Accession Number:

ADA021902

Title:

Benson Incident: Comparison of Burn Patterns of Boxcar Damaged in the Incident and an Experimentally Burned Boxcar

Descriptive Note:

Final rept.

Corporate Author:

NAVAL WEAPONS CENTER CHINA LAKE CA

Personal Author(s):

• McEwan, W. S.

Report Date:

1976-01-01

Pagination or Media Count:

20.0

Abstract:

On 24 May 1973 near Benson, Ariz., a Southern Pacific Transportation Company train experienced a series of disruptive incidents leading to burning and explosion. A series of experiments at the Naval Weapons Center, China Lake, probed the nature of ignition and spread of fire in ordnance-loaded boxcars. These studies culminated in the full-scale burning of a boxcar loaded with inert bombs on wooden pallets. Photographs of debris from the NWC tests and the reconstructed boxcar from the Benson incident are compared and similarities in burn patterns are pointed out in this report, which was prepared on behalf of the Office of the Judge Advocate General of the Department of the Navy and the United States Department of Justice in preparation of the defense of the litigation arising out of the Benson incident. Conclusions as to the point of initiation and direction of propagation burning of the Benson incident fire are made.

Descriptors:

• *ACCIDENTS
• *FIRES
• *RAILROAD CARS
• ARIZONA
• BOMBS
• BURNING RATE
• CHARRING
• DEBRIS
• EXPLOSIONS
• FRAGMENTS
• IGNITION
• INERT MATERIALS
• NAVAL RESEARCH
• ORDNANCE
• PALLETS
• PHOTOGRAPHS
• TEST METHODS

Subject Categories:

• Safety Engineering
• Explosions

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE