Major explosion in downtown Nashville

[catsmate]

I thought I heard that they run on natural gas.

That is quite common for datacentre environments, the often use on-site tankage for at least a few days.

 

[Checkmite]

Even so, note that it left most of the structural walls standing. I'd say this guy fell short of what he could have done with a full RV.

Maybe, maybe not. I'm not an explosives expert; but I tend to think this was an example of probably one of the most powerful explosions a person can create with average-person-obtainable materials and a vehicle the size of an RV to carry them. Certainly "up there" at least, if perhaps not THE most powerful.

The structural walls that are still standing are those parallel to the force of the blast. Think of the Tunguska explosion, where the trees directly underneath the aerial meteor explosion were still standing, stripped of their branches. Same general effect here, I think.

It is admittedly speculation on my part; but I think if the AT&T building the bomb went off in front had been, say, a typical office building rather than a disaster-reinforced tele center, we'd be looking at more "Oklahoma City type" damage to that building.

 

[Checkmite]

Daily Mail: Speakers were playing Petula Clark "Downtown" when it exploded.

Not quite accurate. We have video with audio of the moment it exploded and it was just playing an "evacuate now" message.

What the Daily Mail is perhaps not conveying very well is that the announcements being played over the speakers changed over time. It has been variously reported that the speakers originally were blaring a warning that there was "a bomb" and that everyone should evacuate, interspersed with a few segments of music. It hasn't been previously reported "what kind" of music specifically; but this morning there was a report that the song was the one you mentioned.

At some point, the speakers began announcing a 15-minute countdown, again interspersed with the evacuation warning. Police have noted that the vehicle did not explode at the end of the countdown, though; it didn't explode until a couple of minutes later. At the end of the countdown the recording just cycled through the "evacuate now" message until it finally did go off.

 

[RecoveringYuppy]

But wait a second...what difference does it make? Are you seriously contending those photographs are staged somehow?

Like I said elsewhere I currently believe your photos are what you think they are, however there are places where people are confusing tornado damage photos for this incident.

 

[William Parcher]

Daily Mail: Warner previously had a business installing burglar alarms and more recently worked as an IT subcontractor. The RV had lots of cameras on it.

 

[William Parcher]

Police have noted that the vehicle did not explode at the end of the countdown, though; it didn't explode until a couple of minutes later.

I read that about 10 minutes passed when it exploded after countdown zero. Maybe he manually triggered it after waiting for all the evacuees to clear out.

It's amazing that nobody was killed other than him with so much destruction.

 

[William Parcher]

Would this be one of those fertilizer bombs or what?

 

[JoeMorgue]

Would this be one of those fertilizer bombs or what?

Ask the Daily Mail since they know everything.

 

[Mike!]

Would this be one of those fertilizer bombs or what?

I imagine over the next few days more details will filter out to the media. We know the who and where now, but we're still waiting on the what and why. We may never get an answer to the why, unless they find a note or manifesto.
If the camper had cameras on it, where were they feeding to? Just inside so he could monitor what was going on outside without drawing attention to himself, or was there another remote location recording them?

 

[crescent]

It is admittedly speculation on my part; but I think if the AT&T building the bomb went off in front had been, say, a typical office building rather than a disaster-reinforced tele center, we'd be looking at more "Oklahoma City type" damage to that building.

I've been having a similar speculation. Those old Ma Bell buildings are not built like office buildings, even if they are surrounded by them.

For comparison, there is a functional analogue in Manhattan which is somewhat well known and is also the subject of conspiracy theories:

33 Thomas Street

As it was built to house telephone switching equipment, the average floor height is 18 feet (5.5 m), considerably taller than in an average high-rise. The floors are also unusually strong, designed to carry 200-to-300-pound-force-per-square-foot (9.6 to 14.4 kPa) live loads.[7]

The exterior walls have no windows (other than the entrance) and are made from precast concrete panels clad with flame-treated textured Swedish granite faces.

It is often described as one of the most secure buildings in America, and was designed to be self-sufficient with its own gas and water supplies along with generation capabilities and protected from nuclear fallout for up to two weeks after a nuclear blast.[2]

Mind you, that heavy solid-state analogue switching equipment is long gone, replaced with digital that weighs substantially less even with vastly higher capacity. Even with much higher telecom traffic than when the building was built the modern switching equipment probably weighs about 1/10 of what the builders anticipated. They'll still have loads of batteries - those were lead-acid back 20 years ago when I was in those sorts of buildings, but that may have changed since then. At any rate, those were in the basements, which themselves extended several levels below street level.

 

[RecoveringYuppy]

The AT&T building crescent is describing could potentially be strong enough to have reflected the blast making it even hard to infer the size of the bomb from the damage across the street. I think I'll wait for more info (and not from the Daily Mail).

 

[Checkmite]

I read that about 10 minutes passed when it exploded after countdown zero. Maybe he manually triggered it after waiting for all the evacuees to clear out.

I was thinking about this possibility too. If he was in the vehicle and the vehicle had multiple cameras, perhaps when the countdown reached zero he noticed that there were still people too close for his liking, so he waited to give them more time.

 

[RecoveringYuppy]

If he was in the vehicle and the vehicle had multiple cameras,

"if". Note that the original claim of "cameras on it" is poorly sourced and ambiguously phrased. It could have meant "cameras focused on it". And given the sources it could just be total BS.

 

[Checkmite]

According to news sources, it appears to be the case that the "person of interest" does not have any meaningful social media presence - as not especially uncommon for someone of his age. His property, as can be seen from the dozens of available photographs of investigators at the scene, is unadorned with anything but "NO TRESPASSING" signs. There are also not yet any definitive statements from family or friends or acquaintances that signal any particular political persuasion.

Social media is of course full of accusations and claimed connections indicating that he was either a Trump supporter or Antifa agent. All such claims should be treated as misinformation and ignored. Right now there's not evidence to suggest any political motive behind the attack.

 

[dasmiller]

Right now there's not evidence to suggest any political motive behind the attack.

Pish-tosh! As anyone on the internet can tell you, since this person did something bad, he clearly had political beliefs that were diametrically opposed to whatever my beliefs are, and his actions were inspired by the words of political leaders of whatever political party is most directly opposite my preferred party. It is a perfect example of how the corrupt, inept and manevolent leadership of that opposite party is causing or will soon cause the downfall of our nation.

And possibly an unrelated implication of pedophilia. And a couple of gratuitous insult about everyone who voted differently than I did.

 

[Andy_Ross]

Would this be one of those fertilizer bombs or what?

ANFO I would guess, mixture of diesel fuel oil and ammonia fertiliser.

Needs something to set it off though

 

[whoanellie]

Local media is reporting that RV was playing Petula Clark's 'Downtown' interspersed with countdown.

Police are investigating a truck pulled over on a roadside in a county next to Nashville and are treating it very seriously.

 

[Elagabalus]

A neighbor reported seeing cops in the neighborhood Christmas night. Surveilling the place before moving in?

Seems a little bit odd, but we don't know how much they knew.

Uh-oh. I bet you Websleuths is all over that angle.

 

[Checkmite]

From local station WSMV:

LEBANON, TN (WSMV) - Police are investigating a suspicious vehicle on Highway 231 near the Cedars of Lebanon State Park on Sunday morning.

According to the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office, a white box truck was parked at Crossroads Market in Walter Hill around 10:30 a.m.

Investigators received information that the vehicle was "playing audio similar to what was heard before the Christmas Day explosion."

The truck is being investigated using a robot. Someone is relaying WSMV's feed from the scene on Periscope.

 

[dasmiller]

"if". Note that the original claim of "cameras on it" is poorly sourced and ambiguously phrased. It could have meant "cameras focused on it". And given the sources it could just be total BS.

According to the officer doing the briefing on what I assume was a local station,

“There was also cameras on the RV like surveillance cameras above the mirror,” Officer Wells explained. “It felt like whoever was behind it was watching us."

So cameras mounted on the RV, not just police or 3rd-party cameras watching the RV.