"Forest Fire" responsible for a 2.5mi *mushroom cloud*?

[Peter Gutmann]

"J.A. Terranson" <measl at mfn.org> writes:

>Wow!  I had no idea ammonium nitrate (ANFO for all intents and purposes,
>yes?) could produce that kind of result!  How much was there?

4,500 tons, of which only 10% detonated.

(The nitrate was desensitised with ammonium sulfate and stored outside,
whenever anyone needed any they'd drill holes and blast off chunks with
dynamite.  Ammonium nitrate has a complex chemical reaction that wasn't really
understood until after the Texas City disaster in 1947, there had previously
been fires in several bulk ammonium nitrate stores without any explosions.  At
Oppau it was assumed that amatol (a standard military explosive, ammonium
nitrate + TNT) had somehow got into the piles and that was what caused the
explosion).

Peter.