Acetylene Explosion in Van

[Andrew @ PlanetLSX]

Check this out. This is why you don't want to store gases inside a closed vehicle.

Result of leaking acetylene bottle stored in plumbers van. Accidently ignited by activating a remote door lock device.

http://www.ehowa.com/features/acetyleneleak.shtml

That's some massive damage!

[kerryt1]

Hooooly schnikees.

[Flaring Afro]

aww now whenever a plumber goes to his van im gonna cringe lol

[WILWAXU]

Hmm.. link blocked in Bahrain.

[Skill]

Whoa. That's a big ass blast

[southern69chevy]

Hope no one was harmed and I would like to see a video of that.

[Andrew @ PlanetLSX]

I've attached a few of the pictures. Note the collateral damage to surrounding vehicles, houses, and the boat.

The site may be NSFW, it has the word "pron" on it, but with Firefox/Adblock/Noscript I don't see a lot of stuff on 'bad' sites. ;)

[WILWAXU]

Wow! Epic blast!

Anyone hurt?

Funny... looking at the yards of each house, the one with the van in it seems to be the junkyard :D

btw.. those places a literally stacked on top of each other.

[Nine Ball]

Luckily for him, he has two more spare vans parked in the yard. I'm guessing we know which is the most hated neighbor on that block, even before the blast. Holy shithole yard!

[cam]

Yeah compressed gas and poor handling is waaaaaaaay dangerous. I've seen a video of two scrap guys in a pick up that had filled an out of date oxygen bottle and it blows, the truck looks similar to that van. Completely obliterated it was quite a site.

This was in welding training up here In Canada and I can tell this much. From that day until now I never walk past any compressed gas bottle without verifying its off. I made this habit as we were taught and it makes for safe practice. Acetylene is very noxious so I'd notice but who the hell would ever smell oxygen? Who even knows how explosive oxygen is?

Theres also another guy I know who works in the Toronto area who was almost burned to death years ago. He wasnt even using the torch just rolling the dolly along and the oxy tank just fireballed em suddenly. Luckilly he worked in a fab shop with good safety training and he survived but compressed gases are scary.

Might want to think twice if you put a propane tank in your trunk especially if you have kids in the car....

[Ragtop 99]

How do you walk away from that? Most people are pretty close when they hit the remote.

[El_Bastardo]

Been studying for the EPA Universal certification. You can only fill cylinders of certain refrigerants up to 80% as the vapor will expand and go kablooey. Other refrigerants are not recommended to be left in vehicles after interior temp reaches 125 F which is not that hard to reach. I found that comforting...:suspicious:

[02Z28LS1]

Acetylene is very noxious so I'd notice but who the hell would ever smell oxygen? Who even knows how explosive oxygen is?

just like nitrous oxide, oxygen by itself is not flammable....it's just an accelerant that will cause anything else burning nearby to burn hotter & quicker

[wtomlinson]

just like nitrous oxide, oxygen by itself is not flammable....it's just an accelerant that will cause anything else burning nearby to burn hotter & quicker

ummm, i don't know if you saw Fast and the Furious or not. movies don't lie :secret:

[Andrew @ PlanetLSX]

just like nitrous oxide, oxygen by itself is not flammable....it's just an accelerant that will cause anything else burning nearby to burn hotter & quicker

But something you must be very careful of is having ANY grease around an oxygen cylinder. You can't use any grease on the threads for a fitting used with an oxy cylinder, because there is a chance of spontaneous combustion. Supposedly the same risk exists with nitrous oxide - the simple presence of grease on a threaded fitting can cause a fire (which I suppose, in theory, could possibly damage or blow the valve off the cylinder, which could be 'bad').