Ignored Warnings: Explosion in St. Louis 

@Adrian Simmlekark …. By design. It is their job to investigate, report and recommend solutions and practices. This information is then made available to the public and our mostly corrupt elected officials (of BOTH PARTIES!!) who deliberately neglect to act on the recommendations under instruction from their benefactors in the business community, usually through industry lobbyists, in exchange for campaign donations and financial kickbacks. That’s our system for ya. So when a politician says they’re saving / creating jobs in their state, part of what they’re saying is that they’ve loosened reasonable restrictions upon businesses enough that the business is now willing to locate there for the savings. Peoples lives be damned. It’s not USCSB’s fault. It’s ours for not holding our elected officials accountable.

@Adrian Simmlekark - toothless, in what way?

They really do. I love these videos too....

@@sylviahacker6695, in some of these videos, it appears that the CSB, while their investigations into causes of accidents are exemplary, they don't appear to have any authority to order companies to implement procedures/guidelines they just make suggestions as to what's needed, I'm not clear on what authority if any, they have to be able to level fines to the companies that do not operate safely or outside of those guidelines the CSB suggested. Like the other guy said "toothless" is how they appear in these videos

@@toter-drache You are correct, essentially. They are a recommendation body, not an enforcement body. Enforcement will come down to OSHA, EPA, etc. This chemical board often makes recommendations to these enforcement agencies to update their rules, but like anything else having to do with government, it literally takes an act of Congress.

One of the reasons we now get Chinese cardboard because lots of people get blown up at work In China with no problems...

@@Tadrjbswtf! lol

​​@@pberPSR It's kind of true. Industrial Owners understand 2 things. Money and Force. If they are not subjected to public and or government pressure to change their safety measures and business practices, they won't change anything. If they are subjected to heavy costs, they will alter whatever caused those costs. If it were not for those things, 8 year old boys would still be going into the mines and dying of black lung before their 21st birthday.

@@SubvertTheState yeah. id agree with this. and this is what conservatism is all about. this is really what trump means by make america great again: no government control.

​@pberPSR what they were talking about was unions and govt regulation

Someone messed with the boiler at my school. I can remember the entire 4 story building shaking with a loud roar. Supposedly my friend stopped the maintain guy from dousing the red hiot boiler. That likely wold have destroyed the whole block.

Sounds like it was in high fire and the low water cut off failed. That is why we have to test these safety devices daily. I have only had 1 safety device fail on me

It's pretty disturbing that one never know what is really going on in the rather benign looking industrial building they pass or may work near everyday.

And the management should of course be charged with manslaughter and not allowed to be managing anything anymore.

​@@danwiens9830and having a safety device fail should not be a huge deal as long as it's checked frequently and not left to be a failsafe only in an emergency. A lot of operators at many places I've worked have no interest in how or why mechanisms function the way that they do. I've always found that somewhat alarming, as when anything unexpected happens, they're completely useless in troubleshooting and fixing problems....Let alone closely observing operations and noting any abnormalities.

I've been working at so many companies who neglected maintenance and basic safety measures citing: "it's too costly".

This is where I think education is a better strategy than just pushing for more regulations. If anyone who actually worked with the pressure vessel had understood the danger it would have been depressurized and taken out of service when it started leaking. You can see that regulation didn't help in this case. I suspect the company thought since the tank wasn't a boiler it didn't need inspected. The boiler inspector never said otherwise. Back to education the outfits that repair pressure vessels need to make sure their members understand that heads need to be replaced. Not patched and mended. That to me was the real missed opportunity here. The company didn't cheap out and tell their maintenance guy to "make do and mend". They hired an outfit that had all the proper certifications that regulations required and they totally screwed the pooch.

@@1978garfield toothless regulation is no good. if you mandate the installation of a protective anode (anode corrodes and thereby protects the steel). If your system works perfectly, the anode doesn't corrode and needs no maintenance. If you do have some corrosion, instead of the pressure vessel having to be repaired, you simply can switch out the anode. and keeping a eye on a anode is far simpler.

Any company that installs a large pressure vessel without getting a permit or an inspection has made a choice to roll the dice with other people's lives. This isn't like installing a new light fixture in your home without pulling a permit. It's just reckless.

@@1978garfield ​ Any company that chooses to install a large pressure vessel without applying for a permit is knowingly doing something illegal that endangers others' lives. Nobody who works around this sort of equipment is unaware that it can explode. Management chose to proceed without a permit and avoid regular inspections to save a buck because it didn't care that it was endangering lives. If the company hadn't made that illegal choice, the regulations should have worked. This vessel should more have passed even a cursory inspection by an inspector qualifies by the National Board of Boiler & Pressure Vessel Inspectors. These dangers were known a century ago.

...and entertained 😁

@@381delirius You bad man! 🤯

Let's not forget to thank King Charles for appearing and being the spokersperson in this video. @1:00 Thank you, your majesty for taking your precious time to educate us peasants. All hail his royal highness.

These videos promote Statism; using government guns to dictate how other people should live their lives; forcing some people's opinions on other people using government guns. Forcing those opinions on innocent people who have caused no harm to an other man, forcing them up to the point of killing people who don't obey, in the name of so called ''protecting'' people.

just dont forget who decreased funding for these regulation agencies. Thank Maga land for that to be able to do their tax cuts for the 1%

People have been busy blowing themselves up

I agree, even working in IT I find a lot of value watching these videos. The incidents in other industries may be different, but learning how to mitigate them is very similar.

@@MLJenkins what

@@onion_____ the way the USCSB breaks down every problem and the series of factors involved in each accident is great for thinking about failure points in systems. Even if the things you’re designing have nothing to do with heavy industry, if you’re responsible for designing systems it might help you build something more resilient. Just as an example, the number of times the USCSB has found something seemingly mundane that was overlooked and which eventually unalived someone makes me stop and think about things that I’d consider completely mundane. It’s a double-check when I might’ve otherwise cut a corner, or neglected documentation because “this isn’t going into prod, it’s just a test node”. Yeah that’s going into production lol, no time to refactor.

@@deyjaacterius9610 couldn't agree with your comment more. The last bit reminded me of a good phrase: "There is nothing more permanent than a temporary fix"

Common sense should tell you though that a leak in a pressure vessel is a huge red flag. If I was the guy who saw that, I’d either shut the system down immediately or get the fuck out of the building and not return until it was properly fixed. Also fuck the St. Louis BoA.

When I was a kid we had a old air compressor that ripped open at the bottom. It had lots of rust inside at long the bottom because it wasn’t drained properly. It lifted a old solid steel table with steel legs and steel wheels over 8 feet into the air and slammed it into the ceiling. Kids was in that area just minutes before it blew as it was building up pressure. Definitely would’ve killed somebody.

@@88997799 , that is such an excellent point to make with so many people having compressors as part of a business or at home in their garage BUT I wonder how many people think about the fact that millions of people in the U.S. alone have one or more "pressure vessels" in their homes and businesses - the water heater tank (of course there are tankless/instant WHs). What is really scary is just how many of them are sitting above their heads & full of water weighing hundreds to nearly a 1,000 lbs when full of water. It's obviously rare to happen but it does happen. I remember one instance where a water heater was launched into the air and across a highway... Of course that's the reason to keep an eye on your equipment, drain & maintain them properly. For water heaters draining at least once a year can help remove sediment AND checking the anode rod, replacing it as needed. It is after all the anode rod which "sacrifices" itself to help reduce the amount tank rust. Also check the temperature and pressure relief valve, that's why it's there to open in the event of excess temp/pressure so hopefully it doesn't become a "bomb/projectile"...

Shop in ny?

I'm always scared around any sealed vessel with pressurized gas or water above boiling. I have the advantage of working in a field where I sometimes deal with the aftermath of ruptured cylinders and tanks, but I think I've been nervous around them since studying chemistry in college or maybe even since learning to use an oxy-acetylene torch in art metal class in high school. Pressurized gasses can store a very dangerous amount of energy.

Yep company I just left was the same way. Thr just put a band-aid on it. Left before the explosion.

It's so insane to me that companies want profit margins SO extreme that they're willing to destroy their own production capabilities - in the case of refineries especially, literally hundreds of millions of dollars of machinery destroyed and possibly permanent production halt along with possible pollution - instead of just spending the money annually on repairs and maintenance and proper training. I don't believe that they can't afford it, it's just pure short-sighted greed.

@@christophkogler6220 The problem is too many toxic managers with no clue what they are doing.

@@christophkogler6220 largely because of the stockholders, really. They are the ones really in charge and they would rather have things burn down than have their RoIs not to be the extremes they are now.

that’s what I can’t stop thinking about….. you can be working a block away in a different industry and still be hurt/killed by someone else’s issue/accident. Sad.😢 and Scary 😮

@@leftfinned They were filling out applications at a nearby Linen service when the almost 3000lb boiler came through the roof. One of them was pinned under it, and when EMS arrived 15 minutes later, it was still very hot. Imagine filling out your application, when a vessel that size just crashes through the roof, spewing steam, smashes a person and pins you underneath it.

@@LRRPFco52 tragic and sad!!! 😞😢 I cant imagine..

Nah i can't. *dusts off hands*

The fact that this was all preventable just makes it that much worse

You posted the same time the video posted. You gotta watch the video or be the failed protocol! I'm calling the police.(but facts)

I feel the same way

This is a solid mood. Especially the pump station video where the mother went after her husband and orphaned thier kids. That one gutted me.

Every regulation is paid for in blood. It's an unfortunate fact of our reality.

The problem with government regulations is that they force them on people and people who don't obey their rules and have not caused harm to anyone get extorted, kidnapped and killed. Any law of government is enforced up to the point of killing people who don't obey. They kill innocent people in the name of so called ''protecting'' people. Statism is immoral. These videos promote Statism and dictating some people's opinion on other people by threat of force.

They should be criminally charged for never registering the pressure vessels.

This happens at every factory across the world

Honestly, so many of the disasters could be avoided if the company in question stopped avoiding issues to save time/money.

@@LBTennis every workplace in general. Not just factories. Prioritising profit will always put people at risk.

@@CryptoRoast_0 Totally

I also like how they talk about what the factory produced. Something as ordinary as corrugated cardboard can still involve dangerous pressures or chemicals.

@@benjaminlee985 heard a case of an employee at a Lays chips distribution center was crippled by an electrocution while operating a garage door. The button panel wasn’t properly insulated, and his finger was exposed to the electrical systems in the panel, which nearly killed him and rendered him disabled for life. The worst part is, the distribution center management refused to accommodate him in anyway to allow his continued employment. They refused to allow him any compensation to cover his medical costs, and he opted to sue the company. Following that, there is evidence of lays hiring private investigators to try and find evidence to contest him in court, to avoid paying him any compensation for the incident. This would involve these individuals photographing him and his family to create imagery that could be used against him (anything they could use to argue that he isn’t crippled, such as playing with his children or standing in a way that looks unhindered) I do not know what has become of this individual

@@Armin2012 We had an accident were one of our welders started welding while standing in a small pool of water. The water had leaked from the roof of the factory into the welding cell. As far as I know, he is ok and back at work.

@@naerbo19 I believe OSHA did a video about industrial accidents and included a welder who electrocuted themselves when welding a ship hull that partially flooded

Even by the US standards, an accident with four fatalities is a bit above small scale. You know all those warnings under the car hood not open the radiator cap when hot? This video shows what happens when several hundred gallons of superheated water flash to steam the moment the pressure is released and instantly drops the boiling point back down to 212F.

Needs upvotes

This is why we have actuarial accountants and insurance professionals

Facts

to add to this, shoutout to the narrator!

I'm not sure. The added sound effects make this video seem like a Hollywood movie. CCTV cameras don't record sound and yet you hear a loud bang in the video. It's (almost) fake.

props to the loy lang company, otherwise we would not have such a good video xD

No we don't. It's the American government. Nobody likes them.

I betcha if the city council did what was right regulations and inspection wise, the moment the rules were proposed to the board. you would see an onslaught of ads from pro-business groups claiming the city is trying to pass "job killing regulations".

@Space Elf Downlink as opposed to PEOPLE-KILLING no regulations? Most of the people who died at this accident DIDN'T work there. So, to hell with those libertarian "regulations are killing jobs" d*ckheads! PEOPLE DIED!

@@jrcharney the lobbyists don't care about lives. Same kind shit happens when cities who do not yet have such a requirement want to expand the requirement of automatic fire sprinklers to apartment towers. You would think Grenfell in the UK would have scared that stupid out of people but nope.

corruption kills!

"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss ". This has been going on for years and probably won't change any time soon.

@Aluzky It's the eternal attitude of not wanting to cause a fuss, more than anything. The real problem is when the choice is "look like an ass in front of your manager" or "die horribly".

... and this is where regulations come from. Every regulation is because industry had a problem it did not deal with.

Not just one country. This is available on youtube so safety can be improved all around the world

@@eetuthereindeer6671 But then where would we move the work to? When the price for every inch of cardboard goes through the roof (pun intended) people will care less about a once-in-a-lifetime accidental explosion.

If only CBS could expose the criminals in our gov

Same I can’t even remember how I got to this channel. Complete accident

The correct repair is to cur the entire head off and weld on a new one. I suspect the reason it wasn't done is that they would need to get a new head made to fit that exact diameter tank and that might not have been available. It's possible to make that dome shape with torches and a standard shop press from a flat plate, **but only up to a certain amount of curvature**. To make the full dome, the flat plate needs to be drawn in a press and that requires a giant press and drawing die set which is very, very expensive. It not something a local fabricator could. They would probably need to get it from the original manufacture and it's possible that was no longer an option.

@@ElectricGearsAnd since it was a pressurized vessel, it likely would have also been needed to be tested again

Hi davida1hiwaaynet I'm an anti-vaxxer, covid-19 denier and a flat-earther and I have a random suggestion, I suggest watch a 13 part series called _What on earth happened_ by Ewaranon to learn that the earth is not a globe. I got it in my about tab.

quick fix and cost saving as always resulted in huge loss. Management Problem!

@@ElectricGears I'd also hazard a guess that if he cut the entire head off, the pressure seal would be compromised and the vessel rendered unusable since welds won't be able to hold the pressure than that of the pressure seal. I wouldn't be surprised if the welder is as corrupt as everyone else in the wagon train of disaster. To him, what does he care? Hurry up, cut a disc off the vessel, fabricate a new one, weld it on, and leave . If it blows up, its Loy Lang's problem; they should've replaced it years ago.

Until you have work for one these manufacturing companies, you have no idea what they get away with.

@@fanbutton You're right about that.

Bu that would have required them to spend $50K. Too many companies view maintenance/upkeep as an expense to be trimmed as much as possible.

@@Wolfshead009 so true and such a sad thing

If you read the full report (here at www.csb.gov/loy-lange-box-company-pressure-vessel-explosion-/), they did measure DO periodically. That's how CSB knows that the oxygen scavengers were regularly low as stated in the video.

Management knew they were out of spec on O2 and continued poor chemistry and process control. No amount of tech investment fixes willful neglect.

This is the paper industry. They won't spend 1k, yet alone 50k.

Literally always involves fire…😂

I see what you did there

Faith based safety procedures....

More a shame that the safety commission (CSB or otherwise) don’t actively close these places down and place an injunction on their occupancy/business permit. If the safety board doesn’t close them down, why would a business owner with a fiduciary responsibility to employees and share holders?

@@bobroberts2581 I agree with shutting the facility down. But the shutdown should only be till they get fully compliant with all NFPA and USCSB regulations and if they don’t do that the business should remain closed till someone puts in the work to make the facility compliant and safe.

For real! This is exactly how you get people interested in safety, not with boring power points.

The water heater episodes were awesome. Watching that water heater launch through 2 stories worth of house and the roof was amazing

Blevy

I wouldn't keep a water heater running once the tank starts leaking. And a water heater isn't a pressure vessel unless at least three things fail (normal thermostat, high temperature limit and relief valve).

Great question? As this was an exposed tank couldn't they just strap a block of zinc to the tank as the sacrificial "anode rod"?

@@russlehman2070 Not really 3 as the single device is both the temperature and pressure relief. Can't tell you how many people have no idea and plug it when it starts dripping. Even more so on hydronic boilers whose feed valves are passing....

As a German, I'm astounded of the idea of a city making these laws and not a state or nation. Why should it be different one mile down the road? Why not apply the same laws statewide? What is the reason that this needs to have literally thousands of different rulesets just because you're in a different town?

They are amazing videos, but unfortunately every video means someone has died :c

@@AtilaCXL Not always, the previous video on Philadelphia had no deaths and only very minor injuries

On the one hand, I'd love to see more of these videos. On the other hand, I'd really like them not to have anything to report on at all...

They don’t have those kinds of budgets

This is a federal agency, I do not think it is very worried about subscriber count.

RIP ? Gods word says, there's no peace, for those not saved, by the blood of the lamb. Unless a man is born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven. John 3:3

@@saved217 The god of the bible is a story of a replacement father-figure invented by humans to fend off the existential dread of tiny ephemeral beings in a vast chaotic universe, and a shared story for cementing community. The god of the church is also a symbol of unquestionable authority used for assembling substantial worldly power and wealth for a few men, as the "Simon Says" game demonstrates.

@@bendafyddgillard Your free to believe, whatever you want. (In some countries that is. ) I am also free, to say your wrong . Truth is. People don't want to believe, they will be punished for their sins. Hence they deny, the existence of God. A very foolish decision. Just like one is punished, for crimes against human laws,( which came from God) one is also punished, for crimes against God's laws. Jesus saves, Satan destroys.

@@saved217 this is trolling.

@@bendafyddgillard Seems truth upsets you, which isn't my purpose. One must be prepared to die, at any second, in anyway. If not, many will not RIP.

I see why people complain about regulations in many situations, and here's what I say in reply. Some regulations can be tedious, others worthless and annoying. But. Safety regulations are written in blood. Safety regulations are most often written because the regulated situation probably has ended, nearly has ended, or is known to be entirely capable of ending someone's life.

SO true! At my work we have an air compressor + lot of shielding gas tanks for welding. The compressor operates at 7 to 7-5 bar and the shielding gas tanks are at 200 bar. All of these are potential bombs that could rip us all + the entire factory to shreds if they would rupture. While doing welding work you are also just within a metre of distance from one of these 200 bar tanks as it is attached to the welding machine next to you. Still I feel all safe around these pressure vessles cause they are regularly inspected and there are strict rules about those inspections to guarantee that these things remains safe so that me and my coworkers (and everyone else also using pressure vessels like this as both air compressors and shielding gas tanks are commonplace in any metal workshop) can continue feel safe around these pressure vessels despite the enormous amount of energy contained inside them..

It's more complicated than that. Yes, regulation is needed to ensure accountability, so negative externalities can be avoided. This requires proactive action to mitigate risk. This general idea should be obvious to anyone who takes the time to think about this carefully and without emotional biases. That being said, there is huge variability in the different approaches to enforce accountability. At the very least, you need the responsible parties to be penalized in cases like this. But even that is not always clear how to define. Financial responsibility is obvious. But do they go to prison? What about the inspector? And what about the city, how much blame can be deflected to the city? Even more difficult is figuring out how centralized inspections should be. Should it be a single national government entity that executes all inspections? Often the national government regulatory agencies lack specialized knowledge and they tend to enact arbitrary measures that are overly specific to popular events, may even be counterproductive, and they miss nuanced risks. But without government oversight, how can you rely on every individual negligent company to do their due diligence before it's too late? Could private inspection companies offer superior risk management in this context through specialized expertise and the gauntlet of market competition? Or are there too many conflicts of interest? What about conflicts of interest in centralized inspections through political lobbying and regulatory capture? These are the kinds of things that are actually worthy of debate. It's not just a switch you flip that turns regulation on or off. Most people realize you need proactive risk management with enforced accountability by government, but it's extremely complex to implement well.

Pressure vessels and boilers were regulated when this happened. That didn't make any difference. An inspector stood next to the pressure vessel that would later explode and kill 4 and didn't even look at it.

@@johnpekkala6941 Hey, any update on your work? All is well?

I'm wondering why they didn't replace both vessels with stainless steel, rather than just the one vessel. Again, trivial cost difference, in retrospect.

Yes, but insurance won't pay for repairs, only damages ;)

Why is that amazing?

​@@beeble2003 Because the information on the incident is presented in a concise, accurate way without patronizing the viewership or compromising the message.

@@acceptablecasualty5319 But why is that amazing?

@@beeble2003 because that's far from the quality governments usualyl deliver?

@@acceptablecasualty5319 That's an ideology, not a truth.

I was the tech they tried to hire and the company was Faultless... they use the steam to clean pillows, wash rags and blankets....for hospitals... A Temp agency got me in that door and I asked details about the maintenance divisions budget and tools.... no money... no tools... I seen where this one was going.... if the boiler at faultless was bad... the surrounding businesses may have the same problem going on!

ah I knew the other business had something to do with cleaning uniforms or something but I couldn't quite remember what it was called. man those temp agencies can be ruthless at times I'm glad your okay and weren't involved. I honestly still can't wrap my head around the whole thing, can you just imagine the shitty odds one was dealt to be killed by a massive hunk of metal crashing down through the ceiling onto you, from a entity down the street! it was like the old police chiefs wife being killed on forest park Pkwy when a slab of concrete fell onto her from a accident above and crushed her and the car. strange one off incidents seem to happen with particular regularly these days, around here. stay safe

Managers...not even supervisors...would ever order a startup of something that had the potential to be faulty. That is left to the line leaders or the foreman. This way anyone in management can deny responsibility. The closest management will come to a startup is writing out the line schedule.

@@fanbutton You would be stunned to know how often the case is otherwise. Managers like to throw their weight around on the technical level; and often demand shortcuts against safety protocols. If a failure happens, they'll blame everyone below them anyway.

What oxygen scavenger chemical do you use?

AOPA air safety vids are great and so are these. Awesome to know they reach a wider appreciative audience than the target pilots and engineers.

It would have been shut down to weld Then the welder would have informed them the metal was too corroded

Part of the reason why you have zoning laws.

It'd be nice. In practice, jurisdictions desperate for industry--Texas comes to mind--try to attract it with lax regulations.

Cause an industrial accident to give them more material. Be the change you want to see in the world.

almost like that's the wholeeeee point of these videos 🤯

@@StevenOBrien I laughed too hard at this lmao

@@StevenOBrien That was pretty good. :D