CSB Safety Video: Dangers of Flammable Gas Accumulation

Dangers of Flammable Gas Accumulation: Acetylene Explosion at ASCO, Perth Amboy, New Jersey

[@jerrybear3081]

My dad worked at an acetylene plant in the mid 70s, said it made him really nervous and he was the only guy who would cross the road to smoke a cigarette, quit after a few weeks and not long after the place blew up. this was in Alberta Canada.

[@thanhnguyenuc8545]

one lucky man

[@adamrodgers9175]

There's definitely some sketchy stuff going on in industrial jobs here long hours also. A job I left recently a coworker drove under the boom of a power line truck when a guy was in the basket hitting the side of his truck. Boss would get us working long hours. 6:30 am off at 12pm back to work for 5pm and back home at 4-5 in the morning

[@adamrodgers9175]

Luckily it wasn't like the oilfield work I did, 6:30 am till whenever, usually 6-8 pm and late night calls to clean spills, then back to work. I've worked under slept for so many days it wasn't funny.

[@jerrybear3081]

@Winahh Taylahh he quit the job and still smokes.

[@MacMilly707]

His smart for following his gut feeling

[@fxrvw7052]

Old school CSB animations. Man if they only knew how good they would get!

[@Nicholas-f5]

Yea, but they saved $.012 on that valve!

[@Misha-dr9rh]

Not even, a tiny bit more metal on that float plug thingamajig and this never would have happened. It probably would have costed literally nothing for that extra tiny bit of metal so it wouldn't misalign.

[@fbksfrank4]

One lucky shareholder!

[@ccllvn]

@@fbksfrank4 yup! the managers should get a bonus for saving that money!

[@Lou-Lou-]

Yep! Totally worth it!

[@robertphillips6296]

Yes and that's why they have insurance to pay for the Damage to Property and Damaged to the Survivors! This is their thanking.

[@grantjohnston5817]

Propane heater in acetylene production plant?Good idea!

[@Voliere-infoNl]

why not? All refinery's use burners to heat up the highly flamable crude for instance.

[@victorponce7238]

Mr Grant Johnston:. I agree with u. What are these qualified, engineers with degrees supposedly...doing putting a PROPANE HEATER (Flames) in a closed in space making FLAMMABLE I said FLAMMABLE gas. Uh uh I dunno. I guess when u have a degree u can do stupid things and no one is allowed to question ur actions????

[@tairegaming5464]

Ikr

[@UncleFred-mb4eq]

@@Voliere-infoNl yeah but they are not used in what would be considered an explosive atmosphere, or they are closed off from surrounding atmosphere. I’ll bet you this room was considered an explosive atmosphere due to the tanks and pumps having a possible emission of gas. Whoever put that heater in there WAS stupid, and they contributed to the explosion.

[@peterborg3340]

In the US, many so called engineers are simple workers, without a real qualification. In my country, You Call These people worker's helper

[@Ranger_k16]

it blows my mind that you wouldn't have more than 1 safety device in place. there's a saying, 2 is 1, and 1 is none

[@miguelzavaleta1911]

Especially since backflow preventers come in all shapes and sizes for every purpose. Truly unbelievable how a company can have so few precautions for something so critical.

[@MegaFPVFlyer]

I simply don't understand how you could design a check valve that fails to operate as a check valve. "You had one job."

[@TheMattc999]

Jonah Beale it was probably built by a Chinese guy, in Russia, who attended the African School of Engineering.....

[@TheWilferch]

In our industry we never rely on a check valve in a safety-critical application. Instead use a definite on/off control valve, either manual or automatic. At the very minimum use 2 in-series check valves. Or even a "block and bleed" arrangement of valves that do not allow hazardous fluid to contact non-hazardous fluid that is separated by the valving. Core message....never depend on a single check valve for safety, only for non-hazardous process conditions.

[@MrMultiH]

Well a liquid check valve is definitely not to be used as a gas valve! And they corrode for a past time when used with domestic water, even if they’re bronze etc, the water scale built up stops the seat from sealing in a reverse flow situation. I deduced this by simply being a human

[@jeromeduffy9270]

@@TheWilferch Honestly, Im not in industry so that being said. Im amazed at some of the causes for these incidents. Dust in the rafters. If you don't know what blows up and what doesn't. Your in the wrong job. Money is not the only issue. People died, at work, horrible deaths.

[@TheWilferch]

@@jeromeduffy9270 .... re-reading your note addressed to me I have no idea what you are saying. No doubt people died a horrible death and in many cases this can be avoided when industry best practices are employed....both by design and by operation. But it needs to be supported at all levels of the organization including ther CXO suite...so as not to only give "lip service" to the issues. It ends up being a corporate "culture" issue of why things happen. Why am I supposedly in the wrong industry if I have a sense of what constitutes proper plant design and operational -procedures based on education and experience? I see too much of this in various industries, because the "focus" and the knowledge of hazards and risks are not being properly recognized, and too often the lack of "operational-discipline" or not recognizing all the pertinant factors ( lack of a HAZOP study of the design)...are to blame.

[@Proxyudai]

I worked at this plant for 15 yrs. and there was to many violations at this location The perth amboy code enforcement and osha was the atleast 3 time a month until it blue up and killed 3 of my best friends.

[@paulsharp2492]

Proxy updating

[@seanb3516]

Holy shit that sucks horribly.

[@sup2069]

@Epic blue?

[@shahbazfawbush]

Sorry to hear that.

[@obfuscated3090]

Acetylene has been used for well over a century and its hazards are very, very, VERY well known. That's why acetylene generators for home lighting use were normally built WELL away from the house. ASCO is a very old company who should have known to have more than one safety, perhaps a redundant check valve. Water doesn't care about more check valves. Rexarc is a very old company too, formerly Rego. They should have sought continuous process improvement as noted. Old companies where processes never change are ripe for disasters. Using an open element heater in an acetylene plant is profoundly fucking stupid. Liquid-filled space heaters are also a very old design which they should have used instead. For that matter any electrical connections and wiring should have been in explosion-proof conduit and with switched boxes so any outlets would be electrically dead before connection/disconnection. It's not fucking rocket surgery!

[@TheMattc999]

Ob Fuscated Rocket Surgery? How do I get into that? Sounds like it would pay pretty damn good.

[@Backyardmech1]

Even just going even more old school and use steam heaters in the outdoor buildings. Those things work like a Swiss car.

[@TheWilferch]

Ob fuscated....correct pretty much on all points. Sealed conduit for all electirical runs, never ever an open element heater ANYWHERE on such property.

[@kaylawuvscookies]

Wait... Next you're going to tell me that the US is a capitalist country that places more value on profit than human lives.

[@robertgift]

The oil-filled radiant heater's thermometer switch likelyvould have ignited the acetylene gas.

[@somethingsomething404]

Damn you guys have been on KZbin for 11 years? So since 2007, I don't even think google owned it at that point. You guys were some of the original people on KZbin lol

[@philldill3117]

Kalvin N damn just noticed this, crazy

[@hauntedshadowslegacy2826]

@@philldill3117 Personally, I'm glad. KZbin is fairly well accessible, and reports like these are informative and transparent. Mad props to the USCSB for utilizing new tech way ahead of other government agencies.

[@TheEmeraldMenOfficial]

@@hauntedshadowslegacy2826IIRC, the Queen had a similar penchant for adopting new tech early: she had her own personal KZbin account and was one of the first world leaders to have social media accounts. (If not the first!)

[@_na_lyd]

My Father was killed when I was 2 years old. Practices of the construction site called for storing an oxy-acetylene welding rig inside an air tight shipping container. One morning the workers went inside the shipping container, one saying they smelled gas. One man pulled the pull switch on the metal housed lighting assembly. This caused the arch which ignited the flammable vapors that had filled the container over a period of 16 hours. My Father was hit with the shipping container door, he died in between heart beats. Do you realize how fast that had to happen? It was a detonation, no fire, just a huge pressure wave bouncing against the walls of the container, obliterating it and the workers around. I’m an Occupational Safety, Health and Environment major at the University my Father lost his life at, building a building I walk past everyday. I want every parent to go home to their children. I plan to use my story to break the stigma of doing a job how we’ve always done it or do it no matter the safety issues.

[@elBusDriverKC]

Doing HVAC, I remember in 2015 when a plant in China that distributed calcium carbide exploded. Acetylene prices went up that year and still haven't come down.

[@utah133]

The Asco plant? Should be the Fiasco plant!

[@miguelzavaleta1911]

Reminds me of AFISCO. Every time I read their logo I read it as A FIASCO lol

[@barbusie5217]

If, that is a correct representation of that ( check valve, ) Whoever designed that thing was an idiot, not an engineer... It should have had a much longer ( guide rod ) at the bottom and the rod should have been guided with a pair of centering rings in the center of the pipe to prevent the possibility of jamming in the housing and preventing the check valve from doing what it was supposed to do .....

[@strangelf]

Why do (you) Format the (comment) Like This ?

[@JS-xd3iy]

Acetylene is a very unstable molecule, to the extent that it will even blow up if it goes much over 15 psi (even without oxygen). So it has to slowly be absorbed in a solution in the tanks filled with Acetone. Like the way carbon dioxide is absorbed by water in a soda can. It's so dangerous I just try to do as much as I can with propane instead, for metal cutting.

[@WineScrounger]

Absolutely. I stopped using acetylene years ago. I don't do carburising or artisan welding so all it's for is severance cutting and propane works perfectly for that.

[@mythril4]

It's odd there is only one check valve. Heck, here in Idaho, sprinkler systems for your yard are required to have a double check valve. The point to a double check is to create redundancy if one fails. Also, I would install and outdoor anti-siphon ventilator before the shed, should both check valves fail, it will all vent outside or up a long thin chimney. Total cost of modifications? $300.00 for all parts and time. I generally believe that you don't install a venting device for any flammable gas inside a room. The heater is a no factor with my setup. You can do a double anti-siphon for redundancy. All proper anti-siphon and check valves have simple test ports to ensure functionality which should be done monthly in this application. it takes about 10 minutes to test all vales.

[@Puffie40]

My guess is the operators were doing the startup and they either a) got told to shovel snow or b) got distracted clearing snow to the shed when they headed out to the recycle tanks to complete the switchover.

[@flailios]

I'm surprised there was no pump & gravity feed or other significant design which made a back-flow impossible.

[@obfuscated3090]

You are right. Backflow preventers are standard in domestic and industrial water systems to prevent polluting potable water. They are cheap and readily available and every plumber is familiar with them!

[@RobinTheBot]

@Donald Trump's Space Force They should have had more than one preventer! Duh!

[@rrknl5187]

There was a pump but its suction was open to the atmosphere and it pumps only liquids, not air. Under the pressure acetylene is made at, gravity feed would be pretty much impossible.

[@detailingdiaries6562]

Are you kidding me? I had a hose pipe fitted to my house, just a regular hose pipe, and that has to have a DOUBLE check value. You can really have something this dangerous with just a single check valve?

[@andrewcho2515]

Heck, even if I was one of them I could easily see myself lighting the cigar too. Even with prior knowledge of the place that it's oilfield. Especially when hangin' out with friends you can just forget about it. Humans are creature susceptible to distraction. I watch a lot of videos from this channel, mostly just for fun, though. You guys are doing a Great Job, fine interesting documentries, in-depth analysis while possibly saving a lot of lives at the same time. Thank you so much for these videos!

[@calvinthedestroyer]

Sounds like Asco was to cheap to hire a snow plow, they made the techs go and shovel the snow instead of maintaining their stations...

[@NeoRipshaft]

Jeez that's tragic - I'm surprised it wasn't advocated for there to be redundancy in the check valve - but I'm unfamiliar with the engineering specs on check valves so there may be very good reason why this wasn't recommended.

[@WineScrounger]

purely cost. There's no other reason not to double up check valves in a system like that.

[@CertifiedIndustryProfessional]

Another reason to hate those space heaters.

[@unintentionallydramatic]

How did any of this get approved? Like. The frikken setup _had_ to fail.

[@fredsalter1915]

At the chemical plant that I work at, we will put two check valves back-to-back (in series) in critical areas.

[@seanb3516]

If you have the chance of gas entrained in liquid then why not use a phase separator to shunt the gas to a stack while liquid continues in the liquid line? Granted there would be a pressure differential between the liquid and the gas that might need a pump to assist. Seems super simple and you wouldn't be betting your life on a single check valve.

[@markgigiel2722]

I'm amazed how they are so calm and nonchalant in these videos about people dying. I worked in the oil industry for 36 years and have seen a lot.

[@GoldRaven-oe4by]

Why are these so interesting to watch

[@frankherrick1892]

Unbelievable that a RPZ backflow preventer wasn't installed.

[@sebastiannielsen]

That would be more dangerous. That would, in the same failure condition, cause acetylene to be released in the factory building, potentially killing more people than when it got released in the shed. OTOH it could be argued that it would be "safer" since there is guranteed no ignition sources inside a acetylene factory due to Ex classification, but better be safe than sorry. And gas is invisible to the eye, so you wouldn't see a leaking check valve in the same way you would see in a RPZ Backflow preventer in a water vs water situation (where both supply and consumer side is water-based). (In this case, the consumer side is gas-based). The best protection here would be a water trap with a float valve, whose spring is stronger than the safety valve rupture pressure (at which gas pressure the safety valve of the acetylene generator would rupture). This float valve should close the inlet pipe if the water level becomes too low. The inlet pipe, should be as long so it reaches into the water trap sufficently deep, so even the lowest allowable water level would still have the inlet pipe deep enoug so gas pressure can't get through. In normal condition, the water trap would be filled enough so the float valve is open. If the supply pressure becomes too low, gas presses on the water surface, causing the water surface level in the water trap to drop. This would close the float valve, such as any gas pressure cannot force it open ( the safety valve would rupture first, which would propably sound alarms, evacuate the building and also be telltake signs that something is wrong ). By having spring pressure strong enough, it also is good safety against the valve failing. Note that we are talking about a float valve, which arent reliant on the water or gas pressure to remain functional. The maximum spring pressure allowable in a float valve, is the lift force of the float, which is dependant on its displaced water weight, which means the supply water pressure doesn't need to be higher than the float valve spring pressure.

[@frankherrick1892]

@@sebastiannielsen So if an RPZ backflow preventer is bad, what type of check valve or testable, listed device would you recommend?

[@sebastiannielsen]

@@frankherrick1892 As I said, a water trap with a float valve that forcibly closes the inlet if the water level becomes too low. This then becomes an inline phase separator with a safety. Since the opening force of a float is directly equal to the weight of the water it displaces, and is not dependant of water pressure, instead its the level of water in the phase separator that controls it, a float valve can be made much stronger than a check valve, without an need to increase water pressure. The problem with the RPZ backflow preventer is that it would release acetylene through its discharge port at a failure condition. A double checkvalve (ergo a RPZ without discharge port) could be a solution, but then you don't get any early warning if one of the checks fails and the problem could go undetected for a long time. A second solution might be a RPZ backflow preventer, but screwing a pressure sensor into its discharge port, connected to an alarm. If the RPZ backflow preventer fails in such a way it would release gas through its discharge port (for example if one of the checks fails), it instead triggers an alarm. That gives kind of a double safety, but still could be provided fatal if the sensor first fails, and then one of the checks. Designing a completely safe system , especially for explosive gas like acetylene, is very difficult.

[@ContentCalvin]

God I love me some CSB Videos WHOOT WHOOT!

[@devtrash]

if they had a space heater, why did they need to drain the pipe to protect from freezing?

[@counter-terrordoge3335]

USCSB in every video: *TRAIN YOUR DAMN EMPLOYEES*

[@colonthree]

I will never hear acetylene in the same way again. ;w;

[@Syclone0044]

Is this 240x240p? Seems bizarre to have a square aspect ratio..

[@BensSightSoundandAuto]

A propane powered space heater....at an acetylene production plant......regardless of where in the plant......What the hell?

[@WaterCrane]

Maybe this is just being overly simplistic, but why don't these pipes have more than one check valve in series (spaced a moderate distance apart so it's unlikely they won't both get physically damaged from a single event, like being whacked with a steel girder, and possibly of different designs to mitigate systemic failure modes) so if one doesn't work as intended, the second one acts as a backup since both of them failing simultaneously is far more unlikely?

[@Stormprobe]

Check your check-valves.

[@totallyfrozen]

I hope the company sued the check valve manufacturer. The purpose of safety equipment is to guard against human error. While the crew may have made a mistake in delaying to start the generator, the check valve SHOULD HAVE saved them.

[@c.1916]

Watching this video in 2022 is like watching a future hall of famer play his first game

[@brendanwilliams7291]

No laughing matter in this situation, acetylene should have been venting to a safer location, maybe the space heater was what caused the 💥 explosion. This one was especially dangerous, the valve should have been left shut but it was opened to protect it from freezing. The check valve was possibly old and faulty.

[@phorzer32]

Reading pressure gauges and Gas Detectors had prevented this accident.......

[@rtrThanos]

Dangit, where’s the video of the explosion that staked a guy to the ceiling?

[@hauntedshadowslegacy2826]

You mean the SL-1 reactor? That's more in the realm of radiation rather than chemicals. Good news, though- the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) has a channel on KZbin as well! If you're interested, it's NRCgov.

[@doctormcboy5009]

a guy in our hood liked to fill a 55 gallon trash bag with that and electrically ignite it. he quit after it blew up in his stupid face TWICE! 😆

[@brendanwilliams7291]

Can you imagine what Sheldon Smith would have to say about this investigation, he would have been straight to the point as the csb should always be, well done.

[@captainfruitpunch8913]

Imagine that, flammable gas is flammable

[@jec_ecart]

Good info

[@brendanwilliams7291]

Never trust those propane space heaters after this blast.

[@busterbeagle2167]

My friend used to fill a 5 gallon bucket full of acetylene and blow trees out of the ground

[@SlimbTheSlime]

This was before they hired the cool voice talent

[@robertgift]

Check valve company should be sued. Were the men killed by debris? So.rry.

[@hauntedshadowslegacy2826]

It was likely a combination of flying debris, the shockwave, and the heat/flame. As for fault, cases like this are measured in percentages in the U.S.. I'd personally place 40% on the valve company, 58% on the acetylene plant managers (because it was up to them to order a replacement valve), and 2% on the workers for delaying the water in the first place. I don't know exactly how it went in court/arbitration, but that's how I view it.

[@tuffy16]

What ? I always vent my fuel gasses to " the wooden shed "

[@joebananatube]

Not one mention of combustible gas detectors.

[@hvelavan1]

One check valve! Check valves are unreliable safeguards.

[@prestonhanson501]

Captain hindsight here

[@amy-joe5772]

They always wait until something to happen

[@thetallestpaul]

"Dangers of Flammable Gas Accumulation" one of them is that it's flammable gas

[@daswimguy_doge1382]

Why do I need du are myself on gas explosions

[@TheFerrariGuy4588]

13 years old...

[@MeaHeaR]

I don't under-standing why théy had Heétér insidé ofs Water-Shéds

[@shahbazfawbush]

Laws written in blood

[@kingjames4886]

so there's a gas company called ass-co? lool.

[@jeffreyhueseman7061]

There's an ASCO pneumatics company also.

[@kingjames4886]

keep pretending it doesn't sound like ass-co... lol

[@phorzer32]

Ethin?

[@seanb3516]

These videos are crappy looking but the information and contents are fantastic. Thanks for the hard work!

[@Nicholas-f5]

See the current ones

[@practicaloccultist231]

They feel nostalgic tbh, kinda miss this style

[@buenasnoches2]

Its hilarous that "Asco" means disgusting in spanish.

[@josemercado1325]

😢

[@oydeekoi8271]

That check valve is a joke.

[@WineScrounger]

>Acetylene Oh, here we go. Horrible stuff.

[@conneradamek474]

Not gonna lie, not their best narrator. Could have been better

[@visionofwellboyofficial]

Recycled water

[@GroovyVideo2]

xevil/corpperations care less about your life

[@SpartanONegative]

all that damage caused by a cheap check valve. replace your valves, stop being cheap