Re: Sprinkler System Blamed for Death
Interesting case. A few thoughts, for what they are worth:
The report states that the stove was electric, so presumably there was gas for hot water and/or heat. IMHO, trusting the gas company to tell you whether their pipe and equipment did not fail is naive in the extreme. Maybe the investigator followed up, maybe not. My opinion is based on personal experience: gas from a cracked pipe in the street difused into a building and exploded when a service person lit a pilot light, and the gas company denied it all the way through court, even though the pipe was eventually produced in court and shown to be damaged. BTW, the explosion blew glass windows a similar distance to what the investigator reports, which no conclusions should be drawn from, I'm just saying. Several other natural gas explosions in houses that I have seen show a similar type of force (I don't know that there was natural gas service there or not).
Glycerine and propylene glycol are both Class IIIB combustible liquids with very low vapor pressures. There is no report in any literature (other than the two fire investigations) that I could locate that indicates that either liquid in any form is liable to detonate. A volume of very finely aerosolized glycogen introduced under pressure (pre-heated, that is) to a very hot atmosphere might do the trick, I suppose, but I will have to see it to believe it.
Like I said, interesting case. I intend to keep looking for data on the anti-freeze. Stay tuned (or not).