Various Accidents and Injuries

[BigBang]

This was a fun topic that has always amused me. But it can also be quite helpfull in determing how something bad happened, why not to do it, and to have a little laugh until you're the one posting

 

So far, my most idiotic, and worst pyro injury was storing a hypergolic mixture in my pocket. I was sitting around, preting a rocket, when HOLY SHIT, MY PANTS ARE ON FIRE! I proceded to leap from my chair and rip off my pants infront of 50 or so of my rocket club members.

 

I though I was ok because I felt no pain. Too bad I had third degree burns! It was a nasty looking bitch, bubbling on my left thigh(is that how you spell it?) I have a picture of it the day arfter, and will post it once I get to a scanner.

 

So, how have you all been hurting yourself? Or just messing around tasting NG. And, I hope to here from lucky seven (sorry, heard you call yourself that before, and it stuck!)

[Rogue Chemist]

Suckback caused a pressure explosion in a chlorine generator-acid burns from a mix of sulfuric acid and calcium hypochlorite on my forehead and cheek.

Nitration of IPA ran away instantly-hand nitrated possible long term damage if as I learned later nitroform(carcinogen) can be formed under such conditions.

Glass tube hit some SF under water- no injury although lost the glass it was in.

Dident wash my glass with enough NaOH after distilling chloroacetone-nasty lacramation

Inhaled a particle of assorted capsiacinoids-Yowee

Accidently made some NCl3, no injury but KMnO4 stains on the walls.

And several chlorine/NO2/HNO3 gassings

 

As for NG I don't get the headaches and it tastes soooo good...

[aquaman]

A couple of 4th july's ago I made a bunch of small (m-80) BP salutes and I used clay to plug one end and water putty with other. The next day july 5th I looked at all the pieces and stuff to clean up and I noticed a hole in the side of my house. I guess one of the salutes shot out the water putty plug and it put a hole in my house from like thirty feet away. I'll never use water putty for a salute plug again unless it's like super long.

 

Another accident was in my closed garage and somehow I accidently lit a package of firecrackers and it was like 3x as loud. I had a ringing sound in my ear for like thirty minutes. Still to day I have no idea how they lit.

 

Overall I've been lucky, I haven't had any injuries. Hopefully it stays that way.

[Swany]

No injuries, really.

 

Exploding comet- see 'Excuses for why you do this.' for picture.

 

Various blindings from superbright flash comp. tests.

 

A few runaways, resulting in NOx exposure.

 

The first time I made NC, there was a white vapor that came off. Hmm, NOx is supposed to be. I assumed it was hydrogen... so I took a sniff. AAUUGHH COUGH COUGH COUGH!!!! Ugh. Nitric acid vapor does not go over well with the respiritory system... sniff, sniff. Note, my sense of smell has gone to hell since this chemistry addiction.

 

I have spilt acid on my hands when I have been pouring, then, you notice when it starts burning, a few minutes later...

 

I poured some Mn2O7 solution (a lot) on a piece of wood, as I needed to get rid of it. Before I could jump away (normally there is a delay) it exploded, and I was sprayed with Mn2O7, H2SO4, and KMnO4. God knows what else was in there. Anywho, I had some holes in my fingers/face. Just small pockmarks... some redness. It also sprayed my glasses... in your eyes, that would not be good.

 

I really think none of these equal the hypergolic pants of our beloved Bigbang. I belive his first post at APC was about it, I remeber I took the liberty of laughing at him. Hes a good guy though.

 

[Draco_Aster]

My little cousin(4) was following me around and I needed to check up on some BP in the toaster oven that I was drying out. I went into the shed and sat on my stool infront of the little oven while my cousin waited in the doorway(smart). Sat there for 5 minutes or so and the I saw a single spark jump up in the 100g pile of powder! A massive whoos of sparks and smoke blew the glass front open and sprayed the place with sparks.

 

Luckily I got up to run for the extinguisher a millisecond before the initial 'puff' and only my clothes had holes in them and a few 2mm blisters on my arm.

 

Amazingly the oven still works....but only one element.

 

I can still remember my cousin running round the corner screaming,"Uncle **** Aunty ****, Alex blew up the shed!".

[Kilo_G]

I've been injured by fireworks twice, both times because I did something utterly retarded.

 

The first time I was injured bya firework was with umm "superior" roman candles (no it wasn't modified, it was off the shelf 1.4g but better then the rest we'll say). It was a report candle to be specific. Like an idiot, I was holding them (one at a time) in my hand and lighting them (pretty stupid) but atleast this way I could drop it if something went wrong. Then I got the brilliant (read extra stupid) idea of holding 2 in one hand at once and lighting them both at the same time. Doing that presents a problem because if I drop them inevitably one will point in an unsafe direction. So, after each had fired 3 shots (each were 10 shot candles) an my brain spoke to me and said "Hey, you know what would be pretty bad, if one of these had a shot explode inside the candle" just as my brain said that to me, take a guess as to what happened? Yup one of the candles had a shot explode inside it. I wasn't wearing any eye or ear protection (unbelieveably stupid) but THANK GOD nothing happened to my eyes. My right ear on the other hand is another story. I'm pretty sure I have some hearing loss in it.

 

Second time I was injured I got another hilarious (read retarded) idea. I had been lighting off White Knight 6 break 1.4g shells. One of them didn't launch. So after waiting 1/2 hour (a smart thing to do) I went up to it, took it out of the mortar, got a piece of cardboad and layed the cardboard on the ground. After this I tore the lift pouch off the White Knight and made a "trail" of the lift powder up to the bottom of the White Knight. When I lit the trail (lit it with a normal Bic lighter, again extra special stupid) I burned my right thumb. By the way the White Knight lit that time.

 

So, do yourself a favor, anytime you think of doing any of the above remember I've got about 15% to 20% hearing loss in my right ear a thumb that hurt for a week and a half AND could have potentially seriously hurt my seeing balls.

 

BUT I STILL LOVE FIREWORKS!

[BigBang]

Myes, me and my hypergolic pants, how fun As kilo said, when you do something retarded, something likes to go wrong(like mine.) I was lucky enough to keep my balls, though they were pretty hot seeing as the burns ended only a few inches away.

 

But we still persavere and keep doing what we love.

[Zeppelin]

Well my first and biggest accident was 2 days ago when I was working in my garage and trying to get hexamine out of some firestarter things. I wasnt sure what else was in there, and i powdered it, and tried to soak it in alcohol and then filter it (just playin around). Then I tried cooking a little and it burst into flames, I did have my respirator on. I guess some vapors got through the filters and fucked my lungs up good, I could bearly breathe for a few hours. After some advice from Draco_Aster I had a room temp glass of water and chilled outside for a while. That actually helped quite a bit.

 

Anyways, a few days later and my lungs still feel strange, its hard to describe. But I know that I wont be messing around with that stuff anymore (or at least trying to cook it).

 

P.S Thanks Draco

[Defiant Pyro]

Most painful: I made a kno3/sugar rocket and when I added the BP paste on the end it ignited and gave me a huge 3rd degree burn.

 

Scariest: I had 5lbs of ANAL with the primary already attached and my friend (who is a dumbass) threw a m-80 into a backpack full of fireworks that was about 5 feet from the charge and all these artillery shells and fountains were going off right next to the charge. About 8 people were standing around it when that happend. Thank God nobody got killed.

 

So yeah, he can't come to my New Years or 4th of July parties anymore.

 

There are a few more that are on the old forum.

[Diablo]

My biggest accident was when my protective glasses fell off when I was making teargas. It didn't hurt that much, but I wasn't able to see anything for about 4 hours.

[Flashzone]

I'm typing this with one hand, if i miss spell it was my hand.

 

 

This happend on saturday. My friend seth and i were melting togeather kno3 and sugar. we did it about 10 times before, so we thought that we would do a bigger batch. seth was wearing a proteative glove, i was not. Are batch was 50g. When we where making it i saw a little black thing flouting around. I was aboutto say "seth take it off the heat" then KAPHOOOOOOOM!!! Seth and i blacked out for a few seconds. Then i looked at my hand. it dident look to bad, just some 1-2nd degree burns. Then i looked at seth. I was like SHIT, seths hair was fizzled, like mine. I said "seth can you see?" yes "can you blink?" yes. Ok then we washed our hair out and washed our faces. I has a few splater burns from the sugar. Seth had chemical burns, thats what to doc said. Seth's parents freaked out. Seths not going to school for few weeks beacuse he donsent want anyone to see his face. I'm not going to school for a days. my hand has two huge bubbles on them. i'm in no pain right now. same with seth. I just hope his face is not scared for life.

 

 

ps. Please dont flame beacuse I was stupid. I might not be able to do pyro anymore.

[Spoony]

I had an accident with some "crap" bp, decided to light it with my blowtorch. It turned out to be rather good. Ive got a small burn on my left hand and a bit of lost arm hair, nothing major, but it was sooo dam stupid.

[mr.pyro]

There always seems to be the stupid friend that doesn't know when to stop fooling around and doesnt know that the bs they do around HEs is life and death. I always had dumb freinds that wanted to throw m80s out of the back of my car and shoot off rockets from my backyard.

 

5lbs of ANAL, your lucky to be alive.

 

Worst thing I got was a burn from some estes rocket bp that I thought was slow, but it was faster as I learned from a burned thumb. Otherwise over 2 years nothing, however a garage full of NO2, as well as various gasses from the DPPP thing that was big a while ago, also when I accidentally left that DPPP(or whatever it was determined to be) it a container for a few months wet and have crystals that are 6-7mm and having to clean it out. I just pretty much threw the entire thing in a gallon of acetone and then poured the entire dissolved solution down the sink with a LOT of water.

[BigBang]

Yeah, at the bottom of this post is a picture of flashzone's hand. Nice sized bubbles i must say.

 

It has happened to the best of us (not me, I'm too good ) and you have gotten one of the worst burns from it I've seen. I forgot to mention that on small batches (yes, 50 grams is small) that it is hard to keep it from being stable and not overheating. I like to do batches by the kilo so as to have more area to disipate the heat. Also, cooking it in a bean can isn't the best idea

 

http://www.apcforum.net/files/DSC01371.jpg

[Zeppelin]

Wow, no kidding. Those are some bad burns. How did your buddy get chemical burns from kno3 and sugar? I didnt think there was anything that bad really in there.

 

Peace, Zeppelin

[justanotherpyro]

Its amazing at how much KNO3/sugar is underestimated. Last year a friend of mine regrew his face and his hand after a $20,000 air flight to the Utah burn center. All from melting a little bit of KNO3/sugar. I will never make it again, because I get to comfortable with it. It goes back to the " it won't happen to me, so I don't need to wear a face mask and gloves " thing. Tell that to my friend who was an eyeblink away from being blind, and looked like a demon for 3 months.

[Draco_Aster]

Hey! I was eating when I foolishly opened that link!

 

I must admit I do underestimate the damage KNO3/Sucrose can do to you. When It burns it tends to spit burning pieces everywhere, thats never any good.

[Zeppelin]

In that case i think ill be a little more careful

 

I havent ever used safety anything while melting that, and i was over and open flame too.

[Flashzone]

Yah, I'm doing better. Seth my buddy is doing fine. I think the batch was more like 100g. I just hope he will not get any scars, I have these weird burns on my arm.i Here is a picture of my jacket after the fire:

 

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b102/Aut...me/DSC01387.jpg

 

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b102/Aut...me/DSC01386.jpg

 

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b102/Aut...me/DSC01385.jpg

[Spoony]

Did you melt the sugar then add the KNO3 after you have taken it off the heat? I make batches of about 200g, and have never had an accident.

[Flashzone]

I melted them all togeather.

[Spoony]

Thats a bad idea. Melting the sugar, taking the pan off the heat then stirring in the KNO3 reduces the chance of accidental ignition.

 

This is the method I use, and it hasnt failed yet

[justanotherpyro]

Although that method is safer you are still putting a flammable substance on heat. No Matter how " safe " it seems it isn't. People get comfortable with it. Its not as if it is a major part of pyrotechnics. There are many ways to get smoke. Why even screw with it. The " I've never had a problem with it " mentality is what I hate most about this stuff. It seems really safe and then out of no where things can go seriously wrong. Even with high explosives there are signs of a runaway. Melting KNO3/sugar everything is going fine and then suddenly the skin is peeling off of your arms face etc... Seriously, just make some KNO3/Paraffin/sugar. If you want I'll even give you the exact chemical formula, length of pvc tubing etc... everything to make a good smoke bomb without risking melting your skin.

[Douchermann]

Yeah hes right about the smoke mix, One of these stories deals with that.

 

 

I have a couple stories, all mine are pyro related though, I seem to work a lot safer in a lab environment.

 

1) My friend and I were up at his farm about a 5 hour drive or so from where we live. We were making smoke mix, and I gave him the KNO3 and sugar and told him to go make about a pound of it. Well he goes back there, and I go back to my duty of making black powder (we made about 4 pounds of granulated blackpowder that night). Now, this is the key part, I brought my gas stove up for him to use. The spoon he is using to stir falls into the flame and catches. He panics and throws it into the pot with all the molten smoke mix. The whole batch catches. All I hear is a "oh shit", I look back and see an 8+Ft flame coming from behind the back of the pickup truck (where he set up the propane stove). When the flame stops, I go back to assess the dammage. The aluminum pot has a hole through it, the spoon is bent from the heat, there is black ash everywhere, and there is a heat scar on the back of the pickup truck.

 

2) The same friend and I had a bag of KClO4:Al flashpowder laying around. Well his dad recently bought the parts to make a big steel mortar tube, which we assembled. The mortar tube doesn't have a bottom yet, we were going to screw it into a peice of wood. My friend wanted a small fireball to come out of this, so I told him to load up a bit of the flashpowder and I was going to go prepare a delay mechanism. The delay was a peice of a flare core, delicately balanced on top of the tube. After it burned a certain ammount, it was supposed to fall in and ignite the flashpowder. I balance it, and we run about 20 or so ft away. He says "here, take this" and throws me the bag of flashpowder. There is maybe a couple grams of flashpowder left in here, and I remember making about 130 grams of it. All I say is "RUN!" He runs behind the garage, I run behind a different brick wall. After the anticipation builds up as much as it could, I hear the loudest explosion I have ever heard in my life. I run back to where the pipe was and all I see is a white/grey burn mark on the concrete where the pipe once stood. I look around for fragments for a short while, then a couple feet in front of me, the pipe hits the ground. This was about a 20 pound pipe and it was airborn for nearly 10 seconds.

 

3) This one was completely my fault. I made a batch of negative-x for the day. Then I put it in my coat pocket and forgot about it while I was at my friends house (same friend as the last two times). I fall asleep and drape the coat over my legs. Sometime during the night, the bag must have opened and collected moisture from the air. At around 7am, I wake up to a bright fire. I look down and see a 2 ft flame coming from my legs. I jump out of the bed and by then I realize what happend. My coat was completely ruined, and there is a big burn mark in my friends guest bed (which is in his room also). Him, I, and the other kid that was over just laughed as we tried to hide the evidence from his mom... which we did successfully.

[dragonman586]

Get a new friend.... Or learn to give better directions.