Compressed Gas Cylinder Safety

[USAFSS-ColdWarrior]

A cousin of mine dropped a link to this video in my inbox this morning.

Its safety drama emphasizes the potential dangers of compressed gases and demonstrates multiple accidental detonations of them.....

Watch as they EXPLODE, Launch as FLAMING MISSILES, and Dance upon the Pavement like SWIRLING FLAMETHROWERS ! ! !

Without Music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG1LGKieTxY

With Music:

http://unexpectedentertainment.net/the-best-car-crash-ever/

Looks like the driver escaped shortly after the first fireball.

 

[Gunzy]

You got to love the Russian idea of "Safety."

 

[FloridaAKM]

Working in a chemical plant with hundreds of compressed gas cylinders make me shudder after watching this video. There is always a semi trailer full of acetylene cylinders or two onsite. Be careful out there!

 

[RAYZER]

Wow! Looks like the truck was going too fast, I doubt the driver made it.

 

[swbradley1]

I want to know where the bottle went at about 2:55 in...

 

[steelypip]

Scary. The more you know about it, the scarier it is.

When I was a federal contractor, I worked with big bottles of (mostly inert) compressed gas for a decade or so, and still have a small gas welding rig. I took all the safety classes. I was always very careful with cart straps, chains, and safety caps. And there was always a brief period when I was changing out a cylinder that I would imagine the full one falling over, breaking the valve off against something, creating two missiles and quite possibly killing me.

I generally regard the acetylene tank as the less hazardous one. It's not at a high static pressure. Then you consider how much thermal energy is stored in that not very stable liquid acetylene. Some of those bottles in the video got some good range, as swbradley1 mentions. That exit sign on the opposite side of the road took quite a pasting for all it was mostly edge-on to the fire.

I'd be curious to see what was left of the silver subcompact in the left lane that was abandoned.

 

[USAFSS-ColdWarrior]

Two things came to mind when I first viewed the video (It was the one WITH the Highway To **** music track).....

KRISPY KRITTERS and "Things That Go BOOM In The Night".

Ref the earlier comment about the driver's survival.... He seems to make a mad dash from the cab shortly after the first Big Bang.

 

[maddawg308]

I've never been in an environment where any cylinders exploded, but I have been around a couple that fell over and their valves sheared off. Both were CO2 cylinders, the BIG ones, one took off like a rocket and punched a hole in both sides of a storage trailer. The other was boxed in and didn't go anywhere, but filled a small room with CO2 in about 10 seconds, and a couple workers in the room passed out from the gas/lack of oxygen.

High pressure cylinders are not toys, and they are to be respected at all times, and treated like the potential bombs that they are.

 

[M35A2-AZ]

WOW!!!

I worked at a welding supply when I was going to School in the 70's and we had a little fire, not like that.
The guy was refueling his truck and smoking. We got it out before the bottle cooked off.

 

[John S-B]

Scary. The more you know about it, the scarier it is.

When I was a federal contractor, I worked with big bottles of (mostly inert) compressed gas for a decade or so, and still have a small gas welding rig. I took all the safety classes. I was always very careful with cart straps, chains, and safety caps. And there was always a brief period when I was changing out a cylinder that I would imagine the full one falling over, breaking the valve off against something, creating two missiles and quite possibly killing me.

I generally regard the acetylene tank as the less hazardous one. It's not at a high static pressure. Then you consider how much thermal energy is stored in that not very stable liquid acetylene. Some of those bottles in the video got some good range, as swbradley1 mentions. That exit sign on the opposite side of the road took quite a pasting for all it was mostly edge-on to the fire.

I'd be curious to see what was left of the silver subcompact in the left lane that was abandoned.

The flammability range for acetylene is between 2.5-100% in air, so it has a VERY good change of igniting if there's any ignition source.

 

[m16ty]

Those people taking pics and such were way too close with all the shrapnel and bottles flying around. That cop finally decided to move after a flaming bottle almost took his car out.

 

[iatractor]

I work in the compressed gas industry. It scares me at how many people try to do things they are not supposed to with their cylinders.

 

[wdbtchr]

Can anyone tell what happened to the truck just before the first explosion? Looked to me like the truck frame broke in two but I really can't tell.

I got to watch the tank filling operation that blew up and burned here in St. Louis a few years ago. I don't think they ever figured out how it started because the whole area was decimated.

 

[m16ty]

To me it looks like he rear-ended a vehicle in front of him. Kind of hard to tell but that's what I figured happened.