Incident Report

Subject:                     SCBA - Cylinder Valve Failure

Date of Email reporting Incident:   

Report Detail:

Dear All,
This incident happened on 6th of April 2008 at 2130 hrs. I have done Initial investigation this morning, and the chronology and findings are:

1. Firefighter took one SCBA cylinder from SCBA store to replace one of the SCBA cylinders from S1 vehicles as the earlier testing showed that the air content is not sufficient for operation.
2. While Firefighter dismantles SCBA from S1, another Firefighter checked the new cylinder including testing the cylinder’s hand wheel and to clean the connection area from dust.
3. The hand wheel was snapped/broken while turning it and dropped down vertically and start released the pressure itself.
4. Everybody ran away for protection and the cylinder was flying around and finally landed on the 5” hose carrier.
5. The cylinder hit the ambulance, ceiling and FT 11 locker.

This is a great example to help illustrate proper cylinder handling procedures and shows that it is not a myth that a cylinder can be a rocket.  We were fortunate that only other than a few individuals having to change their shorts, there were no injuries as a result.  When you look at the attached pictures, I think will agree that if the cylinder would have hit someone, it could have been a very serious injury.  Here is quick comment from me to help explain the pictures:

1. – Cylinder valve broke off the bottle and was projected and hit the side compartment door of one of our fire trucks.
2. – Cylinder “rocketed” and hit left rear corner of ambulance, and deflected toward ceiling.
3. – Cylinder hits ceiling, goes through false drop ceiling panels and enters void space of ceiling.
4. – Cylinder comes down through drop ceiling panels back into main bay.
5. – Cylinder lands and comes to rest on top of 5” hose trailer.
6. – Cylinder, valve, and handwheel after incident.

Additional Documentation: