July 17, 2007 10:39 PM
Raw Footage Of NYC Steam Pipe Blast
Here is some raw footage of the steam pipe blast that occurred in Manhattan this afternoon.
Download | play 
Download | play (h/t Scarce for video)
A steam pipe explosion beneath a street near Grand Central Terminal this evening propelled a giant scalding jet of brownish steam toward the sky, sending commuters who had been heading home stampeding to safety.
New York City officials said one person was killed and more than 20 were injured, two of them critically.
The blast, on East 41st Street at Lexington Avenue, raised fears of terrorism, but officials were quick to dismiss that possibility.
saw it here live, in germany,, its A BIG ??????WHAT IF!!
terror terror terror deal.
Jeez... does even a mere fart in a NYC church raise terrorism alarm bells these days.
And Frist!
and with that DUDES!!!!!!!!
iam off to work time to make the bread .
great time here and ttyl.
regards,,,,
The Baker !
just go about your business, go shopping!
So it's a steam pipe?... or a transformer (those things are freakin' LOUD when they go off...)?
d/l not cooperating w/ me atm
Jesse Langham @ 5:
You're right... if it was eBaum's World, a logo would be stamped all over that video. :lol:
Yeah, we had that happen in our city a few years ago.
Pretty impressive when it blows huge metal vault doors up into the air.
Now Gonzo will be illegally tapping our steam lines
I wonder if that's what's been bothering Chertoff's gut?
A later news report said there was one death. From a heart attack no less. Truly sad. It's amazing what fear can do.
/Thanks Chimpy. Fucking Asshole
*fingersnap by boosh-the-lesser*
"Damn! I wanted to declare martial law!"
Well, to put a serious spin on this, our infrastructure is rotting.
Roads, bridges, energy systems, water systems, ports, rail....everything just ready to fall apart.
Will cost about $1.6 trillion to fix.....
http://www.asce.org/reportcard/2005/page.cfm?id=103
I wonder if cons will blame this on Clinton? hillary, that is, as she does represent new york. prolly.
GonzoD @ 9:
Then you could call Chertoff a medium; he is neither rare nor well done.
And that's it, I'm watching the news (ie. TDS & TCR).
Scary. First fatal steam pipe explosion here in 18 years. Of course, back then, we'd shrug and say 'it's new york.' Now it makes national news.
Experts on the scene have claimed the explosion that shook NYC was the result a steam pipe bursting.
However, not everyone agrees with the experts' assessment. Former Senator Bill Frist went on record stating, "I question it based on a review of the video footage which I spent an hour or so looking at..."
Bill Kristol added, "This is further proof of the on-going success of President Bush's strategy in Iraq. Isn't it? God, help me. Something, somewhere has to prove it."
When informed that the pipe which burst was made in New York City, President Bush replied, "New York City!? Get a rope."
Watch. Bush won't give a tenth of a sh*t about this either.
When most of our infrastructure is 120 years old we can expect more of the same.
Our cities crumble and our people can't afford to get sick.
Thanks for coming over here grandpa.
back around '98-'99, when i was living in the east village, all the manhole covers on 14th street (a major crosstown avenue that leads directly to the front door of the con edison plant in manhattan) blew off from a similar type of event. so, today's event is, relatively speaking, not that big of a deal. but that was back in the days before "terrorism".
i had previously been surprised by the news, but it turns out that what i had assumed was thunder earlier this afternoon was this explosion, about a mile or two from my home. LOL
What...yawn...excitin' footage. Wonder if the guy with the camera-phone is alright.
Anybody got some video of a whistlin' teapot?
With respect to the dead and wounded, of course. But accidents will happen.
whizkid @ 17:
NYC's infrastructure ex-/implosions are gonna be nothin' compared to the mornin' ya wake up to find out Miami has fallen in to a sinkhole.
I live in New York and the overwhelming majority went on about their business, even those in the immediate vicinity, but to hear it on the local and national news it was all about chaos! mayhem! horror! terror in the streets! Terror! Terror! This was not a terrorist attack but, terror! Terror! Terror!
I am however expecting a similar occurrence anyday now on the Republican side of the aisle in congress where there is at least as much steam and hot air build up.
By the way, "transformer" does not equal "steam pipe." Pretty impressive, but not as big as that explosion in Beaumont, TX, a few years back. No one expects the "water hammer."
So was it a steam pipe or a transformer? Or was it a transformer explosion causing a steam pipe eruption? I'm guessing steam pipe. Older infrastructure and steam breaks are nasty.
I don't care how dressed up I needs to be. Just make certain that I can run in whatever shoes I'm wearing.
Transformers: More than meet the eye.
B
The steam hates our freedom . . .
I bet Cheney got a good beat-off today seeing the video out from NY. For people like him this is no doubt porn, as it brings back pleasant memories of how he allowed thousands to be murdered for his neo-con dreams and corporatist oil profit margins.
I had a gut feeling something like this may happen.
God... you think you're finally getting over it, and then one subway ride through an empty Grand Central Station brings it all back. I was on the last train to go through the Fulton Street station before the subways were shut down on 9/11. The smell of smoke and the lack of people on a rush-hour platform was just the first indication that we'd gone down the rabbit hole. Six years later, the images of smoke and debris on a city street are just as acutely painful, and the bastard Mad Hatter Bush just throws another tea party as a force of nature pushes us all back into a code orange mentality.
Headline! Man cuts himself shaving! Link to al Qaeda suspected but no concrete connection as of yet. White House spokesman says "Be afraid." Homeland security raising terror threat level to "RUN AWAY". President Bush quoted as saying "We have to shave over there so they don't shave us over here." Film at 11:00
Ok - I work on 41st & 3rd, my building was evacuated, and people were really scared, including myself. Staring at this huge gaping hole that was the width of a city block, spewing out smoke like a volcano, you can't help but think what is going on. I'm a native new yorker for 7 years, lived through 9/11, and I don't watch Fox News to find my daily occurence to get scared over, but for a while, including myself, people were really frazzled, so cut us some slack, OK? If you were there first hand, instead of watching it on the news, its entirely different. thank you
That's just Cheney's teaser. Wait 'til you get a load of his BIG surprise. Coming soon, to a BFEE city near YOU! pre-primed and terrorized for maximum effect.
The first part looks like a Starbucks. The same one that refused water on 9/11 for firefighters unless they paid?
Court of Progressive Justice @ 25:
No doubt about it.
Steam. It's the enemy, alright. Sneaky. Wispy. Bursts forth with a big noise, then disappears into thin air. Never stands up and fights like a man.
.
.
whizkid @ 17:
Hey, count your blessings. Grandpa might have come to Canada instead - and you'd be freezing your ass off for half the year. You'd have health care, but still . . .
:o)
Wow. I wonder how that tow truck driver made out? You know, the one in the sink whole? That was some steam pipe... :shock:
Infrastructure may not be a sexy talking point but it's the one that gets you. In my hometown, they let it get so bad the Sierra Club sewed the city for open sewers, and water mains kept bursting and flooding neighborhoods, and even gas mains exploded and killed an old lady. I moved away after that. Wake up, America, your house is built on shifting sands...
Rabbit @ 33:
Man, people are dumb
baby jesus is not responsible for this,
baby jesus is too busy finding water in Darfur
Man. This must have really freaked out some New Yorkers. Best wishes to the injured, and condolences to the family of the deceased.
It's a metaphor for American's patience with Bush and his criminal gang...
Must be Osama blowing of some steam !!
Shame on them for fearmongering. I turn on the tv last night and see "BREAKING NEWS: Keep All Windows Closed" with a picture of a bomb site in NYC. They knew at this point it was a pipe explosion, but if you turn on the tv it seemed as if a chemical bomb or something went off. Assholes. Took 5 minutes of watching to learn what happened which could have easily been put in the caption.
anonymously @ 29:
Transformers come in all sizes. Some are mounted on poles, some have their own concrete vaults. They can range in size from a coffe cup to an SUV and beyond. It all depends on what the application is. I used to have a promising career in the Electrical trade. 4700 hours into my apprenticeship. over.gone.never to be completed. Thank You fear-mongers for destroying our economy!
I'm afraid this is not an accident, but rather a false flag test just as it happened on 9/11...
... In fact, this exact scenario was predicted 5 days ago here:
http://snipr.com/1oi63
So not what are you going to do about it?
Don't lament a career servicing transformers. I don't know about today but those things were cooled with liquid cancer. PCBs by the gallon. Better old asbestos than an old transformer at Grand Central.
W said "underground terrists" are steamed. Obviously related to Al Kay Duh. "I'm gonna bomb (nuke) Iran." heh! - heh! - heh!
Ruthless People @ 21:
I work a few blocks from Grand Central and we definitely went on with business as usual, although there were many people (tourists & natives alike) who stood around taking pictures and speculating.
Amen Ruthless People. We often hear about the Brit's stiff upper lip response to catastrophes and are made to feel as if we Americans are total hystrionic drama queens. I couldn't help but notice that the more frenetic the media are and the more they ramp up the volume of their voices and the ! more ! exclamation ! marks ! they ! can ! add ! to ! the ! news! the crazier the average American starts to act. A word to the newscasters---"Cool it! We can be just as sane and just as sensible as the next guy.
of course the Cons will blame it on Clinton:
RepubliCON talking point: "Clinton's administration did nothing to make sure this blast would never happen. Therefore, it's all Cllinton's fault."
The only terrorists americans really have to worry about are the two in the whitehouse.
Oh c'mon, a geyser of hot air and sewage shoots into the air and no one has a joke about the Beltway or Congress?
It must be early.
High energy steam piping is nothing to screw with. If steam chemistry isn't maintained within tight tolerances, it'll tear up the piping in short order. Once the steam finds a pathway out of the pipe, it'll cut throught any material in it's way like a hot knife through butter. Steam can store a tremendous amount of energy, as is aparent from those clips.
If you are going to be using the stuff, you've got to invest in the infrastructure that contains it.
The blast, on East 41st Street at Lexington Avenue, raised fears of terrorism, but officials were quick to dismiss that possibility.
Rudy's probably gonna add this to his campaign shtick "Yeah, this time it was a steam pipe. But next time it'll be terrorists! You can count on it. Hey, remember, I was mayor during 9/11" I'll bet no one in the area of that blast thought for a second it was terrorists. That's our media bringing it up because, you know, they get paid to keep the fear dialed up.
Bloomberg for president.
Competence in action.
The explosion didn't trigger a fear response in everyone. At least a few people seemed to be (very carelessly) enjoying the drama at the beginning of this video,, casually standing around taking pictures from what looked like 20 feet away. Hell, I would have gotten of there ASAP, not knowing when another piece of the street could come hurling at me or what, besides steam, was being spewed into the air. I'd say they were just plain stupid.
Mark Richards @ 53:
:lol:
StevenMN @ 54:
curiosity is not stupidity. new york is not baghdad. ease up a bit.
The media is doing its job of psych warfare aginst the public. Using the scene of a big hole in the ground and men with hazmat suits on. Their just milking it. People running like mad thinking that its terror related. People going into cardiac arrest scarred out of their brains. The fearmongerers are just loving it.
As soon as news filtered out of a steam pipe blast in Manhattan yesterday evening, everyone's first thought was terrorism, proving once again that in the six terror free years since 9/11, the Bush administration has created a United States of hysteria - and handed the terrorists a victory they could never have achieved alone - changing our very way of life.
Investment banker Heiko Thieme summed up the situation yesterday, telling the media, "Everybody was a bit confused, everybody obviously thought of 9/11," following a underground steam pipe explosion that sent smoke billowing into the late afternoon New York skyline.
Yesterday's events, though tragic for those injured and the one person that died, were reminiscent of last year's incident in Washington D.C., where huge swathes of the city as well as schools and other buildings were evacuated and shut down after a construction drill was mistaken for gunfire in the Capitol Hill area.
The opportunity to parade SWAT teams, sniffer dogs, police with assault weapons and armed FBI tactical units wearing flak jackets did not go to waste on that occasion and the reaction was another damning indictment and a realization that the "terrorists" have won - they have changed our way of life and turned us into spineless scaredy cats who immediately panic at any loud noise.
from prison planet dot com
Ok, calling them "stupid" might have been harsh, But it was certainly careless to remain so close. Initial reports were of a transformer blowing which meant PCB's. There could have been gas line ruptures and its already been confirmed that most of the debris contained asbestos. Curious or not I would have gotten out of there ASAP.
Reminds me of a movie where complicated equipment like massive air conditioners were exploding, and the gov blamed it on terrorism.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=291QciJA2Wo
Look who's back in the game:
Rudy, Discredited By 911, Embraces '7/18'
Looks like Guilliiani had the jalapenos.
Back in the 30's and 40's Superman was always rescuing subways and trains from destruction.
Was it Al Qaeda?
Why doesn't C&L change the headline - it was NOT a transformer.
What;s worse, airborne PCBs or airborne Asbestos?
We all know there is no such thing as a safe level of exposure to asbestos in dust. Yet, the air has been declared clean by "officials" in New York City (while in the same breath noting there is asbestos in the dust). Just once, I'd like to see media reporting that stacked what scientists know against what government says.
And if this steam pipe explosion is like the one in downtown Birmingham a few years ago, then the steam came out of the pipe at skin-melting temperatures of 1,000 degrees plus Fahrenheit...a pretty hellish ordeal.
Mr. Blade2 @ 58: ... a underground steam pipe explosion that sent smoke billowing into the late afternoon New York skyline.
Phuz01 @ 28: ... Six years later, the images of smoke and debris on a city street are just as acutely painful
Hell, steam is steam is steam, it´s not smoke, get it?
Today, I see that CNN has some quotes about asbestos. Six of ten dust samples are positive for asbestos after this blast, but "officials" are saying the air is fine.
And I believe that why?
Infrastructure is crumbling in NYC - when I lived there in the 90's, it was a mess. I can only imagine that it's worse now. If we can spend billions on this mess in Iraq, why can't we fix our cities (like New Orleans and NYC)? This is yet another reason the Republicans are not fit to lead. They don't give a shit about fixing anything.
O/T ab it......but Fox is reporting on some breaking news of someone at the Oakridge Plant selling nuclear secrets to someone somewhere. Sounds big. The reporter is swishing her hair around, her eyes are getting big and her lips are getting all pouty. Fearmongering is sooooo sexy!
Why doesn’t C&L change the headline - it was NOT a transformer.
I have seen this before on C&L and it is not pretty. The inability to admit a mistake and correct it is not only an unattractive trait, it is something C&L holds in common with Shrub. People who cannot admit error and accept correction give the impression of being blockheads. To make it worse, many of these same people, when confronted with an error and asked why it was not corrected, then get snooty and insult the person asking for correction. Then they give some ridiculously convoluted excuse for why they were "really correct. YOU'RE the one who is wrong."
See "Tony Snow."
C&L, I do wish you would try to be better than Bushies. If it was a winger site which had made a mistake and not corrected it, you would be crowing about what idiots they are. Have some integrity. Here's how you deal with errors:
1.) correct the error.
2.) issue the following "I have corrected the error and I appreciate your bringing it to my attention."
See? That's not so hard. You don't lose face. You don't need to make any excuses. You can admit you are wrong occasionally just like everyone else, and people will say "Hey, that person admits when s/he is wrong. I can trust him/her." Otherwise, you appear to be as disingenuous as a Bushnik. If you want to critique "so-called journalists" in the MSM and in the wingersphere, you need to be willing to stand a step above them. Lots of bloggers correct their errors and some even leave the error up there with a line through it to show they had made a mistake but corrected it. Those guys, I trust (And it's funny, I never see anyone on a rightwing site do that).
Did any adjacent buildings fall hours later?
CK, with all due respect, you need to back the hell off.
Without getting into specifics, Logan is unable to change the title of a post once it has been published. Only John Amato and I can. John is ill and recuperating and I am trying to administer the entire site in between my actual job and taking care of my children. On my list of priorities, the title of this post was not high. The correct information was in the body of the text.
I almost didn't change it simply because I take HUGE umbrage to your attitude and need to be nasty and compare us with Bushies. YOU do my job(s) every single day, seven days a week, 18-20 hours a day, and YOU see how important "transformer" vs. "steam pipe" looks to you.
We're not a news site. We're a political opinion blog. It's not like we categorized Vitter or Foley as a Democrat.
Next time, CK, try to remember you catch more flies with honey instead of vinegar.
I want to license this clip for a TV show, does anyone know who owns it, or have any info?
Thank you
Kalen
[I am asking someone to get in touch with the person who supplied the tape. If I get an answer, I'll send it to the email addy you supplied when you signed up-Sitemonitor]
Nicole Belle @ 71:
Someone was torn a new one...LOL!!!!
To bad Americans do not put America first. Lets go invade Iran before the rest of America falls apart.
Update:
After video analysis, it's clear that the surveillance video distributed by the authorities is heavily Photoshoped.
The discussion about this starts at the bottom of the 18th page here:
http://snipr.com/1oi63
Comments are closed on this entry