accidentally mixed up a batch of nitroglycerine or similar.

As a matter of interest, does anyone know what the cricket pitch looks like now. Glowing green hold in the ground? A grave with half buried hazchem drums?

I live about 150m from the hospital on the other side of the Garran oval. My sister said they dug up the cricket pitch, put a plastic tent over it, evacuated all cars parked nearby (probably to protect windows and windscreens), and detonated whatever it was a few metres underground, right in the middle of the oval. After detonation, my sister came outside and saw a huge cloud of dust around the oval.

Police, fire and presumably bomb professionals surrounded the area and made sure no civilians (including my sister) got close.

As a chemist and a local resident, I would sincerely like to know exactly what went on. At the time I wasn’t at home, but explosions as loud as this deserve to be explained to the public, in as much detail as possible.

If anyone knows who I can write to for an explanation, please include email addresses/phone numbers etc in your post.

To clarify, I also heard a rumble. It was proceeded by a bang, a low pitched one more like a bowling ball being dropped in the lane… wow what a simile!

Not a ‘bang’ from fireworks Mash – a huge, low-pitched rumble, and I felt it through the entire house. I’m several kilometres away.

I only heard one bang. And it was around the same time others said they heard one in Woden If I could hear it in Conder, wow, that must be the mother of all fire crackers…. where can I buy one?

I’m sure these ‘bangs’ heard throughout the city would have nothing to do with the thousands of fireworks around the place?!