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Buncefield - who authored the phrase "largest peacetime explosion"?
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Posted By jom
I'm interested in finding out who authored the phrase "largest peacetime explosion" with respect to the Buncefield incident.
The phrase is often repeated. It's so quotable.
Does anyone know the identity of the person who introduced that phrase into the public record of this incident?
John.
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Posted By Robert K Lewis
Used before though for Flixboro and was probably more appropriate then in terms of blast pressure.
Bob
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Posted By jom
Robert,
Yes, exact same phrase.
So who pronounced that the Buncefield event was the "largest peacetime explosion"?
John.
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Posted By Robert K Lewis
Journalists methinks who want a good story.
Bob
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Posted By Brian Hagyard
I think you are probably spot on Bob - who ever knew a journalist who let a fact or truth spoil a good story!
Brian
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Posted By jom
Robert,
Was it a journalist wjo introduced the phrase?
John.
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Posted By graeme12345
more than likely a health and safety bod from the HSE / EA or DAFTRA
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Posted By Dave Merchant
You'll never get a definitive answer as the media were widely using that phrase within hours of the blast - it probably started in multiple reports at the same time with a qualifier of "likely to be" which was dropped as the consensus kicked in, so to find the very first mention you'd have to watch video of every channel and read all the wire chat.
We knew how it compared within minutes as the BSG registered it as a seismic alert (mag 2.4), and their station data is posted realtime. Nothing going puff in the UK has been close to that since Nypro, but it's still smaller than the USMC Beirut bomb.
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Posted By Ron Hunter
I think that was Krakatoa. ;-)
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Posted By Dave Merchant
Krakatoa is touted as the loudest sound recorded in human history, but it was a mere tinkle compared to something like the Yucatan impact. Even the Arizona Meteor Crater impact (~10,000 years ago) would have been a contender, estimated at around 15 megatons.
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Posted By jom
I guess it was, like an earlier poster suggested, just a phrase used by journalists for good effect. It seems to have very quickly become accepted as proven fact, when nobody offered any evidence to support it.
I don't think it matters whether it was the largest, second largest or whatever. It was bloody big.
Sometimes, though, assertions are made without evidence and repeated. There seems to be a point where they can become adopted as proven fact. Sometimes the matter in question is important.
John.
But it can be important when an unproven assertion
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Posted By Pete48
John, it seems likely to me that it was a typically sloppy piece of "mediarism".
The early reports talk of a large explosion(s) leading to the "largest peacetime fire........."
Then the reports of the scale recorded by the seismologists arrives, eye witness reports of a huge bang and hey ho. Accuracy is often the enemy of a good media story and it was as you say- big.
The formal incident report refers to the main explosion as "massive" and, of course, investigation continues into the mechanism of that explosion.
I think the phrase was also used at the time of Flixborough and that may be where the link came from. Journalists would obviously look at history and there is a lovely phrase waiting to be aired all over again. Explosion is always more exciting than boring old fire after all.
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Posted By jom
There has been a recent spate of news reports about the criminal trials of five companies involved at Buncefield.
This time the media are not saying "largest peace time explosion". Across the board they are using the phrasing "widely reported to be the largest peace time explosion".
Which is perfectly true.
John.
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Posted By D. Hilton
Thought it was reported as Europes largest peace time explosion?
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Buncefield - who authored the phrase "largest peacetime explosion"?
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