VA - SAFETY ALERT - FYI O2 cylinder explosion 2/5/05

[WAS967 97]

The crew of ladder 16 narrowly escape major injury and a large fire that

could have burned the rig up. After checking off the ems bag, it was zipped

back

up and placed back in the compartment. The MRL bag was placed on top. The FF

then removed the suction bag and started to check it off when fire emitted

from

the ems bag. The FF grabbed the bag and tossed in on the bay floor where

other

FF's tried to extinguish it. The relief valve was sounding and the impinging

flame from the relief valve caused the cylinder to fail. Notice the breech

in

the cylinder wall at the shoulder of the cylinder. No one was injured in the

fire or cylinder failure, but imagine the burn to the face level of a FF

when

the cylinder failed if it was still in the compartment.

A preliminary investigation suggest that the ignition sequence could have

been a pen light (found melted to the underside of the cylinder) and under

the

pen light was a adjustable wrench. The O2 somehow leaked and saturated the

bag.

The ems bag was replaced back in the compartment and MRL placed on top. The

weight of the MRL compressed the cylinder on the penlight against the

wrench.

This information is still preliminary and was put together with the help of

BC Mike Gurley, BC Vance Cooper and John Lyons.

We will attempt to find the cause of the oxygen leak through a couple of

channels formally. As more information comes forward, we will certainly let

you

know.

It is amazing that these circumstances (Dominos) can come together and

cause such a terrible event---but no one was hurt this time (except for

noise

exposure), and damage was confined to equipment. Please check your ems

gear and make sure pen lights are not floating in the bottom of the bag and

that your wrench is plastic or non-sparking and that you have the regulator

gasket/o-ring in place and you turn the O2 completely off.

Pressurized gases including oxygen and air are dangerous and you need to

handle them carefully.

Thank you for your attention, if you know of any similar circumstances

involving O2, please email BC John Harvey or myself.

Sincerely,

Steve

Captain Stephen T. Miles

Shift Safety Officer "A" Shift

Virginia

Beach Fire Department