Gas Explosion

[Hummerbk]

I've been cleaning hoods for twenty years and have always been very careful, always blowing the pilots out, tapeing the power outlets etc.

The other day we were cleaning a kitchen that had a flat grill that was connected to a four burner stove. We blew out the pilots on the four burners but did not blow out the pilot on the flat grill since they can be hard to re-light and we cover it with plywood anyhow.We covered the entire stove with plastic and washed the hood.

After washing we turned on the fans and my guys climbed on the stove and hand dried and shined the hood. Apparantly one of them bumped a burner knob while climbing on or off and turned on a burner that that had no lit pilot. Gas was building up under the plastic but we had no idea, since the fans were on we could'nt smell it.

Eventually, the gas reached the pilot under the flat grill
and a huge fire ball occured just as I was walking past it.

Melted plastic was stuck to the inside of the hood. It was like filling a balloon up with gas and lighting it, a quick instantanious ball of fire and extreme heat and then it was all over.

After making sure I wasn't on fire I rushed to a sink and cold water . Thank God I was wearing saftey glasses, it saved my eyes and eye lashes. Can't say the same for my eyebrows, sideburns etc.

Half my face looks like Obama and half like John McCain. I lost some skin on the back of my hand but will not need skin grafts. It will heal.

I cannot describe the amount of heat I felt, it was like nothing I've ever felt before. All you want to do is get away from it, you are not even thinking anymore, you are operating on instinct only. When you see someone on fire and they are running around you wonder why they don't drop and roll, now I know.

Anyhow, I've become a total fanatic about saftey glasses being worn at all times by my crew. They have a habit of taking them off when they steam up, but no more. I will fire the next guy who does that. After looking at me they are all wearing them anyhow.

The worst part is, I was going to go to Vegas next week now I'll have to wait until I peel and tan again.

[squirtgun]

Glad you are ok David.Hope you have a speedy recovery.

[HotShot]

Good to hear that you are ok, other than the minor burns...that is some scary stuff, because you really didn't do anything wrong. That's what we all do every night and it could have happened to any of us all the same.

I had a similar incident happen to me once from a fryer. Their fryer had a leak in it somewhere and they had the knob turned up to like 350 or something. When I blew out the pilot, and lit it back nothing happened, but when I turned it from the pilot position to the "on" position, it threw a huge fireball out the front and singed me pretty good. Nothing serious, but I just about needed a new pair of underwear. (I may have been freeballin that night so that's why I didn't need any ..... just kiddin ) It scared the crap out of me though.

[MMI Enterprises]

Glad to hear you'll be ok. I did similar and lost facial hair, brows, and arm hair from a leaking outdoor propane stove a couple year back. I didn't have no glasses and suffered no damage..lucky I suppose. Having a fireball in yer face is a shocking thing that dumbfounds ya.

[Douglas Hicks]

We were finishing a chinaman, & I was lighting the wok pilots. Somehow, the control valve was turned all the way on. I stuck the roach clip into the wok burner. WHOOSH! I got burned. I went to the sink & splashed cold water on my face and arms. My helper never did notice any thing was wrong. I got in my van and immediatly called my girlfriend. I told her I had been burned and she had to drive me to ER. I got home, she was ready to go, and I told her to get the keys to the Bronco, she was driving. She asked how long we would be in Burns. She misunderstood my earlier phone call, and thougt we were going to a town 150 miles away. I told her I was burned, & she was taking me to the hospital. I got my phone out, and called ER. I told the nurse on duty to wake the Doc, we were transporting a male w/1st and 2nd degree burns, and wanted the Doc up when we arrived. she muttered something and asked what our ETA was. I told her 8 minutes. I waited 3 minutes and called back. I asked if she woke up the Doc yet. She said no, was I the ambulance, I explianed I was the patient and the burns hurt. I told her again to wake the Doc, that I knew that at 3:00 AM he was asleep but I wanted him up on our arrival. Of course, the nurse did not wake the Doc, so the first thing I told her was to wake the Doc or I would go get him myself. She got the Doc. When he arrived, it was like old home week, as 2 of the nurses and the Doc knew me from my firefighting/EMT days and my girlfriend had been charge nurse in ICU. I was in ER for 6 hours, got Silvadene, morphine, had a reaction to the morphine, got something for the morphine nausea, and a $1500 bill for ER. The Docs bill was not included.

I still pause, then check the gas valves when lighting a wok.

[mbryan]

Glad everyone is OK, it could have turned out much worse. Sounds like you have some good karma on your side. ( The PPE helped to, never ever relax on safety)

As long as we are sharing stories:

As soon as I got my drivers license, I started doing hood on my own. Back in those days it was a scrape, then blow a little powder in the duct and you are done so all you needed to do was lay some newspaper on the equipment.

I had blown out all of the pilots and actually did the entire job and was getting ready to clean up when my newspaper caught on fire. At 16 and all alone, I was pretty freaked out, but I managed to grab a bucket and fill it with some water and put it out. Black burnt newspaper everywhere mixed with water, not good.

I went out to my car to get some more rags to clean up the mess, and to add insult to injury, I kicked the block that was holding the back door open and locked myself out of the restaurant. Had to go back the next morning for my tools. luckily the kitchen guys were VERY cool about it and we kept the account.

[Torrez]

I had just got done walking by that same stove not 2 seconds in front
of Dave and heard a swwwooosh. Made sure he was not on fire and asked if he was ok.Very scary situation, whats more scary is thinking about what
could have happened worse to Dave and the kitchen. Thank God nothing
worse happened.

[dig_dougpt]

I have been up in the hood doing sone spot scrubbing and had the fireball happing. Knocked me out of the hood. It is never a fun thing....
Last week was up in the hood and felt like my helper punched me in the back playing around. I turned around and no one was there. So I went back to work then about 30 seconds later it happened again. I looked up and noticed the light cover was full of water and leaking onto my back shocking me.