Replying to a message of Frank Haber to Geo.:

 FH> From: "Frank Haber" 

 FH> Serious question from CityBoy:

 FH> I see friends with summer and vacation houses, all with those little
 FH> propane tanks (about 2/3 beerkeg size) nestled up against the
 FH> clapboards.  What happens when some clown puts a .30-06 into the
 FH> tank?  Wouldn't the fireball be bigger than the house?  Why do people
 FH> keep the things so close?

Around here many if not most houses have a 600 - 1000 gallon propane tank
nearby to run the furnace.

A couple of miles north of Plattsmouth (NE) and located at the junction of the BNSF
(E-W) mainline and the UP (N-S) line is an unincorporated settlement named
Oreapolis, which consists of perhaps a dozen houses and a bar.  A couple of
years ago a BNSF coal train derailed there  (at 50 mph) and one of the cars
travelled about 50 yards and hit one house's propane tank.  Even though the
tank was over 50 feet from the house the fireball ignited the house, which
went up so fast the occupants had just enough time to get out the door on the
other side of it.  The 9 or 10 hundred-ton loads of coal that also burned didn't
help matters.  The mishap occured around 4:30 pm, BNSF had the line back in
service shortly after midnight.  IIRC BNSF replaced the family's house (which
probably cost them less than the work to reopen the mainline).

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