What happened at the Corpus Christie grain silo, Texas, USA?

On 7 April 1981, an industrial dust explosion occurred in the elevator at the Corpus Christi grain silo.

The explosion transmitted to a second bucket elevator with the blast waves and flames propagating upwards in the elevator, bursting the casing.

What caused the grain silo explosion/fire?

The incident was believed to have been started by mouldering lumps of sorghum that entered a bucket elevator together with the grain. This ignited the dust cloud in the elevator itself.

What can the industry learn from the Corpus Christie grain silo incident?

Investigation into the incident confirmed that the explosion spread to other elevators and broke into the head house basement through the dust control system. The explosion then travelled from the basement into a tunnel and on to the basement of a large concrete silo complex.

As it travelled the flame accelerated and generated a pressure wave moving ahead of it. When the trailing flame front then arrived at the dust cloud it developed a very rapid combustion process.

This explosion then vented itself in four directions, damaging property as it moved and vented through the basement windows.

The visible housekeeping at the plant was reported to have been excellent, therefore the only explanation for the extensive flame propagation is the accumulation of large quantities of dust inside the process and dust extraction equipment, including the ducting.