The Debruce Grain Disaster 1998 | A Plainly Difficult Documentary

[Music] it is the morning of june 8th 1998 and for the workers at the de bruce grain elevator wichita kansas it is like any other day they work at the guinness books world record holder for the largest grain elevator the structure is truly an impressive site with 310 grain storage silos and being roughly half a mile in length reportedly if storing wheat exclusively it can supply the wheat for all the bread consumed in the united states for nearly six weeks however this seemingly ordinary monday morning would be the backdrop to a disaster an explosion would spread a fireball across most of the vast structure killing and injuring several workers on site the disaster will become another in a long list of events linked to from an outsider's perspective a rather innocuous item dust but for those in the know grain dust is a horrific fuel for fires my name is john and today we're looking at the de bruce grain elevator explosion our story story's beginnings go all the way back to the start of humans becoming an agrarian species okay maybe for brevity i'll start a bit later on in human history there is extensive evidence of bread making in ancient egypt okay okay i'll bring it forward a bit more making use of machines to help in the processing of grain goes back surprisingly far to water powered grain mills of asia minor before 71 bc over the coming centuries thousands of grain mills would pop up along rivers across the world like with most tool driven industries the grain processing world would make giant leaps forward in grain production during the industrial revolution the industrial revolution changed human history forever where workers were brought out from the countryside into the factories a side effect of this was a population boom which necessitated ever more food production the improved efficiency in farming milling and bread production because of the industrial revolution meant that ever more storage was needed to feed the ever-growing population as such grain storage solutions became a very important cog in the machine of food production with the advent of the steam engine greater power was available to enable transport of grain via conveyor belts the first steam-powered grain elevator is credited to buffalo new york in 1843 early elevators were housed in wooden structures and produced an insane amount of dust and as such something that went hand in hand with these buildings was explosions and fires let's talk about why grain dust is such a big issue with fires you see grain when processed and transported creates fine dust particles which hang around in the air fine dust has a greater surface area compared to their mass and due to solids only being able to burn on their surface i.e the area that has access to oxygen dust particles can burn much quicker than many other solids the small size of each particle means little energy is also needed to catch fire if in high enough concentrations just a small spark can cause combustion and grain elevators with their power sources of steam diesel petrol or electric being a potential ignition source poorly maintained bearings or a small static shock being always needed to start an explosion as technology improved bigger and bigger grain elevators would be built eventually culminating in the de bruce grain elevator with each increase in size so did the scale of its disasters for example the washburn mill explosion of 1878 the westigo explosion in 1977 and in the 1990s de bruce would be no different but first let's look at the origin of the debruce elevator in the early 1950s the garvey grain company is overseeing a new construction the contractor chalmers and burton of hutchinson kansas are building a new grain storage complex completing it in 1953. the massive building consists of a tall square head house centered in line between two identical arrays of grain silos 30 feet in diameter and 120 feet high arranged free of breast but soon this is not enough for the garvey grain co and the facility is again placed under construction being extended symmetrically on each end an additional 33 silos are added leading to a total of 310 every inch of usable area is utilized not just the circular silos but even the star-like shapes between after the extension the complex is a whopping 2716 feet long and 92 feet wide the head house was the centerpiece to the whole complex and in all intents and purposes is the most important part of the facility's ability to sort and store grain let's look at the grain's journey right well delivery to the site can come in two ways by rail or road let's just say railcar for now it is emptied into a dumper pit below the head house here there is a small by comparison conveyor belt this belt takes the grain to the bottom of the elevator the bruce has four of these and they consist of a belt with buckets attached for scooping up the grain the elevator takes the grain all the way up to the top of the head house from there it is sent down two chutes into bins where it is weighed then the grain is dropped either onto a looped conveyor belt or back down to a rail car now the loop belts are pretty impressive there are four and each is a continuous 3 000 foot long conveyor these run along the top of the silos from the gallery floor level to the head house all the way along the top of the silos just to clarify there are two in each direction to the south and north wings of the complex grain runs along the top of the silos on the conveyor belts away from the head house along the gallery where a device called a tripper diverts the grain into the selected silo the conveyor belt continues along the entire length of the silo array and down the end of their respective end this belt now goes underground underneath the silos in two tunnels per array one for each belt here is where grain can be emptied from a silo where the conveyor belt transports it back to the head house for the process to essentially repeat the tunnels underneath the silos have connecting passageways called crossovers these allow staff to access either tunnel when undertaking work but there is one big issue with such an impressive example of storage and transportation and it has plagued the industry for all of its history that is of dust you see having such massive belts there are multiple take up pulleys to facilitate the constant flexing expansion and contraction of the belts this produced vast amounts of grain dust in both the galleries and the tunnels but with a problem there was an apparent solution that was in the form of pneumatic dust control and filtration systems garvey grain company had installed pneumatic dust control systems throughout the elevator complex the complex will be taken over by de bruce grain a company that was formed in 1978 the site had several tragedies over its operation with two deaths from being trapped in confined spaces in 1978 and 83 respectively upon taking over the company reportedly spent around one hundred thousand dollars on updating the dust collection system but this would prove to be not enough over the complexes operation several fires had occurred but luckily the actions of staff had stopped any further spread a fire in early june 1998 spread in the south array but was subsequently extinguished minutes from the accident report pegged the fire to a faulty bearing but history would repeat itself one week later on the 8th of june 1998 the 20.7 million bushel storage capacity to bruce grain elevator was very much below full when it was storing roughly 7 million bushels but this by no means meant it was safer at roughly 9 18 a fire broke out on the east tunnel of the south array quickly the flames ignited the dust that coated the tunnel floor the heat and pressure caused a dust explosion to occur the blast wave was directed down a tunnel causing further dust to ignite this meant heat was spread to the conveyor belt in the north tunnel through the crossover tunnels the burning grain and dust swept along both tunnels towards the head house as the heat and shock waves continued along the structure several silo roofs were blown off the dusty basement of the head house blew out spreading hot grain and flames up the four elevators blowing out the front and back of the building a fireball was created in the explosion and travelled along the south and north galley away from the head house the blast then travelled back down the conveyor belt tunnels but this time on the north array continuing to blow out concrete chunks from the structure it was estimated that at least 10 blasts occurred resulting in almost every section of the building seeing some form of damage although the explosions happened in such a short period of time the heat generated would result in burning grain for weeks by 9 45 a request for all on duty rescue team members was sent out but several staff on duty at the time went missing the surviving grain had spilled and filled the exposed tunnels leaving rescue and impossible and complex tasks two workers were killed instantly in the blast eleven were injured with some even stranded on various sections of the building's rooftop a helicopter and crane was used to rescue these workers by the next day some 90 rescue workers from wichita nebraska and oklahoma were digging with shovels and bulldozers whilst trying to rescue the missing workers by the 11th the death toll would be up to five as bodies were recovered amongst the wreckage rescue workers continued to search the south array for the final person but sadly their body would be discovered in the east tunnel but with the grain elevator in ruins and seven now dead the key question had to be answered what was the cause of a de bruce elevator explosion investigators from osha arrived on the site on the 22nd of june and started immediately gathering eyewitness and physical evidence several witness accounts pointed towards the south array being the beginning point of the disaster in the recovery works a lot of tangible evidence was lost as parts of the structure were removed to gain access to victims bodies the ignition source was located in an overheated bearing on the south array east tunnel conveyor belt the same area where just a week before there had been a fire disaster could have been averted if the bearings had been given simple grease applications it was also found that the dust collection system had been out of use for nearly a year and no policy of manual dust clearing had been implemented it was discovered that in some places even after the fire and explosions that dust was still at a depth of seven inches thus the stage was set for the 8th of june even though the blatant warning signs were there but a bruce disaster is a classic case of poor maintenance and poor management where the workers become the victims of cost cutting osha cited de bruce grain in december 1998 for violations of grain handling standards the company paid a fine of 650 000 in the early 2000s but this wouldn't be the end of deaths linked to the grain industry as a whole in the us or even the elevator in wichita two more would die in the rebuilt grain facility after de bruce's merger with gavilan grain in 2018 after being buried in grain on site now where would you rate this disaster i'm going to put it a 4 on my disaster scale as well as a 4 on my legacy scale [Music] this is a plain difficult production all videos are creative commons attribution sharealike licensed playing difficult videos are produced by me john in a currently [Music] sunny south eastern corner of london uk help channel grow by liking commenting and subscribing check out my twitter for all sorts of photos not some sods as well as hints on future videos i've got patreon and youtube membership as well so check them out if you fancy supporting the channel financially and always left to say is thank you for watching [Music]

Channel: Plainly Difficult

Views: 493,012

Keywords: Atomic, Nuclear History, Education, Plainly Difficult, dark docs, History

Id: 8j7FJ5P-CCA

Length: 14min 50sec (890 seconds)

Published: Sat May 07 2022