Man dies after barbecue explosion

[Chris Hogg]

he was using an angle grinder!

[Martin Brown]

Not an exploding BBQ - you need LOX soaked charcoal for that.

Fuel air explosions can be remarkably unforgiving. This was actually a cutting metal with an explosive mixture inside error. No doubt the shrapnel it produced hit something vital. It wasn't the angle grinder that killed him but the sparks it produced igniting a bomb.

The same risks attach to decomissioning an old heating oil tank.

[Peter Parry]

Nope, dumping 10 gallons of Avpin on a half dead 45 gallon drum barbecue can put most of the charcoal and a dozen chickens into low earth orbit without any problem.

[Chris Hogg]

Oops, sorry! Missed it the first time.

[Brian Gaff]

Is this the problem with not allowing people to make mistakes and learning from them. I'd have thought itswas obvious that attempting to cut into a tank with vapour of flammable stuff in it with a very hot cutter was obvious.

I can remember someone round here making damn sure by opening and flushing out the tank first that it was not going to do this before cutting into it.

Brian

[Tim Lamb]

In message , Brian Gaff writes

Darwin in action?

In 1983, I purchased a yard opposite our farmhouse. One of the previous owners had dabbled in demolition; including several *clinker type* sewage treatment plants.

One notable leaving was a huge fuel storage tank, oval, about 5m long and 3m wide.

The local scrappies were on site clearing up some agricultural stuff and expressed an interest in the tank. I was seriously concerned about the risk of explosion if it were cut up on site by they seemed oblivious to H&S or any precautions. Top man left the site and an underling set about halving the tank with oxy-propane. The tank had an access hole about 18" dia. and, when I got brave enough, I could see a small fire burning in a puddle of what looked to be water/diesel. No explosion or anything of interest!

regards

[Andy Dingley]

10 gallons of AVPIN? Wouldn't the fume hazard from burning that be toxic enough for a substantial radius anyway?

[Frank Erskine]

It wasn't a "barbeque explosion" - it was a drum which he was going to make into a barbeque.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Probably around 10 years ago (and only a couple of weeks before I went on a fire safety course so we all remembered it at the time), a bloke had done something similar in deciding to cut open an 'empty' Calor gas cylinder to use it for something else. I can't now recall exactly what happened to him, but it came as a big surprise when it blew up.

[Martin Brown]

I have heard the bang seen the holes in multiple walls that the valve top off a nitrogen cylinder made after a gas tank toppled and knocked the valve off in the bad old days before you were obliged to chain them up. Thankfully no-one got in the way of either projectile.

[Jules Richardson]

What *is* the process normally used to ensure that all gas has gone? I remember seeing cylinders turned into other functional things (or "art") and wondered what they typically do before cutting into them (unless of course they do nothing and just take the risk that the cylinder's not going to go bang :-)

[Chris Hogg]

You know that. I know that. In fact the only person not to know that seems to have been the BBC hack who wrote the headline. So much for reporting accuracy.

[Nightjar]

Purge thoroughly with nitrogen.

Colin Bignell

[Steve Firth]

I don't know if that was me, but I reported that many years ago I was welding a patch to a petrol tank. Tank removed, steam cleaned, all access holes opened, sender removed, left to dry for a week before welding. Still enough fuel in there for it to go "pop" when the gas torch was applied.

Literally "pop" but the tank did jump about a foot off the ground.

[Peter Parry]

enough for a substantial radius anyway?

Not particularly, but in this case not at all as the audience had all taken cover in a monsoon ditch and were setting new Olympic records for the 500m dash in muddy water. Moreover the burn time was only about 5mS, the shape of the 1/2 45gallon drum sections provided some effective beam shaping for the explosion so other than the loss (completely) of dinner no other after effects were detected. The individual responsible and whose action of tipping a large bucket full of the stuff into the sedentary barbecue triggered the monsoon ditch diving survived with only the loss of his eyebrows, a pair of underpants and some severe bruising courtesy of the crew chief.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

I recall a tale of an oxygen tank shooting across the hold of a ship when it fell over and the valve sheared off. According to the teller, it moved quickly enough you'd not want to be in the way of it.

[Andy Dingley]

They're surprisingly pokey if you merely kick the spanner on the valve and open it wide...

[Andy Dingley]

Posted here years ago, and there's a legal condition that I'm not allowed to re-post it 8-(

[Andy Burns]

This lot seemed to have more "fun" with it ...

[Huge]

I finally looked this up. Wow. That's nasty stuff.

From

nitrate is extremely flammable and burns with practically invisible flame. This presents unique hazards in its handling. The flame is significantly less luminous than hydrogen or methanol flame and is only visible due to the turbulent hot air it generates.

Isopropyl nitrate was previously used in a jet engine starting system for military interceptor aircraft, and was known as AVPIN.[3] The exhaust fumes from an AVPIN monopropellant engine may themselves be explosive, if mixed with further air.