 2013-09-30
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Being an oxidising agent, ammonium nitrate (AN) is commonly mixed with fuel to make explosives. Under normal conditions, it is quite stable (i.e. it is an ingredient of many explosives, rather than an explosive itself). However, when heated (e.g. in a fire), AN can decompose, producing oxygen and a lot of heat. The heat produced causes more AN to decompose, generating more heat, and so on, while the oxygen produced causes the fire to burn more vigorously. The result is that once started, the thermal decomposition is generally impossible to stop and will often end in an explosion - see, for example, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_Disaster
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