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Wait till homeland security hears about this! You will be required to have a government issued photo ID before buying a water heater or water heater parts! And of course only terrorists will have working water heaters, they will be made illegal for the rest of
Home's water heater explodes, hurtles 135 yards by Thomas Demane and Matt Culbertson - Aug. 14, 2008 03:34 PM 12 News and azcentral.com A water heater that apparently had its pressure valve shut exploded and hurtled 135 yards Thursday morning, causing “catastrophic damage” to the Phoenix home, authorities said. No injuries were reported, and the house's sole occupant was unharmed. At about 5:40 a.m., the water heater was blown out of a garage near Thunderbird Road and 38th Street. The damaged home will most likely have to be torn down, authorities said. It appeared that the homeowner and the man renting the house had been trying to fix the water heater, which may have contributed to the heater being launched across Thunderbird Road and landing near a bus stop, Phoenix Fire Captain Sam Richardson said. The man inside the home had been renting the house for only about 12 days. Damage to dental equipment he had in the home may be in the tens of thousands of dollars, Richardson said. Foul play was ruled out, and the incident appeared to be accidental, he said. However, due to the destructive nature of the blast — which also caused minor damage to several nearby homes — the Phoenix police Bomb Squad and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were on the scene as investigators worked to find what caused the explosion. Richardson said the aftermath of the explosion left the house “leaning” to one side. Jake Brown was sleeping in his room across the street from the house when the explosion occurred. “All I heard was a big boom and my window shattering,” said Brown, 16. “It shook the whole house.” Brown said he originally thought a car had crashed into his house. He added that if he had not had his window blinds, the shattered glass might have hit him. The man inside the home said the explosion “felt like an earthquake,” according to Richardson. Bill Lee, a salesman with California-based Water Heaters Only, Inc, said water-heater explosions are extremely rare, adding that he has only heard of one other similar incident in his 10-year career. Lee said the explosions usually involve both operator error and a technical malfunction within the tank. “(The safety valve) should activate at some point way before (the heater) turns into a missile,” he said. He added that homeowners should check their water-heater safety valve at least once each year. August 14, 2008 - 2:35PM Exploding water heater shoots through roof The Associated Press PHOENIX - A house in northeast Phoenix was severely damaged early Thursday by an exploding electric water heater, which shot through the roof and landed on a street corner across from a school some 200 yards away. Authorities say a preliminary investigation indicated that there may have been a malfunction in the water heater that caused a buildup of pressure. The owner of the house, which is near 38th Street and Thunderbird Road, was asleep when the blast ripped apart his garage about 5 a.m. He wasn't injured, and there were no other injuries reported. A neighbor's wall was damaged by the explosion, which also broke windows in a house across the street. One woman who lives two blocks away said the blast knocked all the pictures off her walls. You can get a free classic video called "Explosion: Danger Lurks" from Watts Regulator at http://tinyurl.com/yaey3nMade in 1948, it's like an engineering version of "Reefer Madness." Seriously, you'll love it. Some of the filmclips look like NASA launch footage. They play the real good ones in slo-mo. |