Dive shop owner killed by exploding tank?

[socaldiver]

that should not have happened. I extend my condolences to his family.

But I also agree with Butch. The owner of the shop who was filling the tank should have known better and is responsible for his own death. It don't matter who asked him to fill it, he is the owner of the shop and has the right to refuse service to anyone when the tank's inspection is not current.

I just can't fathom a man who has been in the business as long as he was, and was evidently well respected by the local diving community, doing something of that nature to begin with. Sad.

 

[Butch103]

and no question that the owner of the tank should be slapped upside the head if he knew (assuming here that he was a diver and not someone as in Syruss's case) that the tank was past due for hydro and vis...........but ultimately the onus is on the person filling the tanks..................I think there is a course that is necessary to have taken to fill the tanks ( my apologies if I am wrong)

 

[Lost Yooper]

I'm hearing things that I can't confirm that this steel tank had a vinyl coating on the interior making the corrosion undetectable. This still wouldn't be an excuse per se because of all the other stuff that was ignored. Like I said, I can't confirm this and it's, at best, third hand info. Regardless, it's still relavant to the maintenance of tanks and the dangers of real neglect.

Mike

 

[Liquid]

There's no course nesesary in order to fill tanks with ordinary compressed air. There are courses for blending niterox and other breathing gasses, that one must take in order to blend this gasses and fill tanks with them.

Another thing is, that a tank, though in fauly condition will pass a visual test. This is why you must hydro test tanks every 5 years. No one just decided it should be done for no reason, the reason why it was decided, I belive is now very obviouse. A tank may rust and even pass a visual test, becouse the rust runs into the depth of the metal instead of spreading on surface and couse cracks in the metal. Those cracks are VERY dangerouse, take several years to develop into a dangerouse state and may be detected only by hydro testing a tank. I used to own a small poseidon tank (5 liters can be filled to 300 bar, very good and expansive tanks!!!) that passed a visual test but failed the hydro.

 

[Ber Rabbit]

What do you know about the new "visual eddy" test that is supposed to detect cracks in the threads of aluminum tanks?

Evidently people were being killed by Al tanks that were exploding even though they had passed hydro and visual. Evidently when you thread Al it gets weak and the cracks that caused the explosions were in the threads and so small no one saw them.

We had the visual eddy test done on all of the university tanks a year and a half ago and 50% of our tanks failed the test even though most of them had just been out for hydro that year. Luxfer replaced them for a small charge, the cost depended on how old the tanks were. If a new tank failed the test (none of ours were new) you were given a free replacement, the older the tank, the more you had to pay.

Our fill station is under the concrete bleachers of the pool. I'm 5'7" and have to stoop slightly to walk around the "water trough" due to the slope of the ceiling. If one of those tanks had blown up while I was filling it I would have been a red spot on the concrete, it would have literally blown up in my face.

BTW I have seen a shop refuse to fill tanks without stickers. We have people on staff trained to do visual inspections. The inspections were done but we hadn't received the stickers before the AOW class was scheduled to dive. The shop in Fort Wayne, IN refused to fill the tanks until our instructor arrived and was able to prove the visuals had been done. I too have had my new tanks filled with no questions and out of date (by a month) visuals.

My sincerest condolences to his family and friends.

Ber

 

[uwsince79]

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/verobeach/15v350a.shtml

 

[DivingGal]

around here if you don't have a VIS annually, and Hydro every 5 AND have the proof (e.g. stickers on the tanks)- you don't get filled. Also, in most shops, you also have to provide proof of your certification.

It just goes to show you, divers & dive shops (etc) should keep viligent of what condition your/the equipment is in.

Sympathy to the family of course, it's always a sad thing to loose one of "our own".

 

[sharpenu]

I guess you are talking about "visual plus". Luxfer recommends that visual plus eddy testing be performed on all alloy 6351 tanks at least every two and a half years. It works by passing a magnetic field through the material. Cracks too small to see can be detected as the magnetic field is disturbed by a crack. This is especially useful in the neck area of the tank, where most stress cracks occur. Eddy current testing is not required on alloy 6061 because they are not subject to sustained load cracking. However none of this is applicable because the cylinder in question was a vinyl coated steel cylinder. See:

http://www.luxfercylinders.com/news_011114.html

 

[Lost Yooper]

I just received this e-mail, and I thought I'd post it.

-------

To all PSI affiliate Instructors:

During the afternoon, November 13, a Voit steel scuba cylinder exploded during fill at the Sebastion (Florida) dive store. The owner, 72 year old Ron Scherrer was killed by pieces of concrete that were blown free of the concrete water filled tub used to hold cylinders. Our report indicates that no steel reinforcing rod was used in the 8 inch or more thick tub walls. The cylinder split longitudinally from the neck to the base. No pieces appeared to separate from the cylinder (this manner of splitting open is typical of steel cylinder ruptures- my note). Considerable damage was done by concrete shrapnel with some pieces passing through the building to nearby highway US 1. Two other persons in the store, Scherrer's wife and the cylinder owner were not injured. The Voit cylinder appeared to be vinyl coated with evidence of corrosion on the inside but not obvious on the outside.

Bill High's soap box: The dive industry has never taken the dangers of corroded steel cylinders seriously. It has jumped upon a bandwagon of Sustained Load Cracking and aluminum cylinders but ignores the numerous steel cylinder ruptures over the years. The University of Rhode Island, years ago, determined that moisture in steel cylinders was far more harmful than in aluminum cylinders. Vinyl-coated steel cylinders, those that did not have an undercoat of zinc, made during the late 1960's and into the 1070's, are especially at risk for harmful out of sight corrosion. While Florida boasts the Nation's largest diver population, it also has the highest number of cylinder failures. The reason is simple. Too few dive store employees are trained in cylinder safety and too few inspectors are trained period. And, DEMA ignores the entire issue.

 

[Lost Yooper]

Why would there have been a hydro on that tank 2 years before it was due? That seems a bit odd, not that it would've mattered much. Seems a bit odd is all.

"Dillon said the tank that exploded was made in 1988 and received its last visual inspection in October 1999. It received its last hydrostatic test in 1991, he said."

Mike