Ammo Dump Blast - White Phosphorus?

[americanstranger]

I've been thinking about that video of the FOB Falcon ammo dump fire, and wondering what could have produced the type of explosion that is seen about 4 minutes in.

I'm far from an expert on any type of explosives, but the blast does not look like a conventional bomb, in that it doesn't produce a fireball - just a pure white flash, and a very large one at that.

Any of you former military types out there who can help me out with this would be really appreciated. Does White Phosphorus explode like that? And what does it tell us if they've got WP stowed in an ammo dump?

Discuss.

http://www.blah3.com/article.php?story=20061017103659996

- as

[DemoTex]

1. Explosion at 4:20 is consistent with large bombs (15,000 pounders).

In fact, the explosion at about 4:20 looked almost exactly like the worst parts of the Cam Ranh Bay ammo dump attack I witnessed in 1971. The 15,000 pound bombs (HE - high explosive) produced a visible shock-wave and a mushroom cloud. The Cam Ranh ammo dump had some WP (white phosphorous) cook off too, with the characteristic multiple white smoke tracks behind the hundreds of intense points of light from the incendiary shards of WP.


Typical WP explosion

[TahitiNut]

2. They gotta keep the illumination flares somewhere.

:shrug:

Considering how flammable they are and the huge number we used, I can't imagine an ammo dump without 'em.

[DemoTex]

4. Like these?

Phu Bai 2/71 during Lam Son 719.
NVA probing, probing, probing.
(Photo by DemoTex)

[TahitiNut]

10. Looks familiar.

The sky was loaded with them the night of February 23-24 south of Long Binh Post. The gunships carried dozens of them, afaik. They were a lot bigger than the ones we had that we'd pop when we thought we saw something in the weeds.

[madokie]

7. I left Cam Ranh Bay in october of '70

so I missed out on that but I remember the fuel tank fires when the army fuel depot was over run. shortly after the perimeter at our base at cam ranh was penetrated.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Almost looked like it was nuclear! There's a cloud that goes way up

shortly after.

[DemoTex]

8. Exactly the mushroom clouds we experienced at Cam Ranh.

Non-nuke. The heat, light, radiation, and blast effects of a small tactical nuke would have been exponentially more horrific. Nonetheless, it was scary as shit for those in the vicinity .. believe me!

[poverlay]

12. Just to back that up. It's next to imposssible for heat , fire, or

external explosives to actually ignite a nuclear device. It could, however, melt and spreat the radioactive materials within all over the place. That would suck too. Just not as bad...

[Guaranteed]

5. White phosporous isn't known for any massively explosive qualities.

It's just that it spreads out in flakes and burns really hot.

[dipsydoodle]

6. Blinded by the light

Yes - see what you mean.

Reminds me of an episode back in fities when one of the local kids got hold of a pound of magnesium dust in an ordinary brown paper bag.. He ignited the whole lot in one go by accident and produced daylight for a split second, at 10 o'clock at night, over the whole town in which we lived. Miraculously he was ok apart from singed eyebrows, burnt palm of one hand and burnt back of the other hand - those were from instinctively shielding his eyes fractionally faster than the magnesium exploded.

[malaise]

9. WTF?

The explosion at 3.59 is frightening. Damn what was that?

[americanstranger]

11. Thanks for the answers!

Nice to have people around who know more about these things than me! :)

If any of you have any questions about, umm... guitars, feel free to sak!

Thx again.

- as