I'm surprised this isn't here.

There was an explosion a couple of hours or so in the grain elevator in Sunray. Word is that they airlifted five people out so far. Presumably, they are going to the burn hospital in Lubbock, but from what I'm told, they might not be able to handle five at once.

There was a track meet in Sunray scheduled for Saturday, but it has been cancelled.

News report with footage from a remote camera:

https://www.newschannel10.com/2025/03/28/crews-responding-explosion-grain-elevator-sunray/

I wasn't in town at the time, by my wife said it shook the house and shook the ground like an earthquake.

Lots of damage on the north side of town. The street to the north of me is evacuated, but my street is not. Also no electricity to the north of us.

I'm guessing the whole thing is going to need to come down… and it's one of the biggest in the country.

The two things I worry most about when going up in an elevator is the potential for explosions and the znc phosphide they use to kill mice and rats.

SunrayAg said:

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I wasn't in town at the time, by my wife said it shook the house and shook the ground like an earthquake.

Lots of damage on the north side of town. The street to the north of me is evacuated, but my street is not. Also no electricity to the north of us.

I'm guessing the whole thing is going to need to come down… and it's one of the biggest in the country.

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One rumor I head was the there are concerns that it might come down on its own.

eric76 said:

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SunrayAg said:

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I wasn't in town at the time, by my wife said it shook the house and shook the ground like an earthquake.

Lots of damage on the north side of town. The street to the north of me is evacuated, but my street is not. Also no electricity to the north of us.

I'm guessing the whole thing is going to need to come down… and it's one of the biggest in the country.

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One rumor I head was the there are concerns that it might come down on its own.

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I'm hearing the same. That's why that whole side of town is evacuated.

My house is right to the left of the screen in the video on the newschannel 10 link, so we have a bit of wiggle room over here. The folks within 3 or 4 blocks should probably not stay at home tonight.

If it collapses, it will most likely just be the few bins that have parts of the bottoms blown out. Every wall in that elevator is 8-12in thick reinforced concrete that goes down another 20-40 feet into the ground. Some of ours have been hit by tornados and the only damage was the windows being blown out.

I'd call my ex-coworker who's dad manages that elevator but I'm sure his phone is already blowing up and I just want to leave him alone.

One thing is for sure, there's going to be a lot of shoveling and sweeping next week for my guys and I at our elevators.

Well I had the good fortune to spend a luxurious 10 days in the Lubbock burn ward back in 78 and it had plenty of room back then. There were 8-10 of us at the time and spare rooms available.
Prayers for their recovery. Dang those burns hurt.

Glad you guys are OK, Sunray.

Praying for everyone in Sunray.

My 2 sons were at FFA contests in Canyon during the explosion. It blew up about 5 minutes before school was released.

My oldest was sick to his stomach hearing updates from his friends who were in town.

They cut natural gas to the entire town (might be back on by now).

Of course the boys are both in Clarendon for another round of contests this morning so I'm sure we will get an update when they get back this evening.

That elevator is a huge part of our little community and Skyland has been a fantastic supporter of our little school.

It was a junior high Bobcat relays. It got moved to Gruver but our kids didn't make the trip. Hopefully we will be able to host district track meet. My youngest was slated to run this morning but made the trip to FFA contest in Clarendon instead.

New update.

Engineers have checked it out and determined it is stable enough for people to return to their homes, so evacuations have been lifted other than the actual property.

Still gonna take a while to clean up the mess and figure out what to do with it next.

Still haven't heard any updates on the injured.

Heard a lot of the injured went to Lubbock for the burn unit. One of my son's friends has family that works in that burn unit.

Forgive my ignorance but what causes an explosion like this?

I assume combustible dust.

Flammable dusts combust very quickly because of the very high surface area of the dust particles. Especially when dust is hanging in the air where there's a good mixture of oxygen and fuel, it allows the combustion to propagate through the air super rapidly. The last piece that makes grain elevators especially susceptible is that the grain is typically confined, so it amplifies the explosive effect.

Corps_Ag12 said:

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Forgive my ignorance but what causes an explosion like this?

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Grain dust.

I was told some time ago that there is some concentration of grain dust in the air inside the elevator that makes it highly explosive. If it reaches that concentration, any spark can set it off.

As I understand it, outside of the elevator, you won't reach that critical concentration of grain dust.

I don't even like to use a cell phone inside an elevator. It's not that big a deal because with all the concrete and rebar, you wouldn't get much signal anyway.

I appreciate the education, not something I ever would have thought possible.

School will be without gas tomorrow. We got an alert to make sure kids are dressed for "cooler than normal" classrooms.

The Sunray Cheerleaders have offered to help folks with clean up and the FFA officer team has offered to help with cleanup and haul off with the cheerleaders.

A lot of really good kids in our little community.

Oxygen
Airborne Dust above the Minimum Explosive Concentration
Confinement
Ignition source

I liked to haul off with the cheerleaders when I was in high school.

Sorry. Couldn't resist that one.

My highschool science teacher did a demonstration similar to this:

BenTheGoodAg said:

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Flammable dusts combust very quickly because of the very high surface area of the dust particles. Especially when dust is hanging in the air where there's a good mixture of oxygen and fuel, it allows the combustion to propagate through the air super rapidly. The last piece that makes grain elevators especially susceptible is that the grain is typically confined, so it amplifies the explosive effect.

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Maybe they are just out of sight from the pictures, but where are the exhaust fans on the solos? I grew up in farming country and remember the large grain silos having fans to ventilate the dust.

JuneBug07 said:

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BenTheGoodAg said:

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Flammable dusts combust very quickly because of the very high surface area of the dust particles. Especially when dust is hanging in the air where there's a good mixture of oxygen and fuel, it allows the combustion to propagate through the air super rapidly. The last piece that makes grain elevators especially susceptible is that the grain is typically confined, so it amplifies the explosive effect.

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Maybe they are just out of sight from the pictures, but where are the exhaust fans on the solos? I grew up in farming country and remember the large grain silos having fans to ventilate the dust.

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Plenty of fans. Been listening to them run all night for 16 years.

JuneBug07 said:

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BenTheGoodAg said:

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Flammable dusts combust very quickly because of the very high surface area of the dust particles. Especially when dust is hanging in the air where there's a good mixture of oxygen and fuel, it allows the combustion to propagate through the air super rapidly. The last piece that makes grain elevators especially susceptible is that the grain is typically confined, so it amplifies the explosive effect.

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Maybe they are just out of sight from the pictures, but where are the exhaust fans on the solos? I grew up in farming country and remember the large grain silos having fans to ventilate the dust.

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The dust is only generated when the grain is moving. The kernels rub against one another and the equipment, and the flaking and broken kernels is what generates the dust. You don't see that many dust fans on the farm because operations are smaller, but most elevators have them. The electrical components are usually rated NEMA 4 (if I remember my code right) for explosion proof as well.

You will also see fans for aerating the grain once it is in the silo. Most people forget that a grain kernel is actually a living organism, and like every organism it respires an generates heat and moisture. The aeration fans push air through the stored grain to remove the heat and moisture and keep it from spoiling.

I think that there are two reasons to dry the grain:
1) Reduce the odds of spontaneous combusion
2) Reduce the amount of spoilage.

Drying with room temperature air would not be very effective.

Burdizzo said:

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JuneBug07 said:

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BenTheGoodAg said:

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Flammable dusts combust very quickly because of the very high surface area of the dust particles. Especially when dust is hanging in the air where there's a good mixture of oxygen and fuel, it allows the combustion to propagate through the air super rapidly. The last piece that makes grain elevators especially susceptible is that the grain is typically confined, so it amplifies the explosive effect.

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Maybe they are just out of sight from the pictures, but where are the exhaust fans on the solos? I grew up in farming country and remember the large grain silos having fans to ventilate the dust.

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The dust is only generated when the grain is moving. The kernels rub against one another and the equipment, and the flaking and broken kernels is what generates the dust. You don't see that many dust fans on the farm because operations are smaller, but most elevators have them. The electrical components are usually rated NEMA 4 (if I remember my code right) for explosion proof as well.

You will also see fans for aerating the grain once it is in the silo. Most people forget that a grain kernel is actually a living organism, and like every organism it respires an generates heat and moisture. The aeration fans push air through the stored grain to remove the heat and moisture and keep it from spoiling.

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NEMA 7 would be explosionproof.

eric76 said:

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I think that there are two reasons to dry the grain:
1) Reduce the odds of spontaneous combusion
2) Reduce the amount of spoilage.

Drying with room temperature air would not be very effective.

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As with so many issues "it depends"

In central Texas we put 16% wheat in the bin and ran straight ambient air (May-June) across it. On day one you could put your face against the vent on top of the bin, and felt like you were standing on the beach in Brownsville, Texas in August. Two days later, that wheat was down to 12-13%, and that same blast of air felt like a West Texas wind.

Contrast that with my cousins in Mississippi who put their corn in the bin at 22-24%, and they had to park a wood stove next to fan to push hot, dry, air across that corn to dry it fast enough.

It is a big thermodynamics homework problem where all things get dumped in

Ambient air conditions
Grain moisture content
Air flow rate across the grain
Dimensions of the storage bin

You fellas up on the plains get the benefit of all that dry air, but it can be done down here in Central Texas too if you have a fan big enough

Gracias

I saw a video of them starting to demolish the elevator with a wrecking ball.

That is one big elevator -- nearly a quarter mile long. If they are taking the whole thing down, then Sunray is not going to look the same at all as you approach it.

eric76 said:

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I saw a video of them starting to demolish the elevator with a wrecking ball.

That is one big elevator -- nearly a quarter mile long. If they are taking the whole thing down, then Sunray is not going to look the same at all as you approach it.

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My wife and I sat in the parking lot drinking iced tea and watching the wrecking ball swing for a while. Yes the skyline will definitely be changing.

Having delivered wheat to the co op as a kid, I remember doing moisture tests with my Grandpa and Uncle. You could not drop that wheat until a certain moisture content. Remember you are getting paid by weight.

Here's the news report.

https://www.newschannel10.com/2025/05/19/demolition-begins-skyland-grain-elevator-sunray/