Posted by Kendall Raine on October 11, 2001 at 10:58:44:
In Reply to: Does anyone know why it blew up? posted by Robin on October 11, 2001 at 10:36:13:
An oxygen fire requires fuel, heat and ignition. The few facts I know are that the gas was Nitrox 80 left in the sun and deployed using an Atomic titanium reg in the back of a pick up truck which had a plastic bed liner. The victim said his reg was O2 cleaned.
Titanium has a low burning temperature relative to brass. Plastic bed liners are known to store static electricity such that they come with warnings not to store flamable liquids, like gasoline, in them-i.e they are a known source of ignition. If left in the sun, O2 gets hot. If a valve is opened quickly, adabiatic pressure further raises the temperature of an escaping gas. I don't know how "clean" the equipment was, but the elements of fuel, heat and ignition were already present.
The fact is 100% O2 is used every day in scuba applications without mishap. Things I do to avoid this problem are:
1. Use brass regs.
2. Don't leave my O2 bottle cooking in the sun.
3. Don't leave my O2 bottle in a plastic bed liner in the sun.
4. Make sure silicone grease never gets near any of my regs or on my fingers when I'm handling regs or bottles.
5. Open any valve slowly. Never use a ball valve around O2.
6. Treat high O2 mixes with a lot of respect.
I don't know why this one cooked off, but the dots outline a clear picture.