Dangerous accident

[morrisman]

Sadly, I have to report a nasty accident that has taken the life of a nice guy I met a few times.

He was using a grinder of some type in his home workshop environment , and his overalls caught on fire from the sparks .

He sustained bad burns up to his armpits, he was put into a induced coma in hospital . He underwent skin grafts for two weeks but died yesterday from complications .

Be careful everyone .

Mike

[nearnexus]

Sadly, I have to report a nasty accident that has taken the life of a nice guy I met a few times.

He was using a grinder of some type in his home workshop environment , and his overalls caught on fire from the sparks .

He sustained bad burns up to his armpits, he was put into a induced coma in hospital . He underwent skin grafts for two weeks but died yesterday from complications .

Be careful everyone .

Mike

Wow, bad karma. Sorry to hear that.

Just shows that cotton based overalls can still go up.

I was stick welding a few weeks back making the stand for the Schaublin and saw this glow in the visor and discovered the whole bottom shirt tail of my Yakka shirt which was hanging outside my dacks was on fire and going up fast.

Luckily caught it in time, patted it out, looked a bit the worst for wear, but shook me up a bit.

You expect that with synthetics but not so much with cotton.

Sh#t happens damn quick at times. You can never be too careful.

Rob

[DaveTTC]

thx Mike, rather tragic. Hopefully this post will keep many of us aware

[j.ashburn]

Yes sorry to hear we all have encountered serious accidents in industry.The other thing to watch with work clothes is dusty ones.Makes little smoulders big ones with air assisting.
We all strive to make our own workplace safe and we all have cut corners some get away with it sometimes not.
Speaking with a medico friend not long ago was the demand for micro surgeons had grown exponentially since the diy market opened up giving cheap power tools to the unwashed multitude.This doctor said his surgeon friend will quit his practice if angle grinders ever get banned.
REmember my late old man used to say you go to work with 10 up 10 down make sure you come home with them and dont send some poor bloke home to his mum with missing digits. Cheers.J.

[simonl]

Yes, very sad and tragic. No doubt he has friends & family that are left behind.

Simon

[argeng]

Very sorry to hear that, my thoughts go out to his family and friends. I did once manage to burn a 3" hole in my overalls when using a 9" grinder, I did have other gear on underneath so all was ok. I do remember things getting warm.

Regards
Bruce



Yes, very sad and tragic. No doubt he has friends & family that are left behind.

Simon

[BobL]

Blimey, I have set my shirt armpit on fire several times and melted numerous holes in synthetic tracky tops with and angle grinder - I will need to be more careful.
I do have a serious leather apron nut it doesn't cover sleeves or armpits.

[scottyd]

Ive set an apron on fire at work once. To make it worse, id worn it doing a whole heap of woodwork for the weeks previous and the pockets were full of sawdust. The sawdust soaks up the oil from the metalworking too...nice and flammable. I managed to get it off quicksmart and stomped it down good and proper, but it did give me a bloody good fright.

Sympathies to the family, it would be a horrible experience.

[RayG]

Thanks for posting this Mike, very sorry to hear about your friend.

Regards
Ray

[Abratool]

Sorry to learn of this Mike.
Workshops can be dangerous places.
Thanks for alerting us to the ever present dangers.
regards
Bruce

[Kraehe]

Sorry to hear of this accident. I imagine that like most of us, he was working alone and had no one on hand that could help him. We tend to forget that such things CAN happen to us. Be vigilant and be careful everyone.

My thoughts are with his family and friends.

K.

[bollie7]

I always have a bucket of water with a rag in it in the shed when I'm working. Has proven to be very helpful on a number of occasions.
bollie7

[nearnexus]

Same here, but it's for cooling down parts I'm grinding, welding etc.

Comes in handy to put out the odd fire.

Stick welding is the worst culprit, quite a few oily rags have gone up over the years.

Trouble with clothing is that there's so much polyester in cotton stuff that even overalls are not safe - and hard to get off in a hurry. Denim may be a better bet in liu of leather.

I generally wear the Yakka stuff.

Rob

[Oldneweng]

Very sad to hear. It is a reminder to us all. Were they cotton overalls? I used to have a pair of synthetic overall that were given to me. After seeing how easily they got holed from welding they were banished from the shed. I wear Hard Yakka but then it is supplied by work in such quantities that I am able to order non hi-vis for home use. My cotton overalls would be hard to ignite. That is why I have them although it is a long time since I have worn them. They are full weight cotton. For me it is cotton or leather only. My nylon jacket is hung up on a nail.

Dean

[BobL]

What about Duck fabric. I have a couple of pairs of overalls made out of this tough "Duck" fabric. I wonder if that is better than plain cotton?

[PDW]

I had a Kevlar welding jacket. Eventually I burnt a lot of holes through it - if you do a lot of overhead welding, you live in a bath of welding spatter and a lot of it collects in the off-arm elbow region. I now have a leather welding jacket which, too, has a lot of burn marks but no (as yet) burn-throughs.

I've set overalls on fire and older flannelette shirts on fire. In fact I have a nice scar on my right arm from a shirt fire (not to mention quite a collection of small round burn scars from burn-throughs while welding in a shirt). These days if the overalls or shirt are getting to the worn point, I replace them with new ones. Old ones catch fire far more easily.

Welding in joggers isn't a real great idea either...

PDW

[nearnexus]

Welding in joggers isn't a real great idea either...

PDW

Ever noticed how red hot metal droplets seem draw into open top work boots?

Done the welders quick step more than a few times.

Rob

[seanlark]

Having just had my first welding lesson and seeing the wooden top we were welding on catch fire a few times this series of posts based on a tragic accident has really been another wake-up call.

Sorry to base a question following such a tragic occurrence but what if I may ask is the best surface to weld on?

[nearnexus]

Most proper welding tables have a steel top.

I weld on a jarrah bench top and no risk of fire with that.

Rob

[PDW]

Having just had my first welding lesson and seeing the wooden top we were welding on catch fire a few times this series of posts based on a tragic accident has really been another wake-up call.

Sorry to base a question following such a tragic occurrence but what if I may ask is the best surface to weld on?

Steel without a doubt. Not only can you tack stuff to it, you can easily grind off the spatter, dags etc etc.

Yellow tongue isn't *bad*, you get little burn spots from the spatter but it doesn't catch fire. Most of my bench tops are yellow tongue flooring. However I prefer my 1800 x 900 x 6mm steel bench top.

PDW

[bwal74]

HI,

It's strange how things turn out sometimes. Last week I doing some grinding at home with my new AEG grinder, burnt a hole through my poly jumper (no injury to myself) it was literally only a 30 second cut. Getting burnt has always been on my mind as a bloke I know received 3rd degree burns to his thigh due to grinding a couple of years ago. Then this post came up reminding us how serious it can be.
Today I was doing a big grinding job at work, a good hour of cutting then grinding with a 9 inch. I ended up putting on a welding coat just to keep the sparks away. Guess you never know.

Cheers Ben.

[BobL]

The best welding table I have worked on for small jobs had a 12mm thick aluminium top. The spatter doesn't stick to the top so all that was needed to get a clean surface was a hand broom.

[RayG]

I can identify with this accident, I'm currently wearing a Yakka top that's got burn holes in it (from grinding) as I type... Last year I set fire to a pair of Rivers Jeans that I thought were cotton... not so.. they were some kind of plastic that melted and stuck to your skin... now I check the label when buying jeans.

And the height of stupidity, I have a Golden Chief leather welding jacket sitting there, that I could have taken an extra 10 seconds to put on... At least I usually wear a full face shield when grinding...

After reading this story, I'm going to take that extra few seconds to put on the welding jacket... :)

Regards
Ray

[swk]

BobL,
I am pretty sure duck is just a heavy form of cotton. Should be OK, but as others have found, who knows if there are more modern threads in the mix.

Regards
SWK

[A Duke]

I can remember soaking overalls in a concoction containing I think borax to fire retard them it was used on curtains in the days of candles. Now days they are reluctant to sell you borax.
Regards

[PDW]

I can identify with this accident, I'm currently wearing a Yakka top that's got burn holes in it (from grinding) as I type... Last year I set fire to a pair of Rivers Jeans that I thought were cotton... not so.. they were some kind of plastic that melted and stuck to your skin... now I check the label when buying jeans.

And the height of stupidity, I have a Golden Chief leather welding jacket sitting there, that I could have taken an extra 10 seconds to put on... At least I usually wear a full face shield when grinding...

After reading this story, I'm going to take that extra few seconds to put on the welding jacket... :)

Regards
Ray

If I'm working in the shop, I always wear action back overalls. These go on & off easily (important to me because I've got a buggered left arm), give good protection to the legs & torso and don't restrict arm movement. Also reasonably cheap, comfortable (for me), robust and keeps wear & tear to street clothes to a minimum. Easy to put a welding jacket on over the top for extra protection.

A leather apron is good for a lot of stuff too. I've got a couple of plastic ones like butchers use as well, keeps a lot of crap off of my clothes when washing stuff down etc. If you get one that's longer than your wellington type boots you can power-wash your front down without getting your boots full of water. Old trick from working on trawlers.

I have an entry way to my house, the boots, overalls etc come off in the vestibule area and never go further inside. I have more pairs of steel capped boots & shoes than street shoes. This minimises swarf etc but not, alas, dust. I have polished timber floors and I like to keep them as close to pristine as possible. I also dislike cut feet from razor sharp bits of metal on the floor...

PDW

[Ben Dono]

I can remember soaking overalls in a concoction containing I think borax to fire retard them it was used on curtains in the days of candles. Now days they are reluctant to sell you borax.
Regards

Morning Duke! I think I might have missed something as I thought Borax was relatively non toxic to most things except insects.. Are they getting rid of borax now?

[BobL]

If I'm working in the shop, I always wear action back overalls.

This is what I mainly wear although I do have one set of coveralls that I wear when I am going to do a lot of welding as they are better at protecting armpits etc but as you say they are not easy to get into.

[Timless Timber]

Firey's are now wearing those yellow fire retardent overalls.

We lost a female fire fighter (Wendy Barefoot) down in Albany only last year in a flame over event - the truck she was in went up and she died 6 weeks later from burns complications.

Condolences to the family and friends of this chap.

Maybe theres a lesson for all of us in this somewhere.

[DaveTTC]

Firey's are now wearing those yellow fire retardent overalls.

We lost a female fire fighter (Wendy Barefoot) down in Albany only last year in a flame over event - the truck she was in went up and she died 6 weeks later from burns complications.

Condolences to the family and friends of this chap.

Maybe theres a lesson for all of us in this somewhere.

yeah I wear that yellow stuff, not sure how I would fair in a flame over. We have jets to 'protect' the truck and crew but dont really want to be in a position to have to use it. I should test it one day so I know it works

278227

regards

Dave

[Chris Parks]

I detest overalls due to the difficulty of getting them on and off quickly. I have been in a small flame over and don't ever want to repeat the experience. Why the bushies are using one piece overalls has always puzzled me, very hard to get off in a hurry if need be.

[A Duke]

Morning Duke! I think I might have missed something as I thought Borax was relatively non toxic to most things except insects.. Are they getting rid of borax now?People used to use it to rinse their eyes and this is what they are trying to stop. We wanted some because the Wife heard it was a good trace element for beetroot, and did we have a job to get the chemist to sell us some.
Regards

[BobL]

Boric acid has a 50% lethal ingestion dose in mammals of 2.6 g/kg so a 50 kg person would need to eat 130 g to have a 50% chance of dying. Common salt has a 50% lethal injection does of 3.75 g/kg so boric is not that much more toxic than salt.

However, low levels have been found to shrink dogs testicles and also is know to effect the development of unborn mammals. This is why it's use has been restricted.
There is a bit more detail here Boric acid - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boric_acid)

[Oldneweng]

I detest overalls due to the difficulty of getting them on and off quickly. I have been in a small flame over and don't ever want to repeat the experience. Why the bushies are using one piece overalls has always puzzled me, very hard to get off in a hurry if need be.

I am with you on this one. CFA in Vic has now changed to 2 piece. Far smarter and safer choice.

I wear overalls very rarely myself but for general shed work including welding I had SWMBO cut off a pair at the waist to leave me with a jacket. I also made an apron from leather we got off a stripped leather couch for intensive welding grinding jobs.

Rinsing your eyes with borax :oo:? I have never heard of that one. Another old wives tale? Them old wives have got a lot to answer for:C. They should be banned. It is amazing what people will subject themselves to without really knowing why.



However, low levels have been found to shrink dogs testicles

I will have to remember that one!! You can never tell when this needs doing.

May be worth researching flame resistant methods. I guess garments are available retail. I know that there are heat resistant HiVis vests for people who weld etc.

Dean

[BobL]

.
.
.
Rinsing your eyes with borax :oo:? I have never heard of that one. Another old wives tale? Them old wives have got a lot to answer for:C. They should be banned. It is amazing what people will subject themselves to without really knowing why.

Not borax but boric acid or hydrogenated borax has a number of medicinal uses.


Boric acid can be used as an antiseptic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiseptic) for minor burns or cuts and is sometimes used in dressings or salves. Boric acid is applied in a very dilute solution as an eye wash. Dilute boric acid can be used as a vaginal douche to treat bacterial vaginosis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacterial_vaginosis) due to excessive alkalinity.[14] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boric_acid#cite_note-14) As an antibacterial (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibacterial) compound, boric acid can also be used as an acne (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acne) treatment. It is also used as prevention of athlete's foot (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athlete%27s_foot), by inserting powder in the socks or stockings, and in solution can be used to treat some kinds of otitis externa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otitis_externa) (ear infection) in both humans and animals. The preservative in urine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urine) sample bottles (green cap) in the UK is boric acid.Boric acid solutions used as an eye wash or on abraded skin are known to be especially toxic to infants, especially after repeated use because of its slow elimination rate.[15 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boric_acid#cite_note-15)]

[nearnexus]

Them old wives have got a lot to answer for:C. They should be banned. It is amazing what people will subject themselves to without really knowing why.

Dean

+1 Dean.

Some stuff just boggles the mind.

Cheers

Rob

[Dingo Dog]

Hi

You only need to catch fire once to fully understand the outcome. Mine was with a friend on a farm near Murgon in QLD. I was holding onto a piece of steel for him to weld. Had one of them plastic jacket on that get issued to you when working on mining sites. Jacket was hit with sparks, plastic caught fire, I said I was on fire, he dropped everything, picked me up and dunked me in a water trough 3 metres away. After that, I stepped back, thought about my own slack practices in the shed. Every welding or grinding job I do, I ensure I have water handy, remove all the combustable materials out of the way, that is, moved metres away, wear suitable protective clothing for the job you are doing. Then get on with it.

Be safe and take care Gents.

DD

[Ben Dono]

Rural supply places might be the go. I just bought. 20kg bag to treat my firewood storage shed for termites. I'm going to pick up the pure borax this week for some DIY cockroach baits.

The little buggers eat all of the peanut butter I use in the rat traps. A bit of borax will kill them without harming my chooks that will find them on the ground the next day!

BTW, the chemical treatment energy Australia are using on their poles for termites and rot is a chalk like produce made by preschem. It's predominately borax and Fluoride. I had a chat with the local lads and they say the treatment is good for 10 years and it's easy to retreat. It's the same manufacture of the small 'no rot' chalk sticks you find in bunnies.