Richmond Hill explosion: Defendants now allegedly plotting to kill witnesses

[Fargo]

BehindBlueI's, Lots of respect for what you guys do. Saw my share of it in the Marines, just not the same in civilian life.

Curious why or how it was such a large explosion? If they were going to destroy one house it doesn't seem like it had to be that massive.

Don

As memory serves, they didn't really know what they were doing as far as fuel air explosions. They had tried previously to cause a gas explosion in the house and failed so Mark Leonard casually hit up a technician about whether or not the regulator for the house could be removed. He pulled the regulator and took a wild ass guess for how long to set the microwave start timer to touch the thing off. Apparently he hit the sweet spot of fuel air mixture and blew up damn near the whole neighborhood instead of just damaging the house enough to get an insurance payout which was what the plan was.

 

[87iroc]

As memory serves, they didn't really know what they were doing as far as fuel air explosions. They had tried previously to cause a gas explosion in the house and failed so Mark Leonard casually hit up a technician about whether or not the regulator for the house could be removed. He pulled the regulator and took a wild ass guess for how long to set the microwave start timer to touch the thing off. Apparently he hit the sweet spot of fuel air mixture and blew up damn near the whole neighborhood instead of just damaging the house enough to get an insurance payout which was what the plan was.

That's my recollection as well. It was the perfect mix...

 

[BehindBlueI's]

As memory serves, they didn't really know what they were doing as far as fuel air explosions. They had tried previously to cause a gas explosion in the house and failed so Mark Leonard casually hit up a technician about whether or not the regulator for the house could be removed. He pulled the regulator and took a wild ass guess for how long to set the microwave start timer to touch the thing off. Apparently he hit the sweet spot of fuel air mixture and blew up damn near the whole neighborhood instead of just damaging the house enough to get an insurance payout which was what the plan was.

This. Amateurs and explosives.

 

[CHCRandy]

I was at Richmond Hills shortly after the explosion, going through houses looking for injured people and then evacuating the neighborhood. I listened to the radio traffic of one of our detectives you could see one of the victims burning but couldn't get to them, and then the firefighters couldn't and he thought they were trapped, too. The fire was so hot I couldn't face the house from the opposite side of the street and walked sideways with my back to the fire to go from house to house.

I hope he gets the Hitler treatment in the afterlife:

[video=youtube;42oucm_lj50]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42oucm_lj50[/video]

One of my neighbors and a long time friend was one of the firemen who held the trapped guys hand as long as he could. Guess the guy was trapped, they couldn't free him before the flames took him. I read the court transcript and it made the hair stand up on my neck. Understand that messes with Rick to this day, he is a good man and a fine firefighter.

 

[churchmouse]

As memory serves, they didn't really know what they were doing as far as fuel air explosions. They had tried previously to cause a gas explosion in the house and failed so Mark Leonard casually hit up a technician about whether or not the regulator for the house could be removed. He pulled the regulator and took a wild ass guess for how long to set the microwave start timer to touch the thing off. Apparently he hit the sweet spot of fuel air mixture and blew up damn near the whole neighborhood instead of just damaging the house enough to get an insurance payout which was what the plan was.

Being a semi-retired tech that is a question I would never respond to for any reason.

 

[MRockwell]

One of my wife's Bunko buddies lives in the house to the right of the couple that perished on that night. I've been to their rebuilt house for a gathering. The empty lot next door, the first time I saw it in person, was a stark reminder of how evil and selfish a human can be. My thoughts go out to you and the first responders who were there, and I pray I never have to witness that kind of tragedy first hand.

 

[Tactically Fat]

As memory serves, they didn't really know what they were doing as far as fuel air explosions. They had tried previously to cause a gas explosion in the house and failed so Mark Leonard casually hit up a technician about whether or not the regulator for the house could be removed. He pulled the regulator and took a wild ass guess for how long to set the microwave start timer to touch the thing off. Apparently he hit the sweet spot of fuel air mixture and blew up damn near the whole neighborhood instead of just damaging the house enough to get an insurance payout which was what the plan was.

Some co-workers and I were talking about this the other day. Also mixed in was my mother-in-law's death in a propane explosion (RIP, Judy)

The chances for this to happen are almost astronomically high. Generally speaking, natural gas = methane. The LEL and UEL for methane are 5.0% and 15.0% respectively. If there's too little gas - no explosion. If there's too much gas - no explosion.
And for this dope to get this to happen to the house BY ACCIDENT? I seriously doubt that he tool a volume measurement of the first floor of the house, figured out what 6.5-14.5% of that was, then somehow figured out how much NG would flow through the pipes if it were unrestricted, then divided THAT voume/rate into the number of cubic feet needed to get to the sweet spot where it'd blow up... That's when the odds get to be almost astronomically high.

Then he had an accelerant in something in the microwave. Then he had to set the timer on the microwave. Then he had to hope that the microwave coming on would arc enough to explode the accelerant - and that explosion had to coincide with the concentration of NG in the house being JUST RIGHT in order to explode.

In my mother-in-law's case - it was a newly installed (but leaking) propane tank at her fiance's house. It took roughly 6.5 gallons of propane to explode THAT house at minimum. (27.5 max). A typical 20# cylinder will hold just under 5 gallons (liquid) of propane. Talking total volumes leaking out of a brand new 500gal tank and into a roughly 1300 sq ft basement... 0.013% of that tank leak killed a woman, seriously injured another, and COULD have very easily killed several more. Thankfully (can I use that word) the explosion started in the basement and, therefore, most of the resulting explosion/pressure wave went UP before it had a chance to move OUT. Again - there had to be JUST enough...but not too much gas in order to get it to work.

Richmond Hills was so devastating was due to that explosion was on the first floor. It had a chance to go OUT first.

It's not easy work to PLAN something like this.

Tragic none the less.