Burning bottles

[blenkie1]

Yes had a bit of an incident today when the bottles set alight. Found out I can still run fast when I need to although the other lad I was working with beat me out. Still don't understand what happened. Lit the torch, one almighty crack and then flames start shooting out of the top of the bottles! Got a feeling the acetylene hose burst at the gauge shooting flames across to the oxygen. Not much wrong with the acetylene other than the bust hose. Fire officer said the valve set had failed and had we had done nothing wrong. Scary moments!

 

[Rudi McAnichal]

What stopped it?
How long before you went back inside?
Any advice, in case the same thing happens to somebody else?

 

[Shedendman]

Soiled underwear

 

[Covert]

Holy moly , brown trousers time

 

[blenkie1]

First thing i did was panic. I did think for a split second to switch bottles off but the flames would be a foot coming off the top and self preservation kicked in and ran. Got in to the big workshop grabbed an extinguisher and ran around to the main door and covered it with foam. It did exactly nothing. I ran past the bottles to the managers office told him it was a major fire. He went to have a look, opened the door said 'oh f@£K, closed the door set the alarm away. Everyone had an extingusher trying to put it out and it did eventually go out not sure if it was the reason it went out or the fact it was running out of pressure. Fireman came and soaked the bottles with water.

It must of been alight for about 4-5mins although felt longer. The fireman must have been throwing water at it for about an hour to cool it. Fire officer said it was nothing we had done wrong (relief) and he was happy for us to go back in once they had got the temperture down.

 

[ronan]

Are there flashback arrestors on those bottles ?

 

[blenkie1]

Yes got flashback arrestors. They are good on the maintenance side. One of the lads had been in the local welding shop just this week and told him they he needed to come and check all the welding/burning gear! No ifs or buts if it needs replaced they do it they don't scrimp on stuff.

 

[roofman]

a burning bottle i not that bad as it looks...i once had a full 47kg propane burn off without a big bang.

 

[blenkie1]

a burning bottle i not that bad as it looks...i once had a full 47kg propane burn off without a big bang.

Yeah I think you are right but I bet you didn't go over to warm your hands up on it! More panic then anything really. The fire officer did say Acetylene is hugely unstable a sharp knock can set things going as soon as its mentioned its a major incident because of its volatile nature.

I did work for British Gas for a while and my job was to build things for them to blow up and well know the damages gas can cause.

 

[ronan]

I've seen flames coming out of bottles before, one i just blew out like a candle, the other i don't know what happened as i was going on my tea break

 

[optima21]

many years ago I can remember one of my dads friends welding a car and there were some flames around the aceteleyne bottle, which was due to loose connections I think (was about 30 to 35 years ago)..... on the same batch of welding he also managed to cut though a plastic petrol pipe with a welding torch, but was very lucky that the pipe sealed itself, as the petrol tank was still in the car.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Powder extinguisher would of helped the flame to be extinguished. Foam would of make a nice column of bubbles.
If the bottles are burning and there is no chance of further damaged to life or property the fire brigade will let it either burn, or shut the bottle off.

 

[BrokenBiker]

When I did fire warden training for the company I'm with now we were shown a video comparing a bottle that was on fire and a bottle that was in a fire...the bottle on fire just vented flame until it was empty, the one in a fire just built pressure until it blew then sprayed gas into the flames in a big fireball

 

[Paul.]

A place I worked at many years ago, I turned up early morning, still dark, to find the old boy who normally unlocked standing outside, he kept saying "not going in there" I opened up and in the dark at the back of the factory was the familiar glow of a leaking and burning DA reg, It had a ball of soot round the top of it and had been alight all night, we used to keep a long handled cylinder key for such occasions, so I just brushed the soot out of the way and turned it off, no great drama, the cylinder was cool and nothing to worry about,
Fire engines always used to have along key on board as well, not so nowadays with the evacuation and cooling procedures they use,
Before industrial gases and equipment were as controlled by legislation as they are now it was not that unusual to see a DA with a yellow flame round the reg stem.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Probably been seen here before, but a sobering reminder of the potential.........

 

[brightspark]

that's it now we will be having all the doom and gloom merchants posting on how dangerous they are

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

 

[roofman]

ask the next fire blower you see performing his tricks why his mouth does,nt explode

 

[Bill Edwards]

a burning bottle i not that bad as it looks...i once had a full 47kg propane burn off without a big bang.

Yes, but that's propane - we're talking about acetylene...
Rather like comparing a ferrari to a pug 206 - sure, they'll both make noise and drive off, but one has vastly more go about it and isn't exactly tame.

 

[ronan]

ask the next fire blower you see performing his tricks why his mouth does,nt explode

Or a drunken student lighting his farts