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From: "Casadonte, Dominick" <DOMINICK.CASADONTE**At_Symbol_Here**TTU.EDU>
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Lucky to be Alive
Date: Sat, 21 May 2016 15:01:08 +0000
Reply-To: DCHAS-L <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU>
Message-ID: D365E07C.4FC4C%Dominick.Casadonte**At_Symbol_Here**ttu.edu
In-Reply-To <06b501d1b29f$e28bc510$a7a34f30$**At_Symbol_Here**comcast.net>
Thank you for sharing this. I agree that luck should not be part of a
safety program, but I am glad that it was this time.
This reminded me of a former graduate student ( about 20 years ago) who
went to work for a company that manufactured silane products. A few years
into his job, he unintentionally blew up half of the plant in which he was
working. He later committed suicide; I1ve always wondered if the accident
played a psychological role. There are secondary effects from chemical
accidents that are often never mentioned.
I am glad that you are OK. Things could have been much worse.
Thank you for sharing this. Sometimes when things go wrong with people who
are committed to safety, it reminds us that accidents can happen even
under the most careful of circumstances.
Be well.
Dom Casadonte
Texas Tech University
On 5/20/16, 8:59 AM, "DCHAS-L Discussion List on behalf of Eugene Ngai"
wrote:>Some of you might have seen a video of a safety demo that I did this week
>that went terribly wrong. I am ashamed that I ignored some deviations and
>continued to do my silane demo that I have done many times in the past
>without incident. With almost 100 people watching I had an uncontrolled
>silane vent/fire of 1600 psig that torched my Nomex coveralls, hood and
>faceshield. This 15 sec event seemed like 20 minutes as I desperately
>tried to shutoff the flow. The 3 ft flame was at the cylinder valve and
>the radiant heat was intense as I reached for the alternate shutoff
>valve, I was worried that the aluminum nitrogen purge cylinder was going
>to explode due to the heat. My PPE saved me from burns. I was fortunate
>to have turned and ducked as the flames came over my head at one point.
>
>I have been campaigning for silane safety for more than 10 years and yet
>I ignored some basic rules. 44 years of handling silane under many
>conditions and still I was so stupid. God saved me for another day
>
>Luck should not be part of the safety program
>
>Eugene Ngai
>Chemically Speaking LLC
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