VIDEO: Police Chief Captures Explosion on Body Camera

A police chief in Maine managed to capture a massive explosion on camera while at an intervention.

The fire chief was about 50 feet from an unoccupied house where workers had suspected a gas leak, when a fireball burst into the sky and a shock wave knocked several people on their backs, pounding their eardrums.

Read all the details below, provided by Daily Mail.

This is the amazing moment a propane cylinder exploded narrowly avoiding causing the death or serious injury of a police chief and volunteer fire fighters in Maine.

Limestone Police Chief Stacey Mahan attended the fire with volunteer members of the local fire department when the tank exploded.

The explosion saw flames shoot more than 100 feet into the air and sent debris flying in all directions.

Chief Mahan uploaded the footage on his department’s Facebook page to show the dangers faced by his colleagues in the Fire Department.

The clip was captured on Chief Mahan’s body-worn camera.

He wrote: ‘Those who choose to be a firefighter whether full time or as a volunteer know the hazards of the job.

‘I commend those that want to, “put the wet stuff on the red stuff” and lay their lives on the line each and every time they head out.

‘This incident is a prime example of how things can change in an instant.’

Volunteer firefighter Scott Patten, who has served with the department for 29 years was standing in front of Chief Mahan when the explosion happened.

He told WLBZ2.com: ‘I’m lucky to even be alive. I heard the propane tanks start whistling and the next thing I knew I was on the ground.’

Patten admitted he was hit on the face and head by the flames.’

Chief Mahan praised his colleagues. He said: ‘Volunteer firefighters—the kind of time and effort they put into their profession—they don’t get paid a lot to do what they do and they can pay a big sacrifice in an instance like that.’

According to Wikipedia, explosive force is released in a direction perpendicular to the surface of the explosive. If a grenade is in mid air during the explosion, the direction of the blast will be 360°. In contrast, in a shaped charge the explosive forces are focused to produce a greater local effect.

The speed of the reaction is what distinguishes an explosive reaction from an ordinary combustion reaction. Unless the reaction occurs very rapidly, the thermally expanding gases will be moderately dissipated in the medium, with no large differential in pressure and there will be no explosion. Consider a wood fire.

As the fire burns, there certainly is the evolution of heat and the formation of gases, but neither is liberated rapidly enough to build up a sudden substantial pressure differential and then cause an explosion.

This can be likened to the difference between the energy discharge of a battery, which is slow, and that of a flash capacitor like that in a camera flash, which releases its energy all at once.