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The perchloric acid, used in explosives and some industrial processes, was produced at a company in Ohio that hasn’t been publicly identified.

“I don’t know if you’ve ever read about perchloric acid, but when it comes in contact with organic material, it becomes highly volatile. So that car was doomed from the day it was loaded,” said Andy Foust, a Nebraska leader of the largest rail union that represents the workers who were switching those railcars just before the explosion.

The explosion didn’t spread far, but investigators appear to be delving into the questionable decision to load dozens of plastic barrels of perchloric acid inside a shipping container with a wood floor and possibly atop wooden pallets, even though that acid is known to react with wood or any other organic material.

The Nebraska State Fire Marshal’s office is working with the railroad and experts from the Federal Railroad Administration to determine what caused a stationary container carrying perchloric acid that can be used to make explosives as well as a variety of food and drug products to explode last Thursday in North Platte.

The perchloric acid inside the container that exploded, which is used to make explosives as well as a variety of food and drug products, dissipated in the air as it burned off, Thompson said.