A preliminary report on the explosion has been posted online, accessible at the link below.

Medina, OH boiler explosion report
lner4472@bcpl.net

> A preliminary report on the explosion has
> been posted online, accessible at the link
> below.

WOW!! Makes me want to go out and wash our Decapod's boiler yet again!


Kevinmccabe@avenew.com

Mr. Payton's report has been circuating on the net for about 2 months now, it has already been debated at length (ad nauseum?) here and on several other boards, check the search feature.

The OFFICIAL report is now out, but has not yet been released to the general public. I do have reliable info of some things that aren't in Payton's report.

The most important thing (IMHO) that will come out in the official report is that the boiler was allegedly outsourced to someone in Michigan for "inspection and repair" by the owner before it was ever fired. While this does not lessen the owner's ultimate responsibility for ensuring the thing was in safe operating condition, it does raise the question as to whether he had been (falsely) led to believe it was.

The welding that WAS done, as performed, may actually have contributed to the problem by adding stresses that would tend to pull the sheets away from the stays.

Let's just consider the Payton report as equivilant to testimony from a professional "expert witness", no more, no less. The official report runs several hundred pages, it may make for interesting reading.

Bottom line, some people screwed up, BIG TIME. The owner, AND whoever did the "repairs". BUT there will be innocents paying the piper. The resulting lawsuits will look for the deepest pockets, not the greatest fault. Other clubs, with safe operators, will have insurance problems (at least 2 have already had theirs cancelled, others face prohibitive premium hikes). The insurance companies and kneejerk pols will probably push for new legislation for a mostly non-existant problem (1. The laws of physics haven't changed. and 2.Fiascos like Medina and Gettysburg are the rare exception, not the rule. That's why we notice them more than, say, auto accidents.).

Yes, the whole thing stinks... like yesterday's diapers.

steamnut@ptd.net