fatality o2 tank

[Texasguy]

I start to think that the building that collapsed in Miami could have been triggered by someone with an oxygen tank.

Probably not. However, there are divers, old people, oxygen tanks are common in condos.

 

[KevinNM]

Ya can’t fix stupid.

No, it’s been fixed.

 

[Searcaigh]

Well as Scotty once said "Ye cannae break the laws of physics captain" .... and if you try they might just break you (me )

 

[Soloist]

First thing that came to mind.

 

[jfe]

I can’t help but wonder if stupid is the correct term here. I think ignorance may be the key, this guy might’ve never been around cylinders and oblivious to the impact it can have especially O2. Who knows what his motive was but a seriously bad outcome, condolences to his family

 

[Rose Robinson]

here is another example of bad o2 handling

abnfrog,

Not stupid as has been mentioned.

Not knowing, not understanding, assuming. In this tragic case, likely assuming the cylinder was empty.

One possibility could be that the victim's spouse used medical oxygen, she may have recently passed, and he was distraught over her death and not thinking clearly. Maybe taking the cylinder to a recycling yard, and assumed the cylinder was empty. The recycler may have told the victim, they'd accept the cylinder, but not with the valve on.

I deal daily with the deceased and the distraught. Sometimes when a person is distraught, all sense of reason and understanding vanishes, happens all the time with soldiers.

No, not stupid, just tragic!

Rose.

 

[gbirch]

Is the fact that this is an O2 cylinder irrelevant in this case? The news report said "Explode" and does mention some "charred pieces" but this looks like a compressed gas rupture from a cylinder and not a fireball of flammable gas since, after all, Oxygen is not flammable. Seems like the same outcome would have happened with a similar cylinder of compressed air.

 

[rjack321]

Is the fact that this is an O2 cylinder irrelevant in this case? The news report said "Explode" and does mention some "charred pieces" but this looks like a compressed gas rupture from a cylinder and not a fireball of flammable gas since, after all, Oxygen is not flammable. Seems like the same outcome would have happened with a similar cylinder of compressed air.

Hard to know yet. You can get combustion in an O2 cylinder from dropping it or striking it on the ground through something called particle impingement. Did the valve shear off and cause the cylinder to explode? Or did a combustion event in the threads or due to a particle occur and cause an instantaneous pressure rise which then ruptured the cylinder? This is usually determined through metallurgical analysis of the cylinder fragments.

 

[Charles2]

Is the fact that this is an O2 cylinder irrelevant in this case? The news report said "Explode" and does mention some "charred pieces" but this looks like a compressed gas rupture from a cylinder and not a fireball of flammable gas since, after all, Oxygen is not flammable. Seems like the same outcome would have happened with a similar cylinder of compressed air.

Aluminum scuba cylinders in oxygen-enriched and oxygen service - what happens to an aluminum scuba tank in an oxygen-fed fire? | Luxfer Gas Cylinders (luxfercylinders.com)