Gas generator

[Tracy D'arth]

Just now, ditchcrawler said:

How many of them have ever blown up. 

Go on, tell me.     😉

[Stroudwater1]

2 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

How many of them have ever blown up. 

In the village where I used to live  one of the fairly new houses with these white propane tanks exploded. It was a very cold night which was thought to be related. It wasn’t the tank iirc but a connection into the house
Fortunately despite this being at 7am both were out of the house working. It took two years before they could move back in.  
IIRC one side of the house was destroyed and much was burnt. 
 

Still there’s no mains gas in the village, I think no mains gas is fairly common in rural areas 

[ditchcrawler]

2 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Go on, tell me.     😉

No idea. thats why I asked.

[Alan de Enfield]

11 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

How many of them have ever blown up. 

 

 

In the last 17 years we have not lost a single one.

[MtB]

I get to hear about two or three gas explosions in residential houses every year. Rumours begin to spread about each one amongst gas bods and often they are said to be propane explosions not natural gas, even in streets with natural gas supplies. The HSE investigates every one but never seems to publish any results.

 

Apparently bottled propane is used for DIY- making one of the popular recreational drugs. The people using it for this tend not to have much respect for it and make some real skoolboy errors, like having their drug manufacturing set-up in a basement. 

 

I've never heard of a gas cylinder or bulk storage vessel spontaneously exploding though. Only ever when subjected to heat from a fierce fire originating in the building itself.

 

Edited July 25, 2022 by MtB

[Alan de Enfield]

23 minutes ago, MtB said:

I've never heard of a gas cylinder or bulk storage vessel spontaneously exploding though. Only ever when subjected to heat from a fierce fire originating in the building itself.

 

The farm suppies shop about a mile up the road from us had a fire and it set off his Gas cylinder store.

 

It was like (I imagine) almost nuclear explosion with our roof rattling a mile away - the cylinders shot 100s of feet into the air trailing jets of flame and then exploding.

The shop is on the side of the road and one cylinder went off horizontally and went thru and out of the back doors of a passing car, another fell vertically downwards and went thru the floor of a pick-up truck.

 

Luckily no one was even injured and the fire brigade were in attenedance for 3 days waiting for it to 'calm down' before approaching the yard. There were dozens of cylinders  and bits of cylinders scattered in the fields for 100s of yards around.

 

Calor gas charged him for about 100 more cylinders than he had - talk about kick a man when he is down.

It took the best part of 12 months for him to get rebuilt and back into business.

 

It was certainly a memorable day and makes one treat gas with the care it deserves.

[Tracy D'arth]

12 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

The farm suppies shop about a mile up the road from us had a fire and it set off his Gas cylinder store.

 

It was like (I imagine) almost nuclear explosion with our roof rattling a mile away - the cylinders shot 100s of feet into the air trailing jets of flame and then exploding.

The shop is on the side of the road and one cylinder went off horizontally and went thru and out of the back doors of a passing car, another fell vertically downwards and went thru the floor of a pick-up truck.

 

Luckily no one was even injured and the fire brigade were in attenedance for 3 days waiting for it to 'calm down' before approaching the yard. There were dozens of cylinders  and bits of cylinders scattered in the fields for 100s of yards around.

 

Calor gas charged him for about 100 more cylinders than he had - talk about kick a man when he is down.

It took the best part of 12 months for him to get rebuilt and back into business.

 

It was certainly a memorable day and makes one treat gas with the care it deserves.

Cooo!  is there any video?  Bonfire night on steroids.  I nearly read that as the farm puppies shop, ruled out guppies, put my proper reading glasses on and it was clear.

[Alan de Enfield]

5 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Cooo!  is there any video?  Bonfire night on steroids.  I nearly read that as the farm puppies shop, ruled out guppies, put my proper reading glasses on and it was clear.

 

Not that I have ever seen, probably the Fire Brigade will have some 'footage', but the road was closed for half a mile each side and everyone was  keeping well away.

[Tracy D'arth]

1 minute ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Not that I have ever seen, probably the Fire Brigade will have some 'footage', but the road was closed for half a mile each side and everyone was  keeping well away.

Kill joys, I like a good blaze. Almost as good as a real cracking thunder storm.

[pearley]

16 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Well when the brother in law had a garage it was a monthly check with a BIG annual check. What was actually done I have no idea.

 

16 hours ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Ours were pressure tested with nitrogen occasionally.

 

Or was it CO2?  Can't remember.

We ran 3 petrol stations from 1969 to 1990 and don't recall any of the tanks ever being tested other than an annual visual inspection by the fire brigade.

[Robert B.]

16 hours ago, Stroudwater1 said:

Still there’s no mains gas in the village, I think no mains gas is fairly common in rural areas 

 

 

T'is the same here in rural Norfolk. We took delivery of a ton of coal today that will feed the stove and back boiler through the winter. 

 

Back on topic, I was once evacuated from student lodgings when a fire took hold in the gas bottle storage of nearby Falmouth docks. Actual end-of-the-world air raid sirens certainly got my attention. 

[Alan de Enfield]

58 minutes ago, pearley said:

 

We ran 3 petrol stations from 1969 to 1990 and don't recall any of the tanks ever being tested other than an annual visual inspection by the fire brigade.

 

Well, fire brigades stopped doing fire inspections and issuing 'fire certificates' at least a quarter of a century ago.

 

When we had the Restaurant built we had do do our own fire evaluation with an action plan / FMEA highlighting all of the risk areas (everything from cardboard storage to gas cylinders and how to minimise risk), they also used to do an assessment of the number of people allowed into a room, --- All now gone.

The council came out and ensured we had 'fire escape' doors (opening outwards) and emergency exit signs and directions before granting the licence to sell beers, spirits and food.

 

The buck now stops with the owner. The local council make recommendations of how many square cms to allow for a person, dancing, standing, seated, eating at a table and you have to make your own decision on the limit of numbers you allow yourself.

[David Mack]

1 hour ago, pearley said:

 

We ran 3 petrol stations from 1969 to 1990 and don't recall any of the tanks ever being tested other than an annual visual inspection by the fire brigade.

 

With the fuel tanks underground what did they visually inspect?

[Alan de Enfield]

12 minutes ago, David Mack said:

 

With the fuel tanks underground what did they visually inspect?

 

They (well the ones the BiL had) were not in contact with the soil - that'd be stupid. They had a gap all around them so were sort of 'bunded'.

[ditchcrawler]

1 hour ago, Robert B. said:

 

 

T'is the same here in rural Norfolk. We took delivery of a ton of coal today that will feed the stove and back boiler through the winter. 

 

Back on topic, I was once evacuated from student lodgings when a fire took hold in the gas bottle storage of nearby Falmouth docks. Actual end-of-the-world air raid sirens certainly got my attention. 

The only gas in Bacton on the North Norfolk coast is at the gas terminal

[pearley]

2 hours ago, David Mack said:

 

With the fuel tanks underground what did they visually inspect?

They lifted the manhole covers, or rather I did, insisted I pump out any water that sat in top of the tank lids and looked at the pipe connections. Not sure what they expected to find. The water always returned by the next day.

 

1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

They (well the ones the BiL had) were not in contact with the soil - that'd be stupid. They had a gap all around them so were sort of 'bunded'.

If the ones at our petrol stations were bunded then I would have thought any gap would have filled with water fairly quickly.

 

Our petrol stations were run under a licence from the supplier, National Benzole, later BP, so most things regarding safety and maintenance were managed by them.