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

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.

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.

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

[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.

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?