Deco Cylinder Mishap

[fdog]

The OP listed this as a Deco Cylinder - so, it's safe to infer 100%, 80%, 50%, 50/50 or 21/35 (depending on the training).

David is very lucky to have escaped without pulmonary involvement, and even with that, it will be a long difficult road for recovery.

I'd posted this a couple of weeks ago, and re-posting it here, because of the eerie similarities:

I should pass this on, too.

The person that this happened to works for me. Fortunately he made a complete recovery, if he hadn't had such good reactions he would had been burned much worse.

This particular firefighter went out to the rig one morning, pulled out the medical bag, and turned on the O2 to check the pressure. Pure routine and something we've all done almost a thousand times, except in this particular case, the regulator was contaminated, and the regulator and cylinder began burning.

"Burning" is a word that just doesn't convey the magnitude of the event. When he tells the story, he says that instantly, as he turned on the cylinder, every opening - where the gauge was, the O2 outlet, the overpressure port, the flow setting dial - all instantly began shooting out 3' long pressurized tongues of flame that were white hot. And burning him, since he was holding the cylinder, and setting his clothes on fire.

He threw the cylinder away from himself, and ran back into the apparatus bay, all the way (as he describes it) "screaming like a little girl" for the rest of the crew to put the fire on him out. The cylinder continued burning until it was empty.

Needless to say, I think of this often when doing PP blending.



All the best, James​

One thing that I hadn't put in that post was that Justin, prior to turning on the cylinder, had turned his head away from the cylinder and tucked his head into his shoulder. He attributes this to keeping his airway free from burns.


All the best, James


PS: have strength, David.

 

[The Chairman]

Elena and I are back home here in Key Largo and are still simply stunned. David was a best friend, an accomplice and a fellow diver whom I had complete and total confidence in. I want to go diving with my friend again.

You can be sure that I will not be allowing deco cylinders in the passenger compartment of my vehicle. I drive a truck so keeping it "outside" is easy enough. The fact that the hood was blown off gives me pause. I am wondering if the oxygen infiltrated the fire wall and mixed with enough oil vapors to create the initial explosion in the engine compartment where there are a multitude of ignition sources. While oxygen is not in itself a flammable gas, higher percentages of oxygen can make otherwise safe materials very flammable and accelerate any fire that might exist.

 

[FIXXERVI6]

wow, that sucks!

Messing with 02 always makes me nervous

 

[suprane]

Thank you DandyDon for bringing this to my attention! I might have missed it otherwise.

I met David about a year and a half ago while on a Cozumel trip. And subsequently we conversed back-and-forth here on the board numerous times.

I came to know David as a knowledgeable, skilled, and thoughtful diver. I am really taken back to hear of this tragedy.

My thoughts and prayers are with him and his family.

Bill

 

[DandyDon]

The news story link in post #2 has been updated to a new version, it states that "Shortly after EMS moved the victim, the fire spread to another tank causing it to explode," and there are a few others with a variety of details given different ways. Even tho the news media commonly refer to all scuba tanks as "oxygen," that does sound like the real case here. We've read in other accident reports how O2 escaping from a cylinder can produce horrible flames or explosions.

This one says he "had flammable 'scuba diving gas' in his car." Overnight car fire sends 1 to burn center - YNN - Your News Now

 

[Dive-aholic]

David was over my way taking some classes with me last month. At that time he kept his O2 deco cylinder and one of his sidemount cylinders in the back of his cab. He kept 3 other sidemount cylinders in the truck bed. No reason to think it was any different a month later. The 3 cylinders in the bed were secured by the foam noodle type holders and strapped down. The holder he had only held 3 cylinders, thus the reason the other cylinders went in the cab. So the newsies got the O2 right this time. The other cylinder was filled with nitrox so they weren't far off with that. This is all based on David not having changed anything since we were diving together. I do know he had issues with his truck pretty much since he bought it. He had some issues when he was in Florida. It wouldn't start one day and I noticed the reverse lights were on when he was trying to start it but it was in park. A few minutes later it started up, no reverse lights this time. Just speculation but the cause could have been a short in the truck.

 

[parrotheaddiver]

You can be sure that I will not be allowing deco cylinders in the passenger compartment of my vehicle. I drive a truck so keeping it "outside" is easy enough. The fact that the hood was blown off gives me pause. I am wondering if the oxygen infiltrated the fire wall and mixed with enough oil vapors to create the initial explosion in the engine compartment where there are a multitude of ignition sources. While oxygen is not in itself a flammable gas, higher percentages of oxygen can make otherwise safe materials very flammable and accelerate any fire that might exist.

Pete I was wondering that myself...missed seeing you Sat at the show...but did run into David and Monica

 

[ianr33]

This one says he "had flammable 'scuba diving gas' in his car." Overnight car fire sends 1 to burn center - YNN - Your News Now

Just to point out the obvious, there are no flammable scuba diving gases. (Well,O.K. hydrogen mixes have been used on deep commercial dives , but that's not exactly common)

 

[mselenaous]

I am so very saddened by this event and that bad stuff happened to a good man. David is young, strong, and healthy and too obstinate to let his slow him down for very long. He has a huge fan club of friends whose collective power of prayer will get him and Monica and his family through this.

Having been so close to this incident, I will post the facts as I know them from Monica. David & Monica had been moving from a downtown condo to a house in the burbs for several days and were nearly finished hauling stuff. After the dive show, we all had a wonderful dinner and they decided to pick up one more load (maybe the last one) after dinner before driving home that evening. In this load were David's deco cylinders, including the one I had seen earlier marked 20ft/100%, which had no reg, no din cap, and no idea what it's remaining fill pressure was. The truck and trailer were loaded, David mentioned a hiss as Monica ran back upstairs to lock up. She was on the 18th floor when she heard a sonic boom and windows rattle. When she got downstairs to the loading dock in the garage, the truck and David were engulfed in flames. Below is a photo of his truck after the fire was extinguished.



This is the Accidents & Incidents forum with special rules, so I ask that we all abide by those rules.

There is a thread of well wishes for him in the Texas Forum, so please post your wishes there so the family can read them to him as he recovers. I will be moving those non-A&I, well wishes posts to that thread. http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/texas-swamp-divers/412270-prayers-swamper.html
This is where I will be posting updates on David's recovery as I get them from Monica or his family.

Please keep this A&I thread as a way for all of us to learn and prevent another catastrophe.

Let's examine the possibilities of what could have happened and prevention:
1-gear failure? valve damage or handle jarred during loading?
2-truck failure? It's been mentioned David had ongoing problems with systems in the truck. I personally don't belive this caused the fire but may have contributed.
3-dive knowledge? I personally find this doubtful in this case, as those who know him, know he was consciousnesses about training, and learning as much as he could about any subject.
4-diver error? Possibly, fatigue, rushing, multi-tasking.What we need to ask ourselves is: "Are we diligent about handling any and all cylinders each time we transport them?" I know when I'm tired or in a hurry, I'm less careful, less observant and I can become complacent in my methods when I'm loading/unloading my 20th tank of the day. I am thinking carefully how I transport gear especially deco cylinders in my SUV.

Until David recovers, we will not know the full details (if he can remember them after a long healing period). While we can only speculate, lets not point fingers at him, but rather use this as a reminder that aspects of this sport we all love can be dangerous.

 

[parrotheaddiver]

thank you for the updates...praying for him and his family