Scuba Cylinder kills fire fighter

[rjack321]

What is the typical pressure in a cylinder used for firefighting? 3000 psi seems like overkill for surface breathing, maybe scuba tanks are more pressurized than the ones they were used to working with?

These were scuba cylinders presumably for their dive team.

Many (most?) fire depts are using 4500+psi carbon fiber composite cylinders for their SCBAs. The older 2200psi aluminum SCBAs have been retired due to their smaller capacity. This transition mostly occurred in the decade after 9/11. There were a significant number of federal grants available as part of the 2009 US federal stimulus efforts as well.

 

[Divegoose]

3000 PSI are old packs. 4500 PSI are the next generation and 5500 PSI are now the standard. At least in the US. I don't know about European firefighting.

We use the Scott carbon fibre wrapped SCBA cylinders that are filled to 4500 psi. We use cylinders rated for 45 minutes, but you never get 45 minutes out of them if you are working hard. We used to have some cylinders rated at 60 minutes for our confined space air-kart, but replaced them with 45 minute cylinders when their service life expired.

Divegoose

 

[Bowers]

my department uses al80s for the dive team and 4500psi wrapped carbon fiber for scba that hold 66cf of air when filled to rated pressure

 

[dead dog]

Whoever wrote this story, doesn't know the difference between SCUBA and SCBA. Firefighters use SCBA tanks rated at 4500 psi. Now at that pressure, it would kill just about anyone.

 

[Bob DBF]

draining a scuba tank through a burst disk seems risky at best....

There are limited options for draining a tank once the valve is inoperable. I was astonished that anyone would attempt this without the tank being secured properly. To be fair I was brought up around dangerous machinery and large animals so I was trained to be paranoid from a young age.

Whoever wrote this story, doesn't know the difference between SCUBA and SCBA. Firefighters use SCBA tanks rated at 4500 psi. Now at that pressure, it would kill just about anyone.

From the article
"The SCUBA cylinders had been recently privately purchased by members of the fire department’s dive rescue team. "



Bob

 

[Compressor]

Tragic; just tragic.

 

[The Chairman]

Wow.

 

[RIHappyDiver]

Based on the date of the accident I think this was in the accidents and incidents forum in June of last year. I’m not sure how to link it but this is the title,
Firefighter killed filling tanks - Ohio

 

[Couv]

Wow.

Exactly.

@akdeepdiver Myles, isn't this an example of why the old style, single orifice, bust disk assemblies were replaced by the current assemblies that have opposing vent holes?

 

[rjack321]

Exactly.

@akdeepdiver Myles, isn't this an example of why the old style, single orifice, bust disk assemblies were replaced by the current assemblies that have opposing vent holes?

The plugs are soft brass, if the threads are corroded in place its not hard to shear off the nut end which results in a single outlet hole with considerable force. I have sheared off the nut end myself, its not especially hard to do. In my case there was no pressure in the tank at the time so the consequences were slight. I threw out the valve, it was cheaper and safer than using an ezy-out to try and remove the remnants of the plug.