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General Discussion \ Warning to all: Fire dangers -Learn from my misfortune-Warning to all: Fire dangers -Learn from my misfortune-
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SilentDawn
+1y
I hope everyone will read through this entire post.
A while back this fall my buddy and I fell victim to a personal workplace mishap. Lack of attention, preparation and proper equipment led to this anomaly. Costing us luckily only about $2,100 worth of damaged materials. Could have VERY easily been a total loss of a personal work location, 2 customer vehicles and half a dozen personal vehicles and collateral damage.
It is very important to learn from things like this. New procedures have been implemented, including
*Properly placed, sized and type fire extinguishers.
*Daily area cleanup.
*Storing vehicles, parts and tools in a more organized manner.
*Using proper fire proofing materials to contain and deflect any hot materials, slag, embers and sparks.
*Ensuring the work location is clean and clear of obstructions and dangers before beginning work
*Reminding of proper use and care of PPE already used consistently and
*Re-training on safety awareness.
You cannot stop using workplace safety precautions when you leave to go home. Accidents are always avoidable, even at home.
What happened??
Welding and cutting outside on a concrete pad. Fall leaves were piled around the area of work. After finishing temporarily, we went inside shortly after. In the span of about 30 minutes an unseen ember from welding or cutting or grinding metal caught dried leaves on fire.
This is the general area we were welding. Notice the piled up leaves against the side of the building. Also take note in the top of the photo are containers of propane and refrigerants that were IN the fire, moved out as flames were licking at one of the containers.
The fire burned along the side of the building. Just on the other side of the thin 16ga panels is about 50 gallons of various VERY low flashpoint fuels. Literally only 3 inches away from the fire. In open-vented containers.
Burned under and around a vehicle. I later noticed the carpet was smouldering. Also the tires were steaming and a previously FLAT tire was aired up from the heat expansion.
Out to in front of the building, now into brush and leaves in a wide-open area.
Onto the other side of the building entrance. Burned through a water line.
Around a tree.
Burned up a rather rare, expensive and hard to find European OEM bumper cover.
Some more parts
This all could have been MUCH worse. You can see in various photo's the fire was only a few inches or feet from a slew of various vehicles parked randomly in the yard. There are MANY more vehicles only about 5 yards from the area of the fire that are parked in the front yard. It could have EASILY blown out into the front yard and caught more vehicles on fire or even the home or other wooden buildings.
This all happened within 30 minutes. From no fire, no smoke...to coming outside to a yard full of smoke and creeping flames seemingly in every direction. I normally like to "play" with fire. Explosions and controlled fires are part of almost every weekend. This was the most uncontrolled fire we've had here. It luckily was under control within 90 seconds of noticing. A simple garden hose was able to go around and put out the outer edges of the brush fires. This was a fire that just crept along the ground fueled by leaves and some plastic parts. You notice that it burnt completely under and around the VW beetle only catching fire to some carpet inside through a hole in the floor pan. If left alone for another 30 seconds...It would have caught 2 vehicles on fire a large pine tree and 50 gallons of fuels and bottles of propane.
This is what it looked like a few hours later. All cleaned up like nothing happened. People can hardy tell!
All's normal and back to work just a few hours later!
A while back this fall my buddy and I fell victim to a personal workplace mishap. Lack of attention, preparation and proper equipment led to this anomaly. Costing us luckily only about $2,100 worth of damaged materials. Could have VERY easily been a total loss of a personal work location, 2 customer vehicles and half a dozen personal vehicles and collateral damage.
It is very important to learn from things like this. New procedures have been implemented, including
*Properly placed, sized and type fire extinguishers.
*Daily area cleanup.
*Storing vehicles, parts and tools in a more organized manner.
*Using proper fire proofing materials to contain and deflect any hot materials, slag, embers and sparks.
*Ensuring the work location is clean and clear of obstructions and dangers before beginning work
*Reminding of proper use and care of PPE already used consistently and
*Re-training on safety awareness.
You cannot stop using workplace safety precautions when you leave to go home. Accidents are always avoidable, even at home.
What happened??
Welding and cutting outside on a concrete pad. Fall leaves were piled around the area of work. After finishing temporarily, we went inside shortly after. In the span of about 30 minutes an unseen ember from welding or cutting or grinding metal caught dried leaves on fire.
This is the general area we were welding. Notice the piled up leaves against the side of the building. Also take note in the top of the photo are containers of propane and refrigerants that were IN the fire, moved out as flames were licking at one of the containers.
The fire burned along the side of the building. Just on the other side of the thin 16ga panels is about 50 gallons of various VERY low flashpoint fuels. Literally only 3 inches away from the fire. In open-vented containers.
Burned under and around a vehicle. I later noticed the carpet was smouldering. Also the tires were steaming and a previously FLAT tire was aired up from the heat expansion.
Out to in front of the building, now into brush and leaves in a wide-open area.
Onto the other side of the building entrance. Burned through a water line.
Around a tree.
Burned up a rather rare, expensive and hard to find European OEM bumper cover.
Some more parts
This all could have been MUCH worse. You can see in various photo's the fire was only a few inches or feet from a slew of various vehicles parked randomly in the yard. There are MANY more vehicles only about 5 yards from the area of the fire that are parked in the front yard. It could have EASILY blown out into the front yard and caught more vehicles on fire or even the home or other wooden buildings.
This all happened within 30 minutes. From no fire, no smoke...to coming outside to a yard full of smoke and creeping flames seemingly in every direction. I normally like to "play" with fire. Explosions and controlled fires are part of almost every weekend. This was the most uncontrolled fire we've had here. It luckily was under control within 90 seconds of noticing. A simple garden hose was able to go around and put out the outer edges of the brush fires. This was a fire that just crept along the ground fueled by leaves and some plastic parts. You notice that it burnt completely under and around the VW beetle only catching fire to some carpet inside through a hole in the floor pan. If left alone for another 30 seconds...It would have caught 2 vehicles on fire a large pine tree and 50 gallons of fuels and bottles of propane.
This is what it looked like a few hours later. All cleaned up like nothing happened. People can hardy tell!
All's normal and back to work just a few hours later!
mazdizzle
+1y
I caught my trash can on fire a few years ago from some welding sparks. Scared the crap out of me it flared up so fast but I was able to open the garage door and get it out in the driveway. I always keep a fire extinguisher near by if this were to happen again
dan woodland
+1y
Sounds and looks like you were very fortunate. Time for me to get a new fire extinguisher for the garage. Thanks for posting your close call. Dan
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