Filling Your Own Tanks - Oxygen Fire

[FlIrishman]

One reason why you shouldn't fill your own NITROX Tank - especially if you don't know what your doing.
This is a TRUE Story and happend 22-May-2006.

http://www.irishmansoftware.com/fill_your_own_tanks.htm

5-23-06 3:30 PM Added Note:
There's more to come on the story about this person!!
It may be a few more days til I get the rest of the story and some more DUMM stunts that this novice diver did!
Garages to bedrooms is common in Florida
Nope - didn't see it in the local paper either@

 

[victor]

Looks like someone found why you have to have O2 clean to fill with 100%
Looking forward to more information to see if I am right.

 

[do it easy]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it looks like all the steel tanks survived and the one the popped was aluminum.

 

[Cobra852]

I wonder how much he wants for the steel tanks?:huh:

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

Holy crap! That's gonna leave a mark!

 

[MikeFerrara]

One reason why you shouldn't fill your own NITROX Tank - especially if you don't know what your doing.
This is a TRUE Story and happend 22-May-2006.

http://www.irishmansoftware.com/fill_your_own_tanks.htm

There's more to come on the story about this person!!

I guess I missed something. I looked at the pictures but I don't see why I shouldn't fill my own nitrox tanks. Do you?

I would agree that you shouldn't be filling any tank if you don't know what you're doing and you certainly shouldn't be messing around with O2 if you don't know what you're doing but there are lots of people who do know what they are doing.

I don't know about the "you" that you refer to but "I" am as qualified, and maybe more qualified, to fill tanks, mix gas and prepare equipment than any one you are likely to find in a dive shop.

Since using 100% O2 can never be 100% safe, the one advantage to letting some one else do it is that it's their property that will burn up instead of yours if something goes wrong. Speaking of which, there are plenty of dive shops that have had accidents. the last one that I remember hearing about resulted in a fatality and took out the front of the dive shop.

 

[cerich]

I'm gonna guess that he was boosting his O2 to rated tank pressure on his deco bottle.

I avoid that practice like the plague.... Most O2 incidents I am aware of come from boosting.

I fill my alum deco bottles to 2250, if I need more O2 I bring a bigger bottle.

 

[Chaseh]

I guess I missed something. I looked at the pictures but I don't see why I shouldn't fill my own nitrox tanks. Do you?

I would agree that you shouldn't be filling any tank if you don't know what you're doing and you certainly shouldn't be messing around with O2 if you don't know what you're doing but there are lots of people who do know what they are doing.

I don't know about the "you" that you refer to but "I" am as qualified, and maybe more qualified, to fill tanks, mix gas and prepare equipment than any one you are likely to find in a dive shop.

Since using 100% O2 can never be 100% safe, the one advantage to letting some one else do it is that it's their property that will burn up instead of yours if something goes wrong. Speaking of which, there are plenty of dive shops that have had accidents. the last one that I remember hearing about resulted in a fatality and took out the front of the dive shop.

lighten up Francis.

 

[cerich]

Oh yeah, if you do wanna mix at home set up a shed as far away from the house as possible. My family and house is more important than mixing my own. It's just crazy to mix in the garage. My wife already knows to read OXYGEN 20 on my cylinders, and if after I come back from a trip I dump my gear in the garage she points to the offending bottles(the ones with that sticker on them) and reminds I have a shed that they go in that is dedicated to my "Scuba Crap".... Other "scuba crap" that lands in the garage gets a pass for a week or so.

And another reason....

Do ya think it's fair to the responding fire department to walk into what seems like a simple garage fire (expecting a fire started by solvents/regs/cigarettes) to be walking into a blaze that has compressed oxygen cylinders involved?

 

[cummings66]

Well, it would be interesting to know if he took courses to qualify himself and also what kind of equipment he used to do this, and why.

When a person posts some pics like this with absolutely no explanation it invites speculation and most likely was done that way on purpose. However you'll notice he's posting it in the early morning right after the fire so he's probably wasted having had little to no sleep and probably lost everything he's got of value.

For me the thing I would value most would be the family pictures and that would come as a hard blow. I'm sorry to see something like this happen and hope nobody got hurt, and hopefully he'll post back here today why it occurred with a complete explanation.

From what I know it does not scare me because I know what can occur having been a welder for some years now, plus having it reinforced by the Nitrox courses as to how dangerous it can be. I may someday do my own but only after the proper courses and it will be in another place separate from the home just in case.