Talk:Pfaffenthal explosion

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. Track your hook after promotion. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Dclemens1971 (talk) 17:26, 20 July 2026 (UTC)

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• Article history

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• ... that a mistake made by a novice truck driver led to Luxembourg City's "worst catastrophe since the end of World War 2" (aftermath pictured)?

• Source: "Der direkt Verantwortliche, ein (...) gänzlich unerfahrerner Lastwagenfahrer (...) der das tödliche Benzin irrtümlicherweise (...) pumpte..." ("The man directly responsible, an entirely unexperienced truck driver, who released the deadly gasoline by mistake...")
  "Als die schwerste Katastrophe der Stadt Luxemburg in den Nachkriegsjahren bezeichnete (...) Bürgermeister Colette Flesch (...) das Explosionsunglück in Pfaffenthal." ("Mayor Colette Flesch described the explosion in Pfaffenthal as the worst catastrophe in post-war years".)

• • ALT1: ... that a Dutch-inspired social housing development was built on the site of one of Luxembourg's "worst catastrophes in peacetime"? Source: "Das Projekt, das schließlich hier umgesetzt wurde, kam ursprünglich aus den Niederlanden" ("The project that ended up being developed here originally came from the Netherlands".)
    "«Eine der schwersten Katastrophen in Friedenszeiten» - So lautet der Kommentar von Bürgermeister Colette Flesch über die schreckliche Explosionsserie in Pfaffenthal" ("'One of the worst catastrophes in peacetime" - this was what mayor Colette Flesch had to say about the terrible series of explosions in Pfaffenthal")
  • ALT2: ... that a Luxembourgish local interest advocate cited the "destruction" of one neighbourhood's "sociologial fabric" as an indirect consequence of one novice truck driver's mistake? Source: « Une autre conséquence de l’explosion sera une nouvelle recomposition sociale du quartier, assure [le président du Syndicat d’intérêts locaux Pfaffenthal-Siechenhof] Jean-André Stammet. Elle a détruit son tissu sociologique. » ("'Another consequence of the explosion was a sociological recomposition of the neighbourhood', says [Pfaffenthal local advocacy syndicate president] Jean-André Stammet. 'It destroyed its sociological fabric'.")
  • Reviewed:
  • Comment: I moved this article to the mainspace yesterday after working on it for a while. I hope the multiplicity of non-English sources is not too much of a headache.
    VRT has not yet confirmed the image license, so I am frankly not sure if it is useable. If not, then I suggest to just use Beim Béinchen 03.jpg in case alt1 is selected.

Moved to mainspace by Procrastineur49 (talk). Number of QPQs required: 0. Nominator has fewer than 5 past nominations.

Procrastineur (talk) 17:24, 31 May 2026 (UTC).

• I think out of these ALT0 is the best, and it is sourced properly. The article is new enough and long enough, and sources (based on my limited understanding of the languages involved) do not have obvious errors & appear reliable for the subject matter. I have made some edits to the article to make the outcome more clear, largely avoiding the use of 'would'. I don't think that the images in this article illustrate this event particularly well; even in the image from 1979 it's hard to make out where the damage is, especially so at this very small resolution. I imagine there was a better photo before but it looks like permission was not obtained by VRT. I will approve this first hook to run if it does so without an image and the (aftermath pictured). -- Reconrabbit (talk) 13:45, 23 June 2026 (UTC)
  • A Luxembourg-related DYK approved on Luxembourg's national day - thank you! The image used previously (now deleted) was quite dramatic and illustrated the catastrophe well, but the man from the neighbourhood advocacy group that has ended up with the rights to it (Mr. Stammet, quoted in ALT2) and I have agreed getting it actually VRT-approved is too much of a hassle. Procrastineur (talk) 14:37, 23 June 2026 (UTC)

References