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3 killed, 39 homes destroyed in explosion of unknown origin in Evansville, Illinois

It is possible for that much damage to occur from a hot water storage tank overheating due to failure of a temperature/pressure relief valve.

Not with a flash of flame.

Mythbusters did an episode on hot water cylinders.
 
Not with a flash of flame.

Mythbusters did an episode on hot water cylinders.

Don't recall how the Mythbusters raised the pressure - did they use gas heat? A live gas supply connected to an exploding heater could result is a brief burst of flame. Not saying it did in this case, just speculating.
 
The Mythbusters had to bypass 3 separate safety systems to make the water tanks explode.
 
Not to mention you also have Illinois, not Indiana in the title as well.


Just noticed this thread. I'm from Indiana, and my grandparents lived in Evansville until I was about five years old. I misread the title as Evansville, Indiana, which was actually correct.

I checked, and there is an Evansville in Illinois, but the population is less than 1000. Evansville, Indiana, conversely, has a population of over 100,000.

I see the explosion is in a different part of town from where my grandparents lived (at least where they lived when I was born; I know that they lived in at least one other house during their time in Evansville, but I don't know the address).
 
Wasn't there some kind of gas-service catastrophe that damaged a couple dozen homes like this in Boston a few years back?


That was 2018, in the Massachusetts towns of Lawrence, Andover, and North Andover, aka the Merrimack Valley. The cause was overpressurized gas supply lines, which caused dozens of fires and small explosions at weak points in the connections to gas appliances in homes and businesses.

In 1983 there was a gas line pressure surge in East Boston, that had similar effects.
 
That was 2018, in the Massachusetts towns of Lawrence, Andover, and North Andover, aka the Merrimack Valley. The cause was overpressurized gas supply lines, which caused dozens of fires and small explosions at weak points in the connections to gas appliances in homes and businesses.

Thank you! I was having trouble placing it.
 

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