SCBA tank maintenance is no joke
The Associated Press
9:32 a.m. EDT, September 12, 2011
ST. PETERSBURG, Florida — St. Petersburg Police have identified the Iraq war veteran who was killed by an exploding scuba tank.
Authorities say Russell Vanhorn II, 23, was carrying the scuba tank to his car Sunday morning when it exploded inside his apartment. The cause of the explosion that blew out of the front door and windows of the apartment has not been determined.
Vanhorn was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Two others inside the apartment at the time were not injured. They told officials Vanhorn was carrying the tank to a car before a scuba diving trip.
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We have members that use Scuba tanks, so that’s not a problem. I have one in my attached garage right now! They are saying it was a small tank, just like the one next to my tool box 😯
Scuba expert baffled at report of fatal tank blast
Link to story:
http://www2.tbo.com/news/breaking-news/2011/sep/13/menewso6-scuba-expert-baffled-at-report-of-fatal-t-ar-257328/
Detectives are trying to piece together what triggered a Sunday morning scuba tank explosion that killed dive instructor Russell Vanhorn II.
“We have the tank in our custody. We’re still talking to people who may know more about it. We’re still trying to find parts of the tank from the scene,” said St. Petersburg police spokesman Bill Proffitt.
The metal tank exploded just inside the front door of Vanhorn’s apartment, 5875 37th Ave. N., as the 23-year-old scuba instructor and Iraq War veteran was carrying the tank out for a trip.
Two friends elsewhere in the apartment were uninjured in the blast. It was powerful enough to shatter nearby car windows and send debris flying 75 feet.
“Basically, it blew in half,” Proffitt said. “The regulator, or the valve on top, is still missing.”
Oceanographer and marine consultant Heyward Mathews said he’s never heard of a scuba tank exploding like this in his 50 years of diving.
Mathews, who teaches scuba classes at St. Petersburg College, said it’s important that detectives get to the bottom of it.
“All of us in the business are waiting to find out how it could have possibly happened,” Mathews said. “It defies the laws of physics.”
Scuba tanks sometimes fail during filling or when they overheat in the sun, Mathews said, but he couldn’t recall a spontaneous explosion. “It’s such a freak thing,” Mathews said.
Also Mathews said that scuba tanks have failed because of overfilling, which can cause metal fatigue, and tampering with the “burst disk,” a pressure-release device designed to fail before the tank does.
“Some cave divers will pull the screw out, put a second disk in there, screw it back down so they can fill the tank at higher pressure than it’s rated for,” he said. “But no reputable dive shop would ever allow that.”
Police said the tank that exploded was a small one, typically used as a reserve or backup supply.
Yeah, I typo’ed the topic and left out the “U”. The article was clear that it was a SCUBA tank, as in Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.
Clues suggest pure oxygen may factor in fatal St. Petersburg scuba tank blast
Read story here:
http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/clues-suggest-pure-oxygen-may-factor-in-fatal-st-petersburg-scuba-tank/1191201
A witness getting his morning newspaper told police he saw a bright flash when a scuba tank exploded early Sunday morning.
The man holding the tank, avid diver Russell Vanhorn II, suffered what appeared to be burns in the blast that took his life and destroyed the condo he was standing in, according to St. Petersburg police.
If pure oxygen was being used for a diving trip in the Tampa Bay area, Jackson said, that suggests Vanhorn may have planned to go cave diving.
The tank was found split down the middle from top to bottom, lodged overhead in what was left of the kitchen ceiling. The blast shattered drywall and ceiling, collapsed walls, smashed furniture, blew out the doors and windows and damaged cars in the parking lot.
The Tampa Bay Regional Bomb Squad came in to inspect and empty the 11 other tanks found inside. Authorities did not say what was in the tanks.
Sara Swoch, 27, and Brent Stevens, 22, were inside the condo at 5865 37th Ave. N when the tank exploded at about 6:50 a.m., police said.
Another story is saying the tank had 100% O2 in it. That could be an issue too.
Well that is the whole problem they think. Powder coating on aluminum tanks is typically applied electrostatically and is then cured under heat to allow it to flow and form a “skin”. For scuba tanks you are supposed to use controlled temperature or cool methods.
Basically, when the tanks get all scratched up they try to make them like new. They think someone used the heating method on the tank that blew up and they can tell that by looking at the surface.
If I find a tank I will film it. I can stick the camera a lot closer. 😎
Heat treating a tank just to paint it? 😕 Why?!?!
The case of a failed scba tank was due to it being in a storage locker with a caustic cleaner or something like that.
SECoda, please film that, I WANT TO SEE IT!!! 😆
If I got a 4500 about to expire I would fill it and stick it out in a farm field and shoot it from a good distance with my 30-06 to see what haooens.
About 27 years ago a factory in Terre Haute, IN had a cylinder of compressed gas fall and the valve sheared sending it through the roof. The next fall the tank was found across the Wabash river by an IL farmer in his field. After that I gave much more respect to the gas cylinders in the shop I worked at.
I cringe when driving down the road and see someone with a set of cutting tanks standing upright in the bed of their truck with the regulators and hoses attached, usually lashed to the headache rack with a small chain or even a bungy cord. But it isn’t uncommon around these parts with all the farmers and small time scrap cutters.
Years prior my instructor had a student tip one over and the top hit something hard and blew off sending the cylinder through a cinder block wall and throwing shrapnel around but no one was hurt.
Leaving any pressurized / regulated / valved tank free standing is a no no.
They said the outside of the tank was completely refinished and they heat it up big time to do that which crystalizes the aluminum.
CF covered aluminum tanks have a better safety record. The firemen bang the SCBA tanks all over the place so they are built tough.
I had a guy kicked out of my scuba class in college because he left his aluminum tank standing up pool side.
Ya,
Big big difference in the two, especially when sounding an alarm, which is what I assume is what you’re trying to do.
There are huuuuuge amounts of old school aluminum SCUBA tanks that are known to fail and explode.
SCBA, the higher pressure carbon fiber tanks are a different tech and pressure altogether.
Big difference between a scuba and scba on your title and post, but of course both will kill you big time.
I wonder what happend there.
Droped on concrete step perhaps?
Regards,
Roachcreek
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Terrible accident, but a non issue for us arigunners, unless your putting o2 in your tank, if you are your crazy.
Regards,
Roachcreek