Death from Fill Station

[Devil]

This is very sad!

Especially where they said..."filling a pb gun..." that's not cool...I hope this doesn't put a damper on paintball, but just puts an awareness on safety and accuracy! My sentiments go out to his parents, wife, and brother! It's horrible to lose a loved one...

[battlegroup]

I'm a Navy Helicopter Pilot and deal with the dangers of flying everyday. To help eliminate the risks associated with the job we have a program called ORM. Operational Risk Management. It is complex so I will spare you the major discussion. But, one of the dangers is complacency. As a new pilot we are categorized as high risk due to lack of experience. As we gain hours in the aircraft our risk factor goes down until we are seasoned aviators and are considered low risk. But then the risk factor starts to go back up as you get even more hours in the aircraft. This is due to complacency. You have done it so many times and know the equipment so well that you may omit a step or not check something or try to do a checklist from memory and so on. I'm not saying that this is what happened here, but I do want to let everyone know that just because you feel you are experienced and have done this a thousand times before doesn't mean that you shouldn't take your time and go over the fill process step by step for every fill and don't become complacent. It can happen to you.

[cris8762]

i shouldn't hold the fill hose?

that's very interesting, because at every field i go to, when i fill my tank, they say to make sure that you hold the hose securely onto your tank to make sure it doesn't fly off and hit anyone or anything..... so should i just hoook up the hose to the tank and set it down? That makes me worry about the person doing the filling over-filling my tank....... hmmmmm i dont know what to do now

[manike]

We had a long thread on wether or not to hold the hose before. Might have to find a search hound to get it

NPPL changed their instructions to specifically stop people holding hoses. If the fill rig is set up right there should be no reason to hold a hose. It should be tethered near it's end anyway to stop it flying and hitting people.

I'll put it this way. I'm not gonna hold a hose. I try to keep as clear from any risk as possible. I've also read reports on what can happen when high pressure fittings give (including hoses) and that's why I don't hold em

manike

[mrhooie]

i've seen fields same the same thing (in regards to hoses)

hpa newbs have a problem attaching a QD sometimes causing the connection to fail under pressure.

people just need to take .5 secs and check the fitting

[Webmaster]

While this is tragic. Let us think ourselves due. Compressed air is DANGEROUS. People DIE every year in industrial and hobby related accidents with compressed air. Scuba tank explode when being filled at the shop. Tanks get damaged and rupture or rocket. (hell - what killed Jaws in the end?)

We need to put this in context. YES its tragic. But its more of a freak accident than anything. I think we need to continue to develop and refine our saftey procedures when filling tanks. Thus far the Baur set up I saw at IAO (and I know is at some NPPL) looks like the best and safest system to date.

I dont think this is a black mark on us or our sport. If you want to point out deaths via compressed air - i am sure there are much more dangerous industries with more deaths.

My condolences to the family. Hopefully we can find the cause behind all of this and use it as a way to insure it doesnt happen again.

[shartley]

Originally posted by Webmaster
While this is tragic. Let us think ourselves due. Compressed air is DANGEROUS. People DIE every year in industrial and hobby related accidents with compressed air. Scuba tank explode when being filled at the shop. Tanks get damaged and rupture or rocket. (hell - what killed Jaws in the end?)

We need to put this in context. YES its tragic. But its more of a freak accident than anything. I think we need to continue to develop and refine our saftey procedures when filling tanks. Thus far the Baur set up I saw at IAO (and I know is at some NPPL) looks like the best and safest system to date.

I dont think this is a black mark on us or our sport. If you want to point out deaths via compressed air - i am sure there are much more dangerous industries with more deaths.

My condolences to the family. Hopefully we can find the cause behind all of this and use it as a way to insure it doesnt happen again.

agreed....

[AGD]

************ Latest Update ******************

Information directly from the local police dept. They said the booster pump blew up and they found pieces all over the shop. The female fitting was not the problem but what exactly happened is still unknown.

AGD

[Creative Mayhem]

I didn't think, the female end was the prob. Thanks for the update TK

CM

[JJBrookshire]

latest latest

At this point the investigators are not sure if it was a complete booster system that was purchased or if the operator assembled it from components that he secured himself. Nitroduck does not have any record of selling a pump to this individual but the component that failed is made by a supplied that has an exclusive contract with them. That is not to say that the component could not have been purchased via another route by the Fire Department or through a dive shop. So stay tuned...

[ben_JD]

Originally posted by Creative Mayhem
We ALWAYS Filled no faster than 300psi per min.

Is not that a bit too conservative? I understand safety, but at that rate, it would take 10 minutes to fill the average HPA tank. That is much like saying I will only drive 10 miles per hour, because I have a much lower chance of losing control of my car.

[paint magnet]

Whoa! The field I play at lets you fill your own tank and has a pressure release thing at 3000 psi unless you're filling to 4500, but it will fill a 68/45 tank in ~8 seconds if it's completely empty is that unsafe?

[fiendkuja]

Originally posted by paint magnet
Whoa! The field I play at lets you fill your own tank and has a pressure release thing at 3000 psi unless you're filling to 4500, but it will fill a 68/45 tank in ~8 seconds if it's completely empty is that unsafe?

That's... sorta a bad idea.

But still, this is pretty horrid. :/ Hope they figure out what failed so proper precautions can be taken. I've never seen a fill problem, I guess the scariest thing I've seen was someone accidentally pull their trigger with a steel lapco barrel plug and it flew out and cracked a glass display case... but thats about it. Heh. I still jump when someone unscrews their co2 tank :/

[Trench]

My condolences to the family and friends affected by this horrible event...

[Sinistarr]

I had wondered why there were cages for split rimed wheels, but not for HP Tank fill stations in paintball stores. I did ask my local shop why, and they told me they could not find one suitable, too big or not fully enclosed. I have seen blueprints for one, but not the final product.

I check my air fittings every time I use them. That steel braided hose hurts like heck when you get hit by it!(experience talking) I usually check what is going into my tanks when I can, and I remind the operator that my tanks are only 3k. I have seen them overfilled to 4k before they were caught. I immediately drained the tank to below 3k. The dude was going to send me out that way. "It won't hurt anything, they are rated for 5k anyway." Too Bad! I was not about to take it that way.

My prayers are with the family of the fireman killed in this incident.


G