Firefighter killed filling tanks - Ohio

[ReefGuy]

We have the option of filling our tanks at the local FD. They have a compressor. Honestly, I prefer not to, but sometimes you've just got to have air in the middle of the night.

 

[2airishuman]

Most fire department compressor facilities in the Eastern US are also used by whatever dive team serves the same jurisdiction.

That said, from the description of the accident, it was probably an SCBA cylinder. As noted upthread, the SCBA cylinders in fire service are now primarily 4500 PSI fiber-wrapped cylinders. There are still some old aluminum ones out there and a very few steels, usually in training, demonstration, or standby use rather than used for routine fire response.

 

[nadwidny]

why probably not? I don't think I've seen a steel or aluminum tank in a fire department in years, especially as they're upgrading to 6k psi systems...

Being in a rush when posting can be a killer. I should have said "Yes they use compressors like ours, but no they usually don't use tanks like ours." And so if it was a wrapped cylinder (which as you pointed out it probably was) then it was unlikely to blow up.

 

[Seaweed Doc]

In my neck of the woods firefighters are sometimes THE dive rescue unit and not just part of it; though it seems like this is SCBA not SCUBA.

It's been awhile, but in the dark ages the Friday Harbor (WA) fire department filled tanks at Friday Harbor Labs, from a "SCUBA" compressor. Sometimes it's the divers that fill the FD tanks....

 

[drbill]

Hmmm... we used to get SCUBA tanks filled at fire stations. As for the fiber-wrapped 4500 psi tanks, my dive buddy Andrea had one for SCUBA use.

 

[Bowers]

i imagine if it was a catastrophic failure there would be more mentioned about rebuilding the firehouse or at least part of it. im hoping to hear more details soon since i work at a firehouse 40min away. but pure speculation leads me to beleive it must have been something more along the lines of a fitting blasting loose and striking him since it mentioned trauma to the head and being transported to the hospital rather than something like "firefighter found in rubble after accident".

 

[Divegoose]

I fill all my dive cylinders at the fire department - as the person responsible for SCBA at our department I have the privilege of filling my dive cylinders. I also fill dive cylinders for the local Coast Guard station. All of our SCBA cylinders are 4500 psi and carbon fibre wrapped. The fill station has fragmentation containers for the SCBA cylinders, but not for SCUBA cylinders. As Bowers mentioned, if the SCUBA cylinder failed catastrophically, the firefighter would have been "found in rubble after accident." It will take some time, but there will be a NIOSH investigation, and the report will be posted on their website. It will be interesting to read what actually happened once the report is completed and posted.

Divegoose

 

[Bob DBF]

I was searching for more information on the accident, couldn't find any more details, however the three articles I saw that were written since, refer to a "compressed air accident" and "working with compressed air cylenders" rather than mentioning SCUBA or SCBA. This, to me, reflects the reporters are listening to the investigators, rather than trying to beat the compition to publish.


Bob

 

[Kay Dee]

i imagine if it was a catastrophic failure there would be more mentioned about rebuilding the firehouse or at least part of it.

No offense meant to you and others, but having seen the results of a 'catastrophic failure', and heard first hand of a couple of others, I would disagree with the above and other statement re 'filler in fragments'. Sure damage done, death, but................

I even recall back in the day a fill explosion at, IIRC, Ginnie Springs (Florida) which certainly did damage but not so much as implied above.

Just my two cents; which, with inflation, is probably now only worth one.

 

[DandyDon]

Another member found a more recent article that give more facts & information: https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/fire/pdfs/face201810.pdf