The Debruce Grain Disaster 1998 | A Plainly Difficult Documentary

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On June 8, 1998 Wichita, KS, the DeBruce Grain Elevator experienced a massive and devastating explosion.

The Disaster at the Facility, which was the largest of its type in the world, would result in 7 loosing their lives and many more being injured.

The event would be caused by something that wouldn’t seem dangerous…. dust.

00:00 Intro
01:21 Grain A History
04:39 Largest Grain Elevator in the World
08:53 The Disaster
12:05 Investigation

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Sources:

https://www.osha.gov/grain-handling/geeit

https://info.hughesenv.com/learning-grain-dust-explosion

http://genealogytrails.com/main/events/debrucegrainfire.html

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/ourgrandfathersgrainelevators.com/2015/11/24/the-debruce-grain-elevator-disaster-in-wichita-reexamined/amp/

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bw8dBi76LJibMjBhMGE3ZWMtNDJlMi00MzFkLWEzNGEtZjAwN2E3Y2VjYjUx/view?resourcekey=0-yQYyw8eEgusy-QbHtdzMvw

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Weighing_merchandise_Met_47.11.5.jpg

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49 thoughts on “The Debruce Grain Disaster 1998 | A Plainly Difficult Documentary”

  3. I work for a company that engineers and produces dust collection systems. We purposely create small dust explosions to test our fire suppression systems. Even some of those small ones in our duct work sound like a shotgun going off. Pretty spectacular during R&D when we get it wrong at first.

    Reply

  4. I was at work that day, probably no more than 6 to 8 miles away as the crow flies.
    We were in an office inside a larger building. We felt the strongest of the shocks from the blasts.
    Pretty much everyone who felt or heard the explosion was outside watching that smoke column wondering what happened. It didn't take too long for the location and cause to be desiminated.

    We used to go for Sunday drives and going past that immense structure was a common sight.

    My heart goes out to those that lost loved ones to that fiasco.

    Reply

  5. My father investigated this explosion. I remember him leaving home to go here when I was in my late teens. He even talked to me about it and how grain dust was very dangerous

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  6. To put these grain catastrophes in perspective, remember the Beirut dock explosion a few years ago, that had grain silo's right next to the primary fire/explosion. It was equal to an atom bomb going off.
    So when you bite into your next sandwich, remember that a grain worker risked his life getting you fed.
    Maybe this is worth a video Plainly Difficult ?

    Reply

  13. I think it’d be interesting if you added like- videos/clips/photos in your videos- i really wanted to see a grain explosion!

    Edit: I know you have photos I just added it anyways

    Reply

  14. I was an Electrician and worked for a company that did service work at this elevator and the company finally refused to do anymore work there because of the chance for explosion, among other reasons. That company also got the contract to rebuild the elevator enough to resume business after the explosion. I started there day after the last of the human remains were recovered and worked there until they were receiving and shipping grain again. I personally saw some stuff and heard some tales from some the workers that would curl your toes. I'm not going to repeat any of that here out of respect for those who lost their lives. Grain dust is a scary thing when it's not handled properly.

    Reply

  15. Grain Dust is nothing to be taken lightly, it doesn't take much to blow apart a car, there are several elevators around here with remnants of past explosions.

    One elevator fire a couple years ago saw my town evacuated for a few blocks around the thing.

    Reply

  17. I love when there's a little pause between 'John' and what the weather's like. Just the mental image of him leaning to see what the weather's doing is great

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  21. If I understand correctly in SI the total capacity is about 735 thousand tonnes and the used capacity was 190 thousand tonnes… that is assuming the measurement @ 09:20 is the wheat bushel? Or is it a volumetric bushel? imperial system is bonkers

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  29. I had to watch a video on this when starting my new job. Often makes me wonder how much of the building would go with a spark, since I work with carbon powder and highly explosive gases

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  37. It's definetely not just grain, we used to do alot of scaffolding on weekends at cargill meat packing, and there was an area you couldn't drive a truck through because of explosive blood dust….like an engine heat or spark could ignite it…and it's kind of macabre but I always thought that it would be metal as fuck to die by exploding blood dust

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  38. Please don't think I'm apologizing for the company not fixing their dust control system. My question is at least 50% of the employees there knew that that dusk control system needed to be running. Why didn't someone report to OSHA, reporting is anonymous, that the dust control system was not working and conditions were getting dangerous? We as employees have a responsibility to ourselves and our co-workers to ensure are working conditions are safe. We can blame the owners all we want and in this case they deserve to be blamed but aren't we responsible as individuals also? When I was an IT supervisor I discovered the power transformer outside the building was overheating grotesquely. It's normal color was kind of the pea green, the paint was burning off and turning gray. As I walked by the unit I noticed the color and I noticed also that there was a tremendous amount of heat coming off the unit. I went in the building and I called our maintenance manager to report the problem. I called the power company and then I proceeded to power off the building and trigger our ups system to power the computer room. I could have just walked by it it would have eventually burst into flames. As a supervisor for my company on weekends when no management was on site I was actually responsible for the entire facilities not just operations. By the time the power company got there the unit had cooled a little bit and the guy looked at me cuz I saw him out there and he says are you the one who reported this, I said yes. What did you notice and I told him about the paint color and he knotted and I told him that when I walked by the unit the amount of heat coming off was like someone opened another door. So he had already thrown off the big breaker on the outside and then he opened up the access panel and it was fried. He looked at me and said you know you probably prevented a fire and explosion by calling us when you did. I said well I not only called you I also powered off the building. He looked at me and said you knew to do that? I said I have a healthy respect for electricity my dad taught me. And I figured the minimum it would do if I didn't do anything was catch on fire and from there it would get worse. I mean you could get really technical and say well that transformer was outside so that wasn't your problem. But the reality was it was causing power issues inside the facility like a 60 watt bulb putting out 250 watts of power. I literally went all around the building about 250 desk and just hit all the power buttons to off on everything besides throwing all the breakers. If you have a building with a couple hundred computers in it besides the mainframes and power comes back on you can cause a massive Spike on the grid and even more problems in the building. I didn't even get a thank you, good job or kiss my butt. But I knew what I did was right and I took satisfaction in that the building itself took absolutely no damage and everybody was safe. That's all that matter to me and I did my job. We were able to operate for the 5 days it took to get a new transformer thanks to our 750 horsepower diesel generator for computer room. The way I interrupted power to the computer room automatically triggered the UPS and started the generator. We as individuals are responsible for our actions and our reactions to conditions that are unsafe. At least that's my point of view

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  40. So, a bearing caught fire and almost burned the place down, yet the company couldn't manage to grease the other bearings in the set. They had probably sacked the maintenance staff on the advice of a bean counter from a firm in NYC. Big saving – bravo! – you really earned your bonus that year!

    Reply

  41. A very silly thought for everyone… If the problem is the conveyor belts, do away with them! Set the silos into the ground, and have embankments either side of the silos that are 6 metres / 20 feet taller than the silos. Have everything covered, and set the system up so that trucks can tip off or drop onto trays that direct the grain into the correct silo. To get 50 metres in the air, you would need a 400 metre minimum ramp either end, and that would have to be on both sides. By doing this, this would remove the headhouse from the equation and the conveyor belts on the top of the silos.

    Underneath, 3 roads would run through the length of the silos. A manual opening / closing system to be installed on each silo. Several weighbridges (open pit / above ground) to be installed so the trucks and rail wagons can be loaded to maximum mass.

    Yes, the earthworks and civil costs will be horrendous, but, you do not have the maintenance or electricity costs related to the conveyor belts. You also reduce the risk of fire / explosion considerably, as there are very few places for the dust to gather.

    The other option is to use cranes, mounted on rails on the top of the silos. Similar to port container cranes. Bins are set into the ground for trucks to tip into. Crane then takes the 30 tonne container up to the top, and has a fitting to seal the discharge into the silo. This now reduces the risk of staff falling into a filling silo. The same system is empoyed on the bottom as listed above.

    I realise that it is a dumb idea, but, this is one way of reducing the risk of explosion. I do not know what the cost / benefit is for the idea, as I am not sure how to wokr this out. But, the capital would be dearer, and larger, but, the cost savings would be in reduced machinery, reduced dust collection. Eventually, the savings would pay for the civil works. Then, after that, it would be increased profits.

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  45. I just left that facility, the basement utilizes a jet belt, the bindeck on the south has a regular belt and tripper while the north bindeck uses a set of jet belts and distributors.

    Reply

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