Westdale explosion: liquid nitrogen explosion in Westdale, South Tamworth smashes sheds, scatters debris

The blast, which took place at a business near the Tamworth Regional Livestock Exchange at about 5.02pm, smashed two colorbond sheds and scattered debris over a large area.

One man was left with minor injuries by the explosion, which could be heard from as far as East Tamworth.

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Duty Commander Inspector Adam Wixx said the source of the blast was a 18,000 litre cylinder containing liquid nitrogen.

"One of those cylinders has exploded when a pressure relief valve failed to operate. When the pressure builds up inside due to standing out in the sun, the cylinder exploded," he said.

Emergency crews raced to the scene after being alerted to the blast and rapidly set up a 250 metre exclusion zone around the blast zone.

Tamworth Regional Livestock Exchange Manager Steve Davidge was just 500 metres away when the explosion occurred.

"It was bloody loud! Scared the Christ out of me," he said.

The blast had left a "fair bit" of infrastructure damaged in the industrial area and generated a huge dust cloud, but didn't set anything alight, he said.

"This almighty bang went off. I walked outside and there was this big mob of dust travelling across everywhere," he said.

"Obviously I knew that this gas place down here must have done something."

Mr Davidge said the explosion occurred within a business situated between the livestock exchange and the lawn cemetery.

"It rattled the building for sure. I was surprised it didn't smash any of the windows. We've got large-bore windows there, closest to it. It didn't do any damage there, but it rattled the whole building," he said.

Another witness said it appeared that a gas tanker had exploded within the business premises, damaging two colorbond sheds 150 metres away from it.

Mr Davidge said some debris had been spread as far as 100 metres from the original blast.

Mr Wixx said firefighters had been forced to wait for hours to approach the remaining four cylinders to vent them for fear of a second explosion.

Firefighters finally approached the last cylinders after 7pm.

They will take overnight to vent into the atmosphere.

Employees from the company will wait on site until the gas is safely released.

Nitrogen is an inert gas that isn't toxic for humans and will pose no risk to people or the environment once vented.

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