N2O is just plain evil. ('explosion' news article)
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TECH Enthusiast
Joined: Nov 2001
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From: Richardson, TX, USA
N2O is just plain evil. http://www.al.com/news/mobileregiste...7778173250.xml
Businessman dies in blast
12/01/02
By MAX SMITH
Staff Reporter
A man died Saturday afternoon in an explosion that ignited as he was transferring nitrous oxide from one container to another behind his auto salvage business in west Mobile, police said.
David Ray, 37, of Mobile, died about 3 p.m. behind Camaro & Mustang Heaven in the 100 block of Harding Boulevard, north of Old Shell Road near Schillinger Road, according to a news release from the Mobile Police Department.
Henry Jones III, 43, and John Ingram, 37, both of Mobile, were injured in the explosion, police said. They were taken to the University of South Alabama Medical Center, where a nursing supervisor said the two were treated and released.
"He was heating a bottle to transfer the nitrous to another bottle and for some reason it blew," said friend Steve Taylor, who had walked inside Ray's business moments before the explosion. "We were all standing there talking to him, and he did the first bottle, and then we rolled out a new bottle for him, and we were joking and talking. I went inside ... and all of a sudden it blew up."
Taylor said he was knocked down by the explosion, which he described as sounding like a bomb going off.
"Today something happened that shouldn't have happened," Taylor said.
Another friend, Anthony Byrd, said a lot of people who drag race come to the business to have nitrous bottles filled. Nitrous oxide gives cars an extra boost when it is injected into the fuel.
"It's a danger, and we know it, but it's something we do all the time, and you take precautions," Byrd said. "It's just that he had a bad bottle."
Ray was described by his friends as a good businessman and a prankster.
"David was the best thing that ever happened to me," said Sasha Johnson, adding that she and Ray had been living together for two years and were planning to marry in October. "A lot of people loved David, they really did."
Businessman dies in blast
12/01/02
By MAX SMITH
Staff Reporter
A man died Saturday afternoon in an explosion that ignited as he was transferring nitrous oxide from one container to another behind his auto salvage business in west Mobile, police said.
David Ray, 37, of Mobile, died about 3 p.m. behind Camaro & Mustang Heaven in the 100 block of Harding Boulevard, north of Old Shell Road near Schillinger Road, according to a news release from the Mobile Police Department.
Henry Jones III, 43, and John Ingram, 37, both of Mobile, were injured in the explosion, police said. They were taken to the University of South Alabama Medical Center, where a nursing supervisor said the two were treated and released.
"He was heating a bottle to transfer the nitrous to another bottle and for some reason it blew," said friend Steve Taylor, who had walked inside Ray's business moments before the explosion. "We were all standing there talking to him, and he did the first bottle, and then we rolled out a new bottle for him, and we were joking and talking. I went inside ... and all of a sudden it blew up."
Taylor said he was knocked down by the explosion, which he described as sounding like a bomb going off.
"Today something happened that shouldn't have happened," Taylor said.
Another friend, Anthony Byrd, said a lot of people who drag race come to the business to have nitrous bottles filled. Nitrous oxide gives cars an extra boost when it is injected into the fuel.
"It's a danger, and we know it, but it's something we do all the time, and you take precautions," Byrd said. "It's just that he had a bad bottle."
Ray was described by his friends as a good businessman and a prankster.
"David was the best thing that ever happened to me," said Sasha Johnson, adding that she and Ray had been living together for two years and were planning to marry in October. "A lot of people loved David, they really did."
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Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 9,246
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From: Troy, AL
Re: N2O is just plain evil. If he had been chilling the receiver bottle rather than heating the doner bottle (most likely with a blow torch) this wouldn't have happened.
"Nitrous oxide gives cars an extra boost when it is injected into the fuel."
And all this time I've been injecting it into the intake charge. Silly me...I had no idea I was supposed to be injecting it into the fuel! <img border="0" alt="[jester]" title="" src="graemlins/gr_jest.gif" />
<small>[ December 02, 2002, 02:08 PM: Message edited by: Colonel ]</small>
"Nitrous oxide gives cars an extra boost when it is injected into the fuel."
And all this time I've been injecting it into the intake charge. Silly me...I had no idea I was supposed to be injecting it into the fuel! <img border="0" alt="[jester]" title="" src="graemlins/gr_jest.gif" />
<small>[ December 02, 2002, 02:08 PM: Message edited by: Colonel ]</small>
Re: N2O is just plain evil. It wasn't an explosion, just a bottle rupture from being overpressured and fatigued by the blowtorch...Which is VERY violent! Plain old air would have done exactly the same thing... DOT requires inspection of cylinders in Texas every 10 years!! Hardly a mandate for a highly used cylinder. Why someone would take a blowtorch to a high pressure cylinder is beyond me! This is why you do not increase the pressure on the doner cylinder as Stephen said. I get a little queasy when I see someone walk off from the booster pump also.....
<small>[ December 02, 2002, 04:05 PM: Message edited by: cantdrv65 ]</small>
<small>[ December 02, 2002, 04:05 PM: Message edited by: cantdrv65 ]</small>
Re: N2O is just plain evil. You cant blame the nitrous for this but rather the stupidity of the guy who heated it with a blow torch. Even if he used a bottle heater he should have been checking up on the pressure.
