Wow, just an egg cupfull of petrol

This happened in a house round here some years ago. House damage was the same but the man was killed (more than an eggcup in that case though, I suspect).

The message from "Kev" contains these words:

Perhaps it was an elegant chandelier before the explosion. :-)

Happened to a friend some ~40 years ago. They had just coated the new chipboard kitchen worktops and matching pieces of formica with evostick and were starting to wait for it to dry before bringing them together, when the solvent found the pilot light in something (might have been boiler, cooker, or water heater). The kitchen was an extension built on to a bungalow, so fortunately they only needed to rebuild the extension, and not the whole house;-)

The message from snipped-for-privacy@cucumber.demon.co.uk (Andrew Gabriel) contains these words:

I remember seeing a bloke sitting in the middle of a large floor covered in evostick warming vinyl tiles with a blowtorch while he waited for the glue to go tacky. It was an exceedingly cold day, which is presumably what kept him alive. I elected to go to a different part of the site that day.

The message from "dennis@home" contains these words:

Never ever ever weld with a lighter in your pocket, particularly a plastic one.

On Tue, 1 Aug 2006 17:50:42 +0100, Guy King wrote (in article ):

Made much worse by an ugly bulb

our neighbour removed kitchen tiles with petrol, the washing machine timer set it off, he suffered burns needing grafts, ptsd and months off work. the house wasn't too bad, broken windows, burnt bits etc., neighbouring manholes blew off, so presumably the fumes were down in the drains too. I blew up a cupful of acetylene in the garage once, it temporarily deafened me, but I will never leave a torch on anything that can collect heavy gas again.

mrcheerful

snipped-for-privacy@hall.nospam declared for all the world to hear...

The words "and barbecues" are missing from the end of that report.

I think the guy is telling porkies about the amount of petrol he used. Surely plenty of other liquids and solvents that we use in DIY are just as dangerous?

I have to say that I was sceptical about the eggcupful bit.

kevin

Which brings me onto another point. I've bought one of those dandy paint brush and roller cleaning sets recently which uses a power drill to clean. I was concerned about paint brush cleaner fluid being ignited by the drill motor - anyone heard of any incidents?

Acetylene isn't a heavy gas...

cheers, clive

Well it had the effect of filling up the trough around a drill table and going bang in a big way. In the past I have blown up balloons with acetylene, they seem to plummet to the floor compared with breath filled ones, perhaps it depends on ambient temp. whether it is heavier than air?

mrcheerful

Acetylene is C2H2, ie MW about 26, ie lighter than air which is about 28.8 (N2 = 28, O2 = 32). Propane is the one you need to worry about, at 44.

But yes, being cold would make it denser, and coming out of a cylinder would do that.

cheers, clive

And, indeed, butane, for all those with Camping Gaz cylinders in the cellar!

The message from "Bob Mannix" contains these words:

Which is why gas lockers on boats are (at least should be) above the waterline and constructed so that any leaks are vented overboard instead of into the hull.