re: #189 Decatur Deb

The munitions plant where I worked had massive old-school slides so you could un-ass the building when the explosions started. Some of them were 3 stories high and would dump the lucky escapees a couple hundred feet from the supersonic blast front. We had no records of a successful use.

Abandoned slide (different plant):

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When I was working in the oil industry as a wellhead geologist, I would occasionally work drillings rigs on land (most of my work was offshore, which was very much my preference for numerous reasons).

On a land rig, there was a line that ran from the stack fingers near the top of the derrick (where you would stack 90’ sections of drill pipe when you needed to change a drill bit) that ran some 200 odd feet away from the rig. It was called the Geronimo line.

If there was a big kick or a blowout when you were tripping pipe to change out a bit, the Derrickman could put his escape wheel on the line and Squee!! to safety unless the gas bubble ignited and cooked him to a cinder before he was clear of all hell breaking loose.

I met one guy who had used it and lived. His back looked like Jamie Frazier’s.