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[i]The car fire occurred during LOX transfer pump chilldown. They gravity fed a bunch of LOX from the storage tank through the pump and then out some fairly small (3 or 4 inch) pipes under the pad perimeter road and into the swamp. No special pond or tank. It was this flow that occurred as part of the “Start Chilldown” command that created the cloud that caused the fire. Normally after the pump was chilled down they started the pump at low rpm and flowed LOX up the uninsulated transfer line into the S-1C first stage where it was vented off through the S-1C vent valve until the transfer line was chilled down and carrying good quality LO2 to the Saturn V stages. Then the fill of the vehicle started.[/i]
[i]Another LOX story occurred during testing of the Saturn 500 F facility checkout vehicle (non flight). They had chilled down the transfer pump and started it up. The large flex hose (12” or so) between the tank and the transfer line took the first big slug of liquid and split with personnel standing right next to it. They shut down the pump and fled the area. There was no valve between the storage tank and the broken flex hose so all anyone could do was watch 800 thousand gallons of LOX drain onto the pad surface and across the asphalt perimeter road. It was quite a scene of a large vapor cloud for a long time. As I remember the perimeter road was frozen for weeks. Amazing nothing caught on fire from that episode. Immediately thereafter a valve was put upstream of the flex hose or the flex hose was removed.[/i]
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