Two burned in compressor room fire - Bischheim, France

[DandyDon]

Bas-Rhin: deux blessés dans l'incendie d'un club de plongée à Bischheim

Google translation...

Bas-Rhin: two injured in the fire of a diving club in Bischheim​

120 cylinders of compressed air and three of oxygen were present at the scene of the accident. A man was rushed to hospital with burns.

The firefighters of Bas-Rhin intervened this Tuesday evening around 9:40 p.m. on a fire taking place rue du château d'Angleterre in Bischheim in a diving club. The fire broke out in a compressor room containing 120 cylinders of compressed air and three cylinders of oxygen.

In total, two victims were taken care of by firefighters, including a 42-year-old man with burns who was taken to hospital in relative emergency.

22 firefighters and two fire hoses were mobilized during the intervention.

Online commentator...

"Yes I have ! ... since it happened in my club !!

I was on vacation, came home yesterday I rushed to the club on my little bike, here is the news.

Facts:

The technical room of the club's diving base is completely destroyed by flames. 3 compressors, including a new one that we had just bought not yet in service, 120 blocks (probably some of them can be saved) all the vests clubs and around thirty regulators, 6 300bars pads, the ramp and all the various and varied stuff that can be crammed into a 40m² diving room: destroyed, destroyed, burnt.

C. a friend of the club, mf2, Dejeps, a highly qualified recycler diver, inflated his oxy block for his CCR, it seems that a manipulation of the booster after inflation caused an explosion and a firing of the room. It is burnt, but without too much gravity I have been told, he is no longer in the hospital.

My 2 blocks of SM, and my steel block were in the room, I could see the blocks SM, I found that they had not so badly cornered as that, the nylon straps and the rubber bands were not even not melted, however the plastic tap handles had melted. I am told that the fire may have weakened them, especially at the collar. I did not find the 15l in the scrap heap.

3 or 4 blocks scattered here and there in the rest of the base which fortunately was not affected by the fire could be saved.

So much for the facts.

Now the club will get into the complicated stuff: insurance experts and other joys. The room belongs to a municipality, the club is a tenant.
When are we going to dive back ? Impossible to say."

 

[BlueTrin]

Must be quite a big club to have 120 cylinders?

 

[ScubaD1veDiv@]

What about the injured people?

 

[DandyDon]

What about the injured people?

It said one hospitalized. The “C. a friend of the club, mf2, Dejeps, a highly qualified recycler diver, inflated his oxy block for his CCR, it seems that a manipulation of the booster after inflation caused an explosion and a firing of the room. It is burnt, but without too much gravity I have been told, he is no longer in the hospital.”

 

[Johnoly]

....inflated his oxy block for his CCR, it seems that a manipulation of the booster after inflation caused an explosion ..

Sounds like "Boosting O2" related. Heat + O2 = bad

 

[chillyinCanada]

What are "blocks"?

 

[Marie13]

What are "blocks"?

Tanks, as it seems from context since 120 tanks were mentioned earlier.

 

[Zef]

What are "blocks"?

Block (French: bloc) is a colloquial/slang term in French for one's gear...cylinder with backplate/bcd, regulators, etc. The term is derived from the idea that you have a unit or block of gear.

-Z

 

[chillyinCanada]

That's painful for the club and divers who lost their gear. Two were injured but both out of hospital already? Lucky

 

[BlueTrin]

Sounds like "Boosting O2" related. Heat + O2 = bad

I do not have training to do fills, under what circumstances this could have happened?

If you didn’t wait for the cylinders to cool down before boosting O2 after filling with a compressor?