Boston's JFK Library: Bomb Or Electrical Fire?

You decide.  Does this look like a mechanical fire?

Don't miss police chief's comments at 55 seconds.

"We did hear something that sounded like an explosion."

WASHINGTON — A Boston Police Department arson squad arrived Wednesday at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, raising new questions about the origin of a Monday fire at about the same time as the marathon bombings, the Daily News has learned.

Police had originally indicated a possible link to the marathon bombings, then said it might have merely been a mechanical fire started by an incendiary device, not a blast.  However, several employees on the scene Monday said they clearly heard blasts at the library when the fire started.

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Further Reading

Arson squad arrives at JFK Presidential Library

Preliminary investigation at JFK Library plays down possibility of explosion

The JFK Presidential Library makes an inviting target.

Tell me what you think in comments.

Comments

[DailyBail]

John

As a former fire chief, what's your call on this.

[Greg Burton]

As it will be 50 years, this November, since the assassination of JFK, a lot of sensitive documents related to the assassination would become due for release. As the Church committee and FOIA documents now make clear: JFK was killed via a conspiracy between the CIA and its organized crime associates, there are some individuals still living who might not want these documents to be released. Also, there are discernible connections between that conspiracy and 9/11. I suspect a bomb or arson in this fire.

[People Investigating Toxic Sites]

It's very likely the explosion and fire at JFK Library was caused by highly explosiive, highly flammable landfill gases beneath Columbia Point. The library and adjacent University of Massachusetts Boston were developed on top of an enormous municipal dump that closed in the late 1960s.

[Howard T. Lewis III]

Swamp gas. The best thing about being attacked by a bully is putting the bully in a hospital feet first so he can catch the vibe. The fool cares not what he has done. Then jail if possible. Nothing epitomizes low class sons of bitches like a visit from the minions of queen lizard. No quarter the second time around.

Beware explosiive gas. Very futuristic and smelly.

[Dave]

Presidential Archives, which is where this fire origionated, are very well protected, this addition in 2011 would have had state of the art sprinklers and alarm system, no reason for a fire to get this widespread unless a firebomb of some sort was used, this was possibly a diversonary attack to draw resources away from the area of the other Bombing area, a common technique.

[john]

Electrical is my best guess judging by the black smoke. I serviced the transformers there back in 2006 but cannot remember where the Electrical rooms were. I do recall transformers on the roof.


On that note , all major banks here, (B of A and Citizens) are closed due to all to police in Boston. There is also a report of a hostage situation near exit 6 on Rt. 3.

[DailyBail]

Would there be a loud explosion or a large blast that would normally signal the start of an electrical fire? That's the part that has me suspicious, along with the timing of course, just one hour after the marathon bombs.

[john]

Yes there would be an explosion. Most large transformers have explosion ports located on them that act like a pressure relief valve. Really large tansformers have concrete Blast Walls built around them. When they cook of it isn't pretty.

Here is a photo of a transformer that exploded in boston not to long ago. Note the black smoke which is the dielectric oil burning.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.universalhub.com/files/photos/hiltonfire2.jpg%3F1331679649&imgrefurl=http://www.universalhub.com/2012/another-two-alarm-fire-time-back-bay-hilton-parkin&h=486&w=590&sz=37&tbnid=loBaSjiLwGU1JM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=109&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dboston%2Btransformer%2Bfire%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=boston+transformer+fire&usg=__kA6ZAckwqrHHdg3mVTl5TH_SKmU=&docid=H-qK9Y3aBhcf0M&sa=X&ei=VqJxUcrxAZPy0wHI6YDAAQ&ved=0CD8Q9QEwBA&dur=418


Here is a video of a transformer exploding at a substation. It starts about 15 seconds into the video. As you watch this you will see the explosion ports work by relieving the pressure inside the unit (you can see the transformer oil spraying). Then the unit explodes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2LpCdhuOyQ

[Dr. Pitchfork]

IIRC, there were reports on Monday of a device being used in exercises, or of their being exercises/drills going on at the library site -- I imagine some of those stories have been scrubbed by this point, either for the sake of covering up media flubs or for other reasons. Search "boston" "third blast" or "third explosion" and you'll see links to stories from Monday, but they've been changed with no more mention of a "third blast." That could be fog of war stuff, or maybe the memory hole at work -- I don't know.

[DailyBail]

Pitch

I tracked down and resolved that rumor on Monday.

It was in several stories based on a tweet that was poorly worded.

The tweet was actually referring to a controlled demolition of suspicious bags found after the first 2 blasts. But it sounded more ominous and so Info Wars just hopped on the story without checking it out.

[DailyBail]

A copy/paste from the other thread.

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InfoWars story got it wrong regarding the tweet. It was not a training exercise that led to the controlled explosion at Boynton street. It was a police response after the bombings. They were blowing up abandoned bags etc, as they swept the area.

Here's the tweet

http://twitter.com/BostonGlobe/status/323886829596205056

Read the responses near the bottom - someone finally got it right.

[Anon Y Mous]

The Police Commissioner said, on the very first press conference about the marathon bombings, that it was another bomb at the Library. Afterwards he retracted his statement and said it was "an incendiary device".

We still don't know what was the damage, and there's no media coverage of it.

[Dr. Pitchfork]

That was it, "incendiary device." Maybe he didn't get the memo until later. Seriously, "incendiary device" is not the term that come to mind, especially after downgrading from "bomb," when you're ostensibly talking about something that was just an electrical fire. You might go from "bomb" to "My bad, it was just an electrical fire," if it were really an electrical fire, but you wouldn't double down with "incendiary device" unless something indicated deliberate arson. Again, where are the crack media elite on this?

[Dave]

Wasn't it reported that a twitter message from the JFK library staff advised people the "small electrical fire" at the library had been put out and there were no injuries or deaths? i am positive I saw that within the first hour of the bombing news story breaking.

[People Investigating Toxic Sites]

Highly explosive, highly flammable gases will continue to be generated in this enormous landfill that lies beneath JFK Library, and the rest of Columbia Point. The reported electrical fire could have been sparked by gases in this former municipal dump that was closed and capped in the late 1960s. I suspect there will be more explosions and fires in this area for years to come as methane and other highly explosive, flammable gases are generated in a landfill for at least 100 years after the dump is closed..