Self-triggering reaction kinetics between nitrates and aluminium powder

During the night between the 19 and 20 September 2003, a loud explosion occurred at about 3 km from the town of Carignano that was clearly heard at a distance of some tens of kilometres. The explosion almost completely destroyed most of the laboratories of the Panzera Company that were used for the production of fireworks. The results of the research activities that were carried out using a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) on the same raw materials that made up the pyrotechnical mixture that exploded are reported in this paper. This activity was carried out to identify the dynamics of the accident. It proved possible to verify how the event was produced because of a slow exothermic reaction which, after about 8 h, caused the self-triggering of 120 kg of finished product. The detonation can therefore be put down to a runaway reaction in the solid phase, whose primogenial causes can be attributed to a still craftsman type production system, not conformed to the rigorous controls and inspections as those required by a safety management system for major risk plants, as the Panzera Company was.