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Gort@ControlGroup.Science's avatar

I was out kayaking and thought about the argument that all of the boats in the harbor had sunk , so here's my research on that.

First off, Wikipedia says that fiberglass is... "non-magnetic, non-conductive, transparent to electromagnetic radiation..."

TRANSPARENT TO ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION!

That should be enough of a physics buzzkill for DEW subscribers, but as I paddled along the harbor, I realized that there must have been at least one full scale gas station on the water in Lahaina Harbor. What does that mean in terms of adding fuel to the fire?

A typical gasoline station has a storage capacity of 10,000 to 40,000 gallons. I would imagine that should be able to set off quite a few surrounding boats, and leave a flammable surface. In fact, 20,000 gallons could cover 10 acres in 1 inch of fuel (although it couldn't possible disperse that way).

So did all the boats melt? No, they don't have to. "Glass fabrics retain 50% of room temperature tensile strength at 370°C, 25% at 480°C..."

480°C is not much higher than the base temperature (800F) of such a fire, and far lower than the 1200 and above we are seeing in melting aluminum and glass.

With the wind creating a bellows effect, pushing fire and heat (that burned many people to death while they were in the water) these sustained temperatures could easily have deformed the hulls of every boat in the harbor. With the explosion and fire of Their Own gas tanks that would certainly be enough to sink them.

Investigate the arson!

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