Oxygen tank blew-up!!!!!!!!!

[zipper2]

HI EVERYONE,
Good to see your all posting,trying to catch up. Went out to check on my mom
Shes got another ct scan tomorrow and still pain,but not as bad she says.
I returned and don't know how i did it but,slept 17 hours straight,either tired
or it's the valve taking me there,to sleep so long.

Add a note here it was 3am and at my mom and dads we heard an explosion
BANG!!!! got us all up and my moms very close friend down the block you could see flames,but couldnt tell which house,and then we saw this womans daughter take off,we knew it was my moms friends house.The daughter found her mom outside,the house and she died in her daughters arms outside.
Apparently the friend of moms has a medic alert emergency call button and had pressed it,but it was too late,they don't have all the answers as to the explosion. It was the worst thing and we all knew her well and funeral is wed.
mom and dad were both asked to be paulbearers for her,so it was the devestating part of my stay there.SOOO very sad and how these oxygen tanks i so often even here see people smoking while wearing and holding a tank near them and we should seriously take into concideration oxygen and smoking.When the rule says no smoking (OXYGEN)She wasnot a smoker and we don't know what happened,but i'm saying alot of people i see with the oxygen do smoke and it can also lead to seriousness.Donot know what caused hers to blow up,had to be a fire in her home,whatever,but it sure was a big BANG at 3am,woke us all and her kids and grandkids also live next door to my parents........Sad time for all that this happened.

anyhow i'm home now too besides this episode tried to have a good time,this may have been what tired me for 17 hours to sleep.

Zipper2(DEB)

 

[Ross]

I'm fairly safe with mine because it's compressed oxygen or simply air. Some people have the liquid form and that is highly volatile. It'll be interesting to see if they discover the cause. Sorry someone lost their life over it all.

 

[ALCapshaw2]

I seem to recall a tour bus that burned up on an Interstate due to an Oxygen Tank explosion.

An even vaguer memory... was there an airline incident where an oxygen tank blew a hole in some airliner somewhere???? anybody remember?

 

[skeptic49]

"i so often even here see people smoking while wearing and holding a tank near them and we should seriously take into concideration oxygen and smoking"

That's like Playing Russian Roulette with bullets in all the chambers! Oxygen and smoking is a prescription for disaster.

Jim

 

[Ross]

Oxygen is not flammable. It's an oxidizer, but put a flame nearby and watch that puppy grow big!

Oxygen is Not Flammable


Unlike other gases and chemicals, oxygen is not flammable. It is classified as an accelerator, meaning that if there is a fire and oxygen is present, the fire will burn. The more oxygen, the larger the fire and the faster it will spread. We are use to seeing fires burn in an atmosphere containing about 21 percent oxygen. This is the atmosphere in which most materials are tested for safety, such as the covering of the chair in the above story. But when oxygen is flowing near such material, the material absorbs the oxygen and becomes more susceptible to burning.

So, I am now more aware that the oxygen I cannot see has a presence, not only in my nostrils but all around me. My clothing and my hair contain more oxygen than that of a person not on oxygen.

Knowing this, I understand more fully the "five foot rule" and stay at least this distance away from sources of sparks and flames. I keep my concentrator and store both liquid and compressed oxygen containers at least five feet from any source of flames or spark.

I do not lean over a lighted gas stove with my cannula on; I no longer blow out the candles on my birthday cake; I no longer do the outdoor grilling; and I let others hold my candle during Christmas church services. In general, I do not put myself in a position where I am too close to an existing fire.

I do not permit a cigarette to be lit near me. I do not permit smoking in the rooms where I normally use oxygen. The hidden danger here is that a hot ash could smolder for a long time before flaming up, as I remember it did in my home when I was very young. I do not work with paint remover or other flammable products.

http://www.portableoxygen.org/o2safety.html

 

[Debster]

Hey Al-I think you are thinking of the ValuJet crash over the Florida Everglades several years ago. Wasn't there oxygen tanks on that that contributed somehow to the crash? Deb

 

[Bina]

I seem to recall a tour bus that burned up on an Interstate due to an Oxygen Tank explosion.

An even vaguer memory... was there an airline incident where an oxygen tank blew a hole in some airliner somewhere???? anybody remember?

About a week or 2 ago an airliner in Spain had a hole blown in its side.
I'm trying to remember if it was an oxygen tank or the engine.....

 

[ctyguy]

Sorry to read your post, its difficult to lose a loved one no matter the circumstances but those that you described are really tough. My heart goes out to that whole family.

 

[Alistair]

Hey Al-I think you are thinking of the ValuJet crash over the Florida Everglades several years ago. Wasn't there oxygen tanks on that that contributed somehow to the crash? Deb

You beat me to the punch! I remember this well. If I'm not mistaken, the location was in such a remote part of the Everglade swamps that they never retrieved either the plane or victims.

Wasn't it four Scuba air tanks that "clinked" together somehow during flight that caused the explosion?

-Alistiar

 

[Susan BAV]

...An even vaguer memory... was there an airline incident where an oxygen tank blew a hole in some airliner somewhere???? anybody remember?

Just a few weeks ago there was an incident like this; the airliner happily landed safely (despite the huge hole in its side).

I was scared when I read about it because my husband and I use a small oxygen bottle when he flies us. But he said that while the tanks need to be checked and pressure tested every few years, that people have either ignored something or they have to be doing something careless for a tank to blow up. He said there has to be a catalyst of some kind. For example, if petroleum oil touches oxygen in its pure state you'll have an immediate fire. The bottle musn't be overfilled either. There are many other things to be cautious about also.

DEB, sorry to hear about your parent's friend. Very tragic incident.

 

[aussie girl]

On July 25th a qantas plane flying from Hong Kong to Melbourne was forced to make an emergency landing in Manila when an oxygen tank thought to be about the size of a scuba tank exploded in the cargo hold ripping out a section of the fuselage. It was also an oxygen tank explosion that caused the problems for Apollo 13 several years ago

Mary

 

[zipper2]

UPDATE on this is all they can find is she had a bath
or shower and it was a bathing solution she used on her skin
that caused the explosion of her tank haven't found out
what was used,but obviously the mixture effected when she had
the mask on and her face and parts of her body were burned.
This is so sad to think a solution used to shower or bath would
cause such a explsion.

zipper2 (DEB)

 

[BDMc]

What a very sad story. Prayers to her family and friends. Brian