On the morning of Thursday, September 4, 1997, Lt. Areaux from the Hopkins Fire Department went to Allegan City Fire Department. The purpose of his trip was to have five SCBA cylinders refilled. As he routinely does for most of the Allegan County Fire Departments, Chief Joel Merchant was going to fill all of the tanks.

At 8:00 am, while filling the last two (2) cylinders, one of the cylinders unexpectedly ruptured. The force of the blast was one that many of us hoped we would never have to experience. The cylinder that ruptured, split into two pieces and the concussion was tremendous. During testing, the force of a ruptured cylinder has been strong enough to toss a full size automobile more than 100 feet into the air. In the filling room, even though two out of three doors were open, ceiling lights were damaged.

Now, the good news, Chief Merchant and Lt. Areaux, both were uninjured or even scratched. WHY??

In 1994, the Allegan County Firemen’s Association approved and purchased a CompAir MAKO 3100-3 Air Station to be used for the filling of SCBA cylinders for Allegan County Fire Departments. This total containment fill station is the reason both Chief Merchant and Lt. Areaux are alive today. However, slight the risk of SCBA cylinder rupture is, is it worth the chance? Are we, the fire service, in our ever pressing issue of fire fighter safety doing enough for these routine tasks which must be done? Are we doing enough in education on the proper use, storage, filling, and day to day handling of SCBA cylinders?

I urge you as individuals, regardless of what rank you may have in the fire service, to ask yourself or your department the questions I presented to you, ARE WE DOING ENOUGH? Do you still fill SCBAs without any type of containment fill station? Do you use an open type of filling system? Do you fill SCBAs at the seen of an incident? Do you still stand SCBAs in the corner without support to prevent it from falling. Do you carelessly toss an "empty" SCBA to the ground at a fire scene? Do you transport SCBAs in private owned vehicles to be filled without securing them?

The answers to some or all of these questions will be yes from time to time. And we may be satisfied with that, however I tried to briefly describe the force of the explosion which occurred, but believe me words cannot begin to describe the force exhibited. The CompAir MAKO Airstation did the job it was manufactured for. The filling station weighs approximately 1500 lbs. and it was lifted off the floor and was moved three inches in one direction. The walls on two sides show the force of the impact where the ruptured cylinder slammed into them. The total containment fill station was completely destroyed along with the second cylinder being filled at the same time as the one that ruptured.

Any one of your firefighters, when given the chance to see the damage demonstrated to the MAKO Airstation, would have a different view and respect for pressurized SCBA cylinders.

I challenge you to take the time and look around your station, are we doing the best we can? Can we do better? The answer is always YES.

The total containment fill station, when purchased from Air Source One, Inc., cost several thousand dollars. Since the time of purchase, the containment system has been used to fill the majority of SCBA cylinders within Allegan County. But believe me, you can ask Chief Merchant and Lt. Areaux about it and they will say that it’s the best purchase the association ever made.
 
 

Written by

Chief Robert Larr Jr.

Hopkins Fire Department