DIY Explosives Experimenter Blows Self Up, Contaminates Building (fdlreporter.com)

Long-time Slashdot reader hey! writes: Benjamin D. Morrison of Beaver Dam Wisconsin was killed on March 5 while synthesizing explosives in his apartment... The accident has left the apartment building so contaminated that it will be demolished in a controlled burn, and residents are not being allowed in to retrieve any of their belongings.
It was just five years ago that Morrison graduated from Pensacola Christian College in Florida with a degree in pre-pharmacy and minors in chemistry and math. Though a local reverend believes 28-year-old Morrison was "not a bomb maker," USA Today's site FDL Reporter notes that "Officials assume he was making bombs that accidentally exploded and killed him... They have not publicly disclosed what chemicals were in apartment 11 where Morrow lived, only describing them as 'extremely volatile and unstable explosives.'"

Comments

Thoughts and Prayers

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm helping by keeping them in my thoughts and prayers.

Everyone should help in this matter by doing this.

This is the most helpful thing that can be done.

beliefs

[bugs2squash]

The man just blew himself up with explosives he made yet...

local reverend believes 28-year-old Morrison was "not a bomb maker,"

I wonder if the reverend believes anything else that flies in the face of reality

Re:beliefs

[olsmeister]

While I understand what you've teed up here, and I choose not to swing at that particular pitch, I do have to wonder why a 'reverend' is commenting on this. Anyway, my dad was a chemistry major in college among other things, and so had a lot of textbooks lying around when I was a kid. I remember looking through them to see if I could find a recipe for something that would go boom.

I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that the guy is a terrorist. He may just have been playing around.

Re:beliefs

[amiga3D]

I remember some of the stuff that I had in a chemistry set back in the 60's that I got for Christmas when I was 10. It would get me on a watch list today if I ordered that stuff. I did blow some stuff up back then but it was out in the back 40, not in my house. My mom didn't let me cook up stuff in her kitchen.

Re:beliefs

[Bert64]

He died dealing with volatile compounds, wether he was intentionally making explosives or not is unknown. The volatile state may have been an intermediate state of production, or may have been the result of an error during his process. It's not proven yet if explosive compounds were his intended end product.

Re:beliefs

[SuricouRaven]

You assume there is actually a need to burn the building to the ground and destroy the possessions of everyone who lives there. There is another theory: Massive government overreaction in the name of safety. The CYA school of law: Better to render a few dozen people destitute and homeless than call in a team of real experts for a risk assessment.

Re:beliefs

[Cinnamon Beige]

You assume there is actually a need to burn the building to the ground and destroy the possessions of everyone who lives there. There is another theory: Massive government overreaction in the name of safety. The CYA school of law: Better to render a few dozen people destitute and homeless than call in a team of real experts for a risk assessment.

Honestly, since they are opting for a controlled burn, this seems the most likely situation--most of the things I know of that would render it unsafe due to contamination to even retrieve some personal possessions while not having taken the entire building out already would also render it distinctly unsafe to burn the place down. Either it's going to explode some more, or spread these mysterious toxins even more...

I wonder what would happen if somebody near the building took them to court, insisting on a proper environmental impact statement before the controlled burn is done?

Things I won't work with...

[Anonymous Coward]

Reminds me of an old part of an old blog: Things I won't work with.

http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pi...

I'm guessing something with fluoride chemistry:

http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pi...

It's a really fun read about a shockingly horrible bit of chemistry done by our military science.

Re:Offended or not?

[TheReaperD]

Actually black powder and gunpowder are very sticky legal subjects in the US. Know your state and federal laws well before even looking into playing with them.

Fishy

[DarkOx]

How unstable can the remaining stuff be? I mean it obviously did not detonate when the fist blast went off.

My guess if the FBI is covering something up.

Re:Fishy

[rudy_wayne]

Yeah, I don't get the "we have to burn down the entire building". Won't that send dangerous chemicals into the air? Wouldn't it make more sense to tear down the building and send all the materials to a landfill for hazardous chemicals? Something seems fishy here.

Re:Fishy

[Alypius]

I posit lawsuits as a driving factor. Door #1 has "condemn the building as an EPA SuperFund site and settle up with the insurance companies after they pay out." Door #2 says, "Be stuck with the medical bills after we cleared people to go back in." There's certainly risk assessment going on, it's just not with the tenants' best interests in mind.

Controlled Burn of the Apartment Building

[McGruber]

The apartment building was successfully burned down on Thursday morning: Beaver Dam apartment burn a success; some personal items retrieved by bomb squad

Boom

[JBMcB]

My unbelievably excellent chemistry teacher in high school guaranteed at least one explosion per week in class. Kept our attention grinding through stoichiometry, with the side benefit that most of us went through AP chemistry the next year and got some cheap college credits. The last week he filled a huge balloon with a perfect mixture of oxygen and some exotic relative of pentane, detonated with a remote piezo device he concocted himself. The shockwave blew covers off of the fluorescent lights and rattled windows on the opposite side of the fairly good sized school building.

My AP chemistry teacher was a bit more pedestrian, but as a bonus for attending a study session on Saturday, he demonstrated thermite burning a hole through 1" thick plate steel.

Of course, nowadays this would be completely vorboten, and such activities would end you up on an FBI watchlist.

I wonder if authorities are being stupid

[raymorris]

I have to wonder if certain authorities aren't severely over-reacting. In general, amateurs will use fairly readily available components, many available at your local hardware store or Walmart. They aren't sensitive or all that dangerous until they are combined and processed to make an explosive. The dangerous chemicals are of course harder to get, and not at all necessary to make explosives.

The report doesn't say what was in the apartment, but odds of are the components aren't really the dangerous at all. After being combined and processed, you of course end up with an explosive, which is dangerous. I wouldn't expect that to be made into a powder and sprinkled around, though - the more dangerous explosives would be contained. The explosion that killed him would also be expected to set off any nearby high explosives. That's how high explosives are set off - by a smaller explosion, not by burning. Generally only low explosives such as black powder are set off by burning. Low explosives have to be in a container to explode, so residue isn't really a problem. (A LOT of residue built up somewhere is a fire hazard, though.) Black powder isn't quite as safe as something like table salt, but a little residue isn't really dangerous and even humidity will render it non-flammable.

In short, a good cleaning with soap and water probably would have rendered it perfectly safe as far as explosive residue. If the explosion did structural damage to the building that's another issue entirely.

Re:Offended or not?

[Sarten-X]

It is entirely possible to produce explosive compounds recreationally, without making them into anything that could be considered a bomb. The best candidate I know of is a highly-unstable compound that used to be often used in basic chemistry classes. Immediately after production, it is a wet paste, and can easily be spread in a very thin layer, preferably no more than a few grams covering a 2cm radius circle. Once it dries, that circle will make a lovely pop if disturbed, making it great fun to put on desk surfaces.

Of course, people are dumb. This particular compound grows in destruction exponentially as its quantity increases. A few grams is fun. A few dozen grams is dangerous. A few hundred is lethal. A kilogram in one location is probably a good reason to evacuate the building.

I am part of a group that, among many other things, handles explosives for educational purposes, partly to help chemists who are not "bomb makers" get an intuitive understanding for just how much of an explosive substance is actually safe, and how to treat them with respect. Sure, we do also build bombs, but they're also detonated safely and in a controlled environment, in full compliance with applicable laws.

Re:Offended or not?

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Manufacturing explosives in an apartment building is not.

Because there is a risk of losing arms, and that would violate people's right to keep their arms, right?

Re:Offended or not?

[Cinnamon Beige]

It is entirely possible to produce explosive compounds recreationally, without making them into anything that could be considered a bomb.

A lot of people make fireworks, not always professionally, and fireworks both require explosives and a reasonable level of competence in chemistry. They are also typically not considered bombs, and the same goes for any chemically-powered model rockets even though the chemicals involved are most definitely explosives.

Oh, and then there's dust. That explodes too...

The part that should be questioned is how anybody with a college degree in chemistry did not get taught better than to experiment with explosive chemicals in their own living space. This falls pretty firmly under the heading of things you do in a purpose-built building.