The world's worst next door neighbour

[Jinx999]

Scary house

[Morganite]

Forehead slap at the people going "They should just haul it out by hand instead of burning it." Oh yeah, that's a great idea with a house full of god knows what, made by a person of unknown consequence, who might very well be crazy enough to have booby-trapped something, and asdfghjkl;

At least with a controlled burn they can do it all at once, at a time when they can evacuate people and somewhat control the situation.

I'm sure the families of the bomb disposal people will love hearing that their loved one's lives are worth less than CO2.

-Morgan. Though I've got to admit; this *is* worse than the guy next to us.

[LynnInDenver]

Not only the booby traps. There's also the powdered explosives that are spilled in all sorts of places. And, when you deal with homemade explosives... a disposal team always needs to consider them 'unstable'. Try cleaning that stuff up without subjecting it to impact shock. And with it spilled everywhere, you'd never get all of it even in a cleanup... hello sudden explosion when you shuffle across the kitchen to get breakfast, five years later.
--

"You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor

[CattyNebulart]

Unstable is the word they found out because the gardner exploded while while working in the garden, some of the powdered explosive was spilled.

Really blowing it up is the only viable option, otherwise they will accidentally subject something to a shock while moving it out for safe disposal possibly leading to a chain reaction, and then there goes the neighbooorhood. and over the months it would take to do a safe disposal bit by bit something will go wrong.

This way they limit the toxic fumes, evacuate everyone beforehand and have firefighters on standby, and limit the things that can go wrong.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

[VladimirTherin]

Yeah, the thing about "home-made" explosives is you dont know WHAT is going to explode.

For instance: the easiest method to synthesize nitrocellulose (aka "guncotton") was discovered by accident when someone used a cotton apron to wipe up some nitric acid.

Everything *seemed* fine until the apron exploded after being dried.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrocellulose#Guncotton

...Around 1846 Christian Friedrich Schönbein, a German-Swiss chemist, discovered a more practical solution. As he was working in the kitchen of his home in Basle, he spilled a bottle of concentrated nitric acid on the kitchen table. He reached for the nearest cloth, a cotton apron, and wiped it up. He hung the apron on the stove door to dry, and, as soon as it was dry, there was a flash as the apron exploded.

[Bob Schroeck]

Latest news, off of CBS Radio: Today's burn day. In 12 or so hours we'll know if there's a neighborhood left for the neighbors to return to.
-- Bob
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.