Don't get complacent - a safety announcement!

I guess this should really be posted on CCS but I didn't renew my membership for a reasons I won't go into now. As all pressurised fuel devices share many of the same basic functions and features, this post is as applicable to lanterns just as much as stoves, plus I'm sure we all have a few of them lurking around in our collections.

Anyway... I had a VERY VERY close shave three days ago while attempting to light an Optimus 111b.

I was showing a friend via a WhatsApp video, the difference between the kero and naptha versions of the 111 but things went bad very quickly indeed. I am aware of the safety flaws inherent in the naptha version of the 111, but like many of us, I never thought it would happen to me.

I used meths/de-natured alcohol to preheat the stove (to prevent a volatile startup, ironically) and when it was almost used up I pushed the pump to add pressure and fuel began spurting onto my hand and over the counter-top (yes, this was in my kitchen on the counter-top!). I knew instantly what would happen but wasn't able to stop it as it's simply too fast. The naptha IMMEDIATELY caught fire and my hand and arm were engulfed in flames. I pushed the stove onto the floor which turned into a three foot flaming mess with burning splatters all around it. Using a kitchen towel, I put out the fire on my arm, shirt sleeve and shirt front and grabbed whatever other cloths I could find, wetted them and threw them over the flaming stove. My wife rushed to find more towels and very swiftly the flames were all extinguished. My hand wasn't badly burned but there were a few small blisters and it's a little pink in patches. It's healing quickly without any serious damage but it could have been so much worse. I ran my hand under the cold tap for a couple of hours which stopped the damage to my skin for the most part but it wasn't nearly bad enough to seek medical attention, and I would have gone if it had been necessary.

I AM VERY LUCKY and I have learned a valuable lesson. Check your naptha devises regularly and don't stint on new seals and parts!

Oddly enough, my shirt is absolutely fine and the hard-wood floor only needed a spot of beeswax to make the heat stain/patch completely disappear. Weird!

The stove will be fettled but not right now - I need a little time before I touch it again! As for the stove, one of the spot-welded tank supports broke but apart from that, you wouldn't know anything had happened which I find mind-boggling! I would post photos but honestly, there is nothing left to show what happened apart from a pink patch on my hand and some scabs that are forming nicely.

So, yes, I was an absolute bl00dy idiot and I'm happy to admit that, and yes, I will be working my way through all my remaining naptha devices and checking them all with a fine tooth comb!

So, stay safe everyone and remember that it really can and will happen to you (or me) if you're not vigilant.

 

My right hand with a few heat marks. Note, my hand are a bit blotchy anyway as you can see.

 

Very scary experience an a warning to us all on here i think.
I had a close encounter years back and always have respect for these devices but your story hit home to me.
Thanks for posting
Cheers pete

 

I’m glad it didn’t have a worse outcome Colin. About a year ago in your post HERE I raised the essential issue of replacement of seals and my concern about running pressure appliances indoors:

It isn’t just naptha-fuelled devices that present hazards of course. In my post in your thread I cited the example of a Tilley that was left unattended, leaked fuel, set alight and blew the tank apart.

I recall your departure from CCS but however heart-felt the divorce I do feel that your experience could prevent injury or worse as a timely warning to all there as here. I propose posting a link there to this, since you feel unable to return to the dark side!

Best wishes for your continued and speedy recovery (not least from the shock to you both!) and very well done on relating the incident here.

Regards,

John

 

I am glad you are alright.

 

Wow your a lucky man, that's for sure and thanks for sharing.

 

Wow, what a terrifying adventure

 

I’m glad you’re ok, Colin.

There’s a photo over at CCS of David Shouksmith experiencing a naphtha fire on a 111b at Newark.

I had a friend accidentally completely unscrew the fuel valve on an old American gasoline table lamp (trying to make it brighter). Luckily the fire extinguisher was at hand’s reach.

And @presscall is right: don’t be complacent with kerosene either. At least two members here in Australia have had very close calls with kerosene pressure lanterns.

Best wishes from me.


Tony

 

OMG Colin, so glad it wasn’t worse but certainly scary for you and Tracey. Perhaps it’s just as well that John and I don’t ‘ficher aboot’ too much with my lamps and although I did buy some naptha a few years we’ve never tried to use it.

 

Thanks for your kind thoughts everyone. Hand on heart it was completely my own stupid fault but at least it's a lesson I'll not forget in a hurry!

A link to this post over on CCS is a great idea, particularly if it nudges people in the direction of caution and safety.

As John says, kero/paraffin devices are not without danger either. I can certainly say that my safety antenna is on high alert now!

My hand is getting much better and it doesn't stop me going anything, it's just a little inconvenient for the time being.

 

Very sorry to hear this happened Colin.
I have had close calls myself over the years but have evaded burning myself.

One thing I always do though is to give stoves a few pumps to make sure they hold pressure. Ones with control valves are straightforward thankfully.
And Naptha ones in particular I watch the pump like a hawk to make sure the knob doesnt start rising!

Close call, and speedy recovery bud
Alec.

 

Hi Colin, very pleased to hear you are healing well and thank you for sharing. I'm very new to lamps and stoves and have a mixture of both that I have recently bought, and for new people like me, it's important that we take care and are cautious. Examples of your story help to keep us aware of the dangers. I'm conscious of the dangers, but don't have enough knowledge and experience yet to know, how dangerous they could be.

 

Glad you’re ok Colin. I’ve only had one incident where I had a bin with paraffin soaked blue roll go up due to a recently removed mantle that clearly hadn’t sat for long enough before I put it in the bin. Really makes you think about your safety habits and I quench mantles/matches/wicks now and leave them overnight on my stainless sink unit. I bought a multipack of these extinguisher sprays at the time to replace the big impractical co2 extinguisher I had. Not had to use them yet but good for keeping in the toolbox or taking camping to shows etc.
StaySafe All-in-1 Fire Extinguisher | For Home, Kitchen, Car, Caravan, Camping | The compact extinguisher that tackles multiple types of fire Amazon.co.uk

Again, glad you’ve got away relatively unscathed.

 

I showed my hand to the nurse at our local health centre just to make absolutely sure it was OK and she told me it's healing well, so that was a relief.

 

Good news!

 

Glad to hear it's healing ok Colin, you need to avoid the live video demos. I did one for my daughter lighting a Vapalux, I did not preheat enough and had a flare up. Extinguished it ok but that episode has stuck in her head.

I think the pressure to perform is a distraction. record videos in future.

 

Reminds me. Sometimes something goes wrong. Sometimes we make mistakes. Like the one I did here.
Primus 96 fuel
Here, most of us understand there are risks, and we take precautions. Nontheless, people get injured. Think twice

 

The scary thing about the Optimus 111b is that it was specifically designed to be run on naptha based fuels like CF and regular unleaded but it doesn't have the safety features of say, a Coleman stove, consequently, a failed NRV will cause a fireball as will a faulty SRV. The 8R (and its clones) don't have a pump so that can't fail but they still have an SRV. I guess the same applies to any of the Ender's stoves as well.

 

It can happen with any device. I was on a phone call and had a few lanterns running one night. Out of boredom I reached over to an UNLIT Coleman 242 and pulled the pump out and pushed it in. Doing so resulted in a stream of fuel shooting up and out the pump air port (from a leaky CV) and all over the table, my hand, and a lit lantern. Spontaneous combustion ensued and i quickly dropped the phone and proceeded to wrap up my hand and arm in loose clothing bending over in an attempt to squash flames between my torso, belly, and legs. Well, 3X of doing that didnt work so I wrapped my hand/arm up tight in my shirt. Mind you, this all took place in a couple seconds. As quick as I was, it wasnt quick enough and I too suffered blisters and second degree, going onto third degree burns. As safe as you think you are, we are all always at risk. Be safe be ready. I’ll also a fire extinguisher was 5 feet away. It wouldnt have helped this night.

 

Your experience sounds identical to what I went through Randy. I too wrapped towels round my arm to put out the fire and even though it was only alight for a few seconds, that was all it took to do some serious skin damage although it's healing well now.

The only upside to what happened is that my level of safety awareness (panic) is now through the roof! No more lighting stoves indoors, I can't believe I was so dumb and it certainly won't happen again. I've also begun checking all my CF/naptha devices very carefully, replacing and renewing anything suspect.

To be perfectly honest, I narrowly avoided a serious house fire and I am never going to allow that to happen again.

 

Crikey Randy - you could not make that up !. I must admit that my Aladdin 23 going haywire after I fell asleep did teach me a lesson. No injuries, but a blackened ceiling (and equally blackened reputation with the wife). I do occasionally use pressure lanterns indoors but do the lighting stage outdoors.

 

Geez. Mate, you are one lucky man. I hope that you are healing well and Tracy hasn’t berated you too much for potentially damaging her kitchen.
It behoves all of us to be vigilant and check our lamps frequently for any fault or malfunction.
Go well mate and thanks for the heads up.
Cheers
Pete

 

A good report on how things can go very wrong very quickly. I’m glad you are ok . As similar thing happened to an older fella I know but the outcome was a lot worse burns that were bad and being an older fella the skin doesn’t heal as fast as when you get.
Sometimes it’s a bit of complacency so I’m going to share my flyer I post at work. It’s titled the enemy. You can share it around if you want. I’m in construction and maintenance. Scaffolding and now a compound manager, I co ordinate about 10 or more contractors on a shipping maintenance program. It’s a bit to look after and not wanting anything to happen on my shift if I can help it or stop it from happening

 

Thanks for that very good post Darrel, i took a copy of that, cheers

 

Yea, thanks Darryl. I am well aware that it could have gone way worse than it did. Only a relatively small amount of fuel came out of the pump tube - less than half a pump probably. If it had been fully pressurized and then failed, there would have been no stopping it and...... no, I don't want to even think about it!

 

Im new here the reason to only now reply to you Colin. Im glad you was ok after the bad experience and thank you for the post. We all have to be very carfully with any source of fire .Alexandre

 

It was actually at Sykeside in the Lake District although that's beside the point. The NRV appeared to fail and naphtha came bubbling out of the pumptube, accumulated in the case then ignited. Luckily, Ian Marson had the presence of mind to put a wet tea-towel over the flames (which weren't huge but would have been) and the drama was over quickly. To add to the potential disaster there was a bottle of whisky on the table along with various bottles of meths and some priming cans.

I was just starting with stoves at that time so Ian took the stove away for NRV replacement. However, it turned out that the seal was perfectly serviceable and didn't need replacing so I suppose a bit of crud from the tank became stuck in the NRV holding it open - dunno - but lesson learned...

 

I wonder if these things would pass modern H&S "standards" these days - in particular naptha and alcohol fuelled ones ?

 

I’m glad to hear the bottle of whiskey was unscathed, at least in the short term!

 

I know it was a while ago but glad it wasn't worse Colin,

@Fireexit1 probably not, i have spoken to (possibly retired) Scout leaders and they have said the Scouts no longer use pressure items for safety reasons although i have heard of adults taking a few along sometimes,

I often read of collectors on FB testing pressure items without servicing them, i never test anything pressure related without servicing, flushing the fount and dunk testing or try and light anything gas related indoors, but like what happened to David there is always a chance of an accident!