So gasoline will put it out?

Cool. Does that mean we can get rid of that eyesore that is Ohio?

That is the oldest science experiment. Take a piece of mg and drop it in water. Watch it light up and goes whizzing around in the water.

Now take that 10000X and you have big boom boom!

No, but this will:

First the river caught fire, now this. Helping that great reputation C-town has.

livecam of the fire. SFW

The camera is located about 4mi away, and the fire is slightly over the hill from the view..

Soo....how are they going to put it out?

looks like a job for Magnesium P. I.


...sigh I got nothin'

Saw this on the news looks like it is/was bad

Guy_guy42

You have to go back to your basic chemistry. The fire triangle. Fires need heat+oxygen+fuel ... if you can get rid of one, it can't exist.

Now water doesn't so much explode magnesium, as it can't reduce the heat quickly enough before it evapourates... so what you get is a rapid expansion of steam... causing what amounts to an explosion.

Water typically tries to remove heat from the triangle, but this isn't going to fly, so you either have to remove oxygen (through CO2 or dry chemical powders and such which smother the fire) or you'll have to remove as much of the fuel that you can and let the rest burn. Class D fire extiguishers are safe for putting out burning metal fires.

Calls placed to the company... ...went unanswered.

Like they expected some employee to quit running for his life to stop and answer a damn phone. Yeesh.

If I remember correctly from my high school class...fire can be dangerous

2003-12-29 11:36:31 PM OyleSylck
Argon gas or dry sand...and other dry things.

Too bad it's raining in Garfield Heights...

It is a "Class D" fire. Rain is NotGood(tm).

Reminds me of the Volkswagen engine blocks that use to warm my desert party fires.....ahhh! the memories....you can't bury them either magnesium when buring makes it own oxygen.

old news... its been on fire since 3... and its in garfield, not cleveland. and for those who dont understand, magnesium only explodes with water when the magnesium is already on fire... the water evaporates too fast, resulting in the explosion... anyways, it looks like day light east of here... its quite odd... maybe now the mayor will think twice about laying off fire fighters...

Fire doesn't kill people. People with fire kill people. Or something.

Reminds me of the Volkswagen engine blocks that use to warm my desert party fires.....ahhh! the memories....you can't bury them either magnesium when buring makes it own oxygen.

Silly me thought that they were letting off fireworks at Heights High... *shakes her head* all. day. Long.

Maybe by now they've put it out? i haven't heard a boom in about a half an hour. How awful that it's pissing down rain all over here... no signs of stopping until it starts snowing around 2am, says the weather channel.

At least it makes the sky look interesting.

holy farkingcrap. talk about a meltdown.

If only we built this city on Rock and Roll!

I live near Garfield Heights. The whole sky is lit up like dusk (it's midnight now).

I was watching the fire for a good 45 minutes from a nearby hill with about 50 other people.

Every few minutes a loud explosion would occur. It was very bright white, and smelly.

Nicely interesting Monday night.

2003-12-29 11:44:06 PM mylow
Reminds me of the Volkswagen engine blocks that use to warm my desert party fires.....ahhh! the memories....you can't bury them either magnesium when buring makes it own oxygen

And don't forget hydrogen. breath deep!

shadow9 The sky is lit up every few minutes in Parma. Separately, Campbell needs to spend a few nights in a firetruck, and a police cruiser.

First the WKRP Thankgiving turkey drop in Cincinnati, then this. As god is my witness, I thought water could put out magnesium.

The fire destroyed two of the company's three buildings and a neighboring heating company,

do I detect a sense of irony?

Fire!!! Fire!!!!

Favorite quote from the hastily written article:

"Two firefighters were taken to a nearby hospital with rapid heartbeats, who didn't yet know which of ten responding departments they were from."

WTF was he trying to say though?

"so all firefighters could do was let the fire burn itself out"

Don't they have chemicals to put out different kinds of fires?

help

2003-12-29 11:56:46 PM neakid
"so all firefighters could do was let the fire burn itself out"
Don't they have chemicals to put out different kinds of fires?

What part of "Dry chemicals typically needed for a Class D fire" and "it is raining" did you not understand?

Oh no! One of our own!

Co2 for the most part puts them out....Talking from experience here

Pure metals and water don't mix! I know, 'cuz I once caught myself on fire mixing sodium and water together.

Are you sure you weren't just freebasing cocaine?

Hope this doesn't somehow fark up the power grid over there. Blackouts in summers are fun, winter... ye gads.

wonder how much thermite one could ignite with a magnesium fire of that size

"Pouring water on it makes it explode. The metal, not the city"

too bad it's the metal and not this stinkin' town.

"Two firefighters were taken to a nearby hospital with rapid heartbeats, who didn't yet know which of ten responding departments they were from."

Ok, they took a guy named Rapid Heartbeats and two firefighters to a nearby hospital, and Mr. Heartbeats didn't know which of the ten fire departments these guys came from. That's about right, I think.

Neakid

Don't they have chemicals to put out different kinds of fires?



I was thinking that too, since most airports have firetrucks that use foam for jet fuel fires, however, I think that since Magnesium burns so hot (something like 5400 degrees Fahrenheit!) those chemicals would disintigrate before reaching the base of the fire. Sand is the best way to put out a Mg fire, and there really isn't a good way to comver a whole building.

It's sodium that you guys remember being dropped into water in your science classes. Sodium has to be stored in a hydrocarbon fluid because water sets it off.

The other guys above have already explained what the problem with water + magnesium fire is. Do you folks remember burning some little strip of metal in science class, and having that strip turn white-hot? That was your magnesium.

i burned one of those magnesium fire starters once. the one where you slice off some shavings with a knife then ignite them with the embedded flint-bar. took a few minutes of direct propane blow-torch to get it going, but once it was going there was no stopping it. ball of white fire the size of a basketball. and a column of thick smoke that i was sure was going to get me in trouble.

Thank you Iriri, Some teens took some of those Mg strips to a concert many years ago and hung them fron the railings in the back. It lit up quite a bit of the nose bleed section. damn teens

according to my precise calculations...cleveland is screwed.

flahaven! so hot that it burns me

Learn all about magnesium at -where else- Magnesium.com.
No, unlike sodium or calcium, water will not set it on fire. However water will cause steam explosions and tends to dissociate into oxygen and hydrogen.

I apologise for the song, but it just seems so appropriate.

(ahem)
There's a red moon rising on the Cuyahoga River, rolling into Cleveland, to the lake. There's a red moon rising
on the Cuyahoga River, rolling into Cleveland, to the lake.

There's an oil barge winding down the Cuyahoga River, rolling into Cleveland, to the lake. There's an oil barge winding down the Cuyahoga River, rolling into Cleveland, to the lake.

Cleveland, city of light, city of magic
Cleveland, city of light, you're calling me
Cleveland, even now I can remember
'Cause the Cuyahoga River
Goes smokin' through my dreams

Burn on, big river, burn on
Burn on, big river, burn on
Now the Lord can make you tumble
And the Lord can make you turn
And the Lord can make you overflow
But the Lord can't make you burn

Burn on, big river, burn on
Burn on, big river, burn on

if you light a fire for a man, you will keep him warm for the night...
light a man on fire, you will keep him warm for the rest of his life.



holy poop, i messed this one up. i apologize. it's a really funny joke, i promise.


*vicodin makes many things amusing that really aren't...

Isn't it bad to look at a flame from magnesium?

I remember the magnesium experiment I did in class with my friend/lab partner.
Me looking away slightly: "Dude your not supposed to look directly at it"
friend: "Nah its cool as hell to watch"
some time passes.........
friend: "Man look at that thing go"
me: "Uhh....... Dude, that thing burned out like 2 minutes ago"

Also is there any reaction between sodium and air, or pure oxygen? I remember someone telling me that there was, but I'm not sure because chemistry is a harsh mistress