George Chidi (Fox 5): GDOT "may as well have planted a bomb at the base of a bridge & we're supposed to blame this guy?"

[AcidSnake]

Originally Posted by ronricks

There are no federal regulations related to storing material under highway bridges.

Depends on how much of the National Fire Protection Association standards related to the issue of storing material under Highway bridges...have been codified into U.S. Federal law.

[AcidSnake]

Originally Posted by LovinDecatur

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PYb_anBMus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qpb_4cAWP0U

This is more appropriate.

[bryantm3]

Originally Posted by AcidSnake

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qpb_4cAWP0U

This is more appropriate.

exactly.

[tikigod311]

Not reading through all this, but this guy needs help not jail.

[Need4Camaro]

Read through all of this... All I can say is that Georgia is a stupid state, if they can shift the blame on anyone but themselves..they will.. for all of those who may have quickly forgotten the Snowpocolypse incident that the Mayor so quickly blamed the weather man, truck drivers, and anyone else he could to avoid his negligence to prepare the city ... yeah ...

Here's the truth. The crackhead IS responsible, but he is NOT the only one responsible. Anyone buying that B.S. of non flammable materials is full of it. That fire burned from 5pm WELL into the next morning and Airport crews had to come out and put FOAM on it to try to put it out (which did not work) - the same stuff they use to put out JP4 fires ... that was NOT an ordinary fire.. ORDINARY FIRES DO NOT BURN DOWN REINFORCED CONCRETE. The crap under there was flammable and it burned like napalm.. you want to call it non flammable? look at the images of the fire - and how long it took to put it out..and how much damage it did..and tell me its non flammable..no seriously..please try it. I don't care how much you want to defend GDOT... Negligence and stupidity WAS involved in this bridge's collapse..end of story.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

Read through all of this... All I can say is that Georgia is a stupid state, if they can shift the blame on anyone but themselves..they will.. for all of those who may have quickly forgotten the Snowpocolypse incident that the Mayor so quickly blamed the weather man, truck drivers, and anyone else he could to avoid his negligence to prepare the city ... yeah ...

Here's the truth. The crackhead IS responsible, but he is NOT the only one responsible. Anyone buying that B.S. of non flammable materials is full of it. That fire burned from 5pm WELL into the next morning and Airport crews had to come out and put FOAM on it to try to put it out (which did not work) - the same stuff they use to put out JP4 fires ... that was NOT an ordinary fire.. ORDINARY FIRES DO NOT BURN DOWN REINFORCED CONCRETE. The crap under there was flammable and it burned like napalm.. you want to call it non flammable? look at the images of the fire - and how long it took to put it out..and how much damage it did..and tell me its non flammable..no seriously..please try it. I don't care how much you want to defend GDOT... Negligence and stupidity WAS involved in this bridge's collapse..end of story.

Since when is a mayor responsible for state-maintained interstates? He is just the mayor, not the gov. or GEMA director.

[ronricks]

Originally Posted by tikigod311

Not reading through all this, but this guy needs help not jail.

Actually he needs both. From the AJC article about him he is clearly a danger to the community.

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

Read through all of this... All I can say is that Georgia is a stupid state, if they can shift the blame on anyone but themselves..they will.. for all of those who may have quickly forgotten the Snowpocolypse incident that the Mayor so quickly blamed the weather man, truck drivers, and anyone else he could to avoid his negligence to prepare the city ... yeah ...

Here's the truth. The crackhead IS responsible, but he is NOT the only one responsible. Anyone buying that B.S. of non flammable materials is full of it. That fire burned from 5pm WELL into the next morning and Airport crews had to come out and put FOAM on it to try to put it out (which did not work) - the same stuff they use to put out JP4 fires ... that was NOT an ordinary fire.. ORDINARY FIRES DO NOT BURN DOWN REINFORCED CONCRETE. The crap under there was flammable and it burned like napalm.. you want to call it non flammable? look at the images of the fire - and how long it took to put it out..and how much damage it did..and tell me its non flammable..no seriously..please try it. I don't care how much you want to defend GDOT... Negligence and stupidity WAS involved in this bridge's collapse..end of story.

ditto to what CQ said....

We have to be careful where/when we place different types of blame.


One word on flammability though... This stuff was not Napalm and not all that flammable.

Most things will burn at a certain temperature and in a certain way.

There are flammability standards and most of these things are UL tested to meet those standards.


This material is not considered readily combustible or readily flammable.

It will burn if it is pre-heated to a certain temperature and in prolonged contact with something that is burning. Then once it burns, it burns hot allowing the fire to spread.

By flammability standards it is low on the scale. It even has some flame-resistance and self-extinguishing properties.

The problem is when someone builds the equivalent of a bond fire against it, it creates a prolonged hot fire. This wasn't something that was ever going to accidentally ignite without someone making it ignite.

Napalm is something that could accidentally.. .and well probably would... ignite.


So the debate will continue.... blame the GDOT for having some type of fuel for a fire or blame the guy that set a bon-fire next to it that made it ignite or blame both.


For me, I can't not blame the guy setting the first, because our world will always be full of materials that will technically catch fire under the right circumstances. The problem here is no one ever envisioned that if it did catch first, it would be enough to expand the concrete and make it collapse. It isn't like we see this stuff burning in huge piles when it isn't stored under a bridge. These materials are very common things.

[Born 2 Roll]

Officials say there is nothing to worry about concerning the structural integrity of overpasses along I-85 after a fire that reminded Atlantans of the collapse of a section of the I-85 Northeast Expressway viaduct near Piedmont Road nearly 3 years ago.

A fire underneath a section of the Buford Spring Connector (Georgia State Route 13) near Lakeshore Drive shut down the highway Thursday afternoon. The fire was extinguished shortly before 2 p.m. and reportedly did not cause any damage to the GA-13 Buford Spring Connector viaduct bridge or any of its support columns.

That's something [homeless encampments] [George] Chidi said the Department of Transportation used as an early excuse for the millions of dollars worth of damage created after inflammable material stored under the bridge burned.

Chidi is a former freelance journalist who now works for PadSplit, which is a company he describes as an innovative real estate startup attacking the housing crisis for the working class in America's cities. He said Thursday's fire reminded him of how the homeless people with substance abuse issues were scapegoated in 2017.

"Fires Near Homeless Camps Stoke Fears Of I-85 Bridge Collapse" (GPB News, Fri 24 Jan 2020)

"Another small fire breaks out near I-85 under Buford Spring Connector" (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Thurs 23 Jan 2020)

[arjay57]

If there's anything that will get Atlanta to deal with the homeless issue it's the threat of traffic delays. "Please don't let anything happen that could make us drive slower."