Evacuation distances for bombs

I swear, I’ve never built a bomb and can’t be considered a bomb making expert as some would like to claim. But that doesn’t mean I don’t know a little something about them. I’m going to share some of that now. The motivation at this time is this post by Michelle Malkin:

…suspected al Qaeda agent and illegal alien Nabil al-Marabh obtained a license permitting him to drive semi-trucks containing hazardous materials, including explosives and caustic materials.

Knowledge is power and giving you this knowledge gives you a little more power to save lives. Perhaps even your own life.

According to the little laminated card from the ATF I have on my cork board here at work the following minimum evacuation distances should be observed:

  • Compact sedan (500 pounds of explosives): 1500 feet or 0.28 miles
  • Full sized sedan (1,000 pounds of explosives): 1750 feet or 0.33 miles
  • Passenger van or cargo van (4,000 pounds of explosives): 2750 feet or 0.52 miles
  • Small box van (10,000 pounds of explosives): 3750 feet or 0.71 miles
  • Box van or water/fuel truck (30,000 pounds) of explosives: 6500 feet or 1.23 miles
  • Semi-trailer (60,000 pounds of explosives): 7000 feet or 1.33 miles

Keep this in mind–we are at war even if we don’t want to be at war. We would be at war even we had no troops outside our borders. The enemy brought the war to us and wants to bring it to us again. Using our own equipment and our own materials is one of the ways they can do that.

Share

2 thoughts on “Evacuation distances for bombs

  1. I wonder why the small box van has a greater radius than the full size sedan, when both carry 1,000 lbs of explosive? More shrapnel from the bigger vehicle?

Comments are closed.