Report - Fill Whip Explosion

[p_prasse]

(All names in this report are abbreviated.)

Me and my three buddies had planned that Croatia wreck diving trip for quite some time.
One day before leaving Germany one of my buddies had to cancel because of a cardiac infarct. Well, at least that was what his doctor thought after seeing his haemogram. We offered to stay but he wanted us to go anyways, so we went.
(As it turned out in hospital my buddy never had a cardiac infarct, in fact he had no medical problems at all, his physician only misinterpreted the haemogram.)

So we (T., A. and me) started at approx 10 o'clock in Germany and arrived about 10 hours later in Croatia.
The next day everyone eager to dive cause we hadn't been diving in the ocean for quite some time. To trim our scooters and
get used to the environment we decided to mix some Nitrox 32 and do some shallow dives. We brought about 3 He and 3 Oxygen 300bar storage tanks of about 80L with us from Germany cause in Croatia helium is quite pricey and we had lot's of space left in the two van's.

Mixing was where the trouble started:
While A. and I were chatting A. connected the filling hose to the oxygen storage tank and to the other tank. I think we talked about scootering and whose scooter would be fastest as A. slowly opened the valve of the storage tank. He always did that very slowly so no shock pressure is built up. A. had not yet opened the valve of the stage so I could see the pressure gauge rise very slowly (about 20bars / second). As the pressure gauge showed about 170bars all I can remember is a flash coming from the hose, about 10cm before the DIN connection to the stage. I can not remember the huge bang, which was so loud that T. (a police officer) who was under the shower at that time about 100m away from the filling station came running down to us. He later told us that even under the shower the bang was so loud he tought someone had fired a P7 in the bathroom.

I immediately knew what happend as I found myself lying on the floor only one or two 10th of a second later, and did the only thing which came to my mind in that moment: I ran about 10m around the next corner, where I kneeled on the floor to take one or two deep breaths. In that very moment I noticed I could not hear anything anymore only a very loud beeping in both ears.
I searched for A. but could not see him so he still had to be near the filling station. I jumped off, ran the 10m around the corner and could only see two blue flames, each about 1m long, one parallel to the ground, the other about 45° from the ground. But where the **** was A.?? In that moment thousands of thoughts ran thru my mind . I stood there frozen for about one second (the longest second in my life!) when A. stood up from behind the trailer parked at the filling station behind which he jumped after seeing that flash. He seemed ok.

A. then closed the valve of the oxygen storage tank which at the same time extinguished the fire. The filling hose (or the 20cm which were left of it) was burning down at approx 2cm per second because of the high oxygen pressure flowing thru the hose. That was probably the reason for long but very narrow flame.

We asked each other if we were ok when we both realised we could not hear a thing anymore. But even without hearing each of us knew what the other wanted to know so both of us answered "I'm ok".

We then turned away from each other to catch our breath again and I noticed a warm liquid flowing into my face, so I went to the next window to see that it was only a scratch. I noticed some pain on my chest. The filling hose must have hit my chest after exploding and this was probably the reason I found myself on the floor instantly after seeing the flash.

After an hour our hearing improved to the point where we could hear the others whispering when in fact they were shouting.
We knew we had to get medical help for the ears as soon as possible but we went on to have breakfast first to calm down.

To make a long story short we searched for the hospital for 2 hours. When we arrived at the hospital they did not know the medication for our problem so we called A.'s doctor in Germany who told us to trink plenty, take 2000mg ASS and get an infusion with HES solution (Hydroxyethylstarch) and Cortisone.
After we came back from the hospital we decided to leave that night so we could get proper medical treatment in Germany.

The new low was when I discovered that I'm allergic to Cortisone after about the 5th infusion (of about 20). Never never ever let a doc inject Cortisone to fast when you're allergic to it! You'll get a headache from one second to another which you'll never forget and then, just ten seconds later everything is perfect again. (I'll leave out the gory details here which include vomiting on the floor and other not-so-nice things.)

Anyways, after about 15 more infusions (without Cortisone) my hearing has improved much and is only about 10dB worse than the hearing of a normal 50-year-old. (Only problem here is that I'm 23...) The tinnitus on both ears has stayed and my doctors say it'll probably stay forever or at least for quite some time.


To make a bad story good: Before going to Croatia I thought about buying a new TV because it was whistling which was driving me crazy. Now I can't hear it anymore and don't need to buy a new television... How's that? >2000 EUR in doctor's bills but I saved 300 from not having to buy a new TV... ;-)


To answer the questions in advance:
The filling whip was allowed for 300bars oxygen by the manufacturer, the whole whip was checked about one week ago by an authorized shop.
It came to my ears that this was not the first time a whip of this manufacturer exploded but I can't confirm that as I know that only from hearsay.
I will not yet disclose the name of the manufacturer. When I can confirm the other explosion I will.


Patrick

[Divingniknaks]

Good God is all I can think to say after reading that.

Glad you're here to tell the story.

I've been about 50% deaf in my left ear since I was 19, it get's manaegable so don't worry about that.

As I sell decanting whips I for one would VERY much like to know more, please PM me details in strictest confidence of course.

Thx

[Rick]

Glad your good Patrick!

[Alastair]

Wow - that's one hell of a tale. I've been near an 02 explosion of a filling whip in the past. I was stood about 15 feet away from the gas room and there was an almighty bang and I jumped round to see smoke, flames and the filling tech come barrelling out of the filling room. He yelled at us all to move back and I watched the flames until the 02 tank emptied itself.

Not a pleasant experience and I was a good distance away. Glad you survived it, and thanks for posting.

Cheers
Al

[ReikiMaster]

ouch, glad you are here to tell the story.

i wont even crack the joke about phill using his left ear to listen to people asking for discounts.