human fireball?

[Old South Creations]

So, I was forging yesterday and, as I often do (when I have a glove on), quickly raked a couple of coals over my metal with my hand. I stepped back and allowed the metal to heat and then smelled something sweet, a little like the smell of hay. Then a started feeling a slight "sting". Ooops, I have set my shirt sleeve and glove on fire! Ruined my glove and shirt but just a pea size burn on the palm of my my hand...no big deal, I've certainly burned myself worse in my lifetime. But, could have been a lot worse. I was surprised at how rapidly the fire spread before I ever realized it.

I think this is a good opportunity to share some tales of carelessness...funny & frightening. It's good to remember that it's easy to get hurt if we're not careful.

[CBrann]

been welding... caught slag in my pant leg cuff... they went up... I didn't know until someone doused me with water.... had on longjohns.. hard way to find out your on fire.... cold water.... no injury except my pride... but id did have to get new laces for my boots.

Lesson.... be sure where your slag and sparks go...

[Jeff Bly]

Was learning oxy/acetlyene welding, I could smell something burning. I lifted my goggles and asked is anyone smelled something burning, no one noticed anything, so back to welding I went. A minute later, I could REALLY smell something burning. I lifted my goggles again, and it was the front of my shirt. Some slag had settled in a fold and was smoldering. It was almost to the point of ignition, but I was safely able to extinguish it. I also had longjohns underneath which quite possibly insulated the heat so that I did not notice it as quickly.

Fire is a very dangerous situation, and it can happen fast. It is very important to always have your wits about you and keep very aware of your surroundings. Keep a fire extinguisher handy and probably the fire departments number as well.

[Frosty]

Man, I've lit myself on fire so many times I can't even estimate a number. Half way through jr. high metal shop I welding section I could tell the difference between burning flux and clothes, paper or leather.

I'd say the worst though was the day I was welding something up and one of the morons I used to work with decided to clean some parts on the welding table with . . . STARTING FLUID!.

I felt a cool rush of something on my arms just before I caught a wiff but too late. WHUMP! I'm standing in the middle of a fireball with nowhere to go. Fortunately it was really short lived and I wasn't more than depilated in a couple places. The (did I mention he's a moron?) guy who thought spraying ETHER directly at a welding arc (I did mention he's a moron didn't I?) was much worse off than I was though thankfully not injured.

Here's the corker. I got the talking to! :mad: There's nothing like working for bureaucrat engineers! I told my boss to shut up or write me up and I'd see him in court. He dropped it of course. (A moron from the mollusk family)

Retirement means I can pick and choose who I allow to touch tools near me.

Frosty

[rfb343]

Here's the corker. I got the talking to! :mad: There's nothing like working for bureaucrat engineers! I told my boss to shut up or write me up and I'd see him in court. He dropped it of course. (A moron from the mollusk family)

Retirement means I can pick and choose who I allow to touch tools near me.

Frosty

ARENT THE ALL....(bosses that is)

[Frosty]

ARENT THE ALL....(bosses that is)

BOSS Backwards double S OB

Frosty

[chainsaw]

I used to work in a steel mill. caught my overalls on fire cutting a large ingot with a torch, It happened so quick I didn't even feel it until my clothes were very well ignited , luckily it was in a cooling yard with lots of water puddles which I rolled in. Six months in hospital 3 skin grafts. Still feel it and that was in the early 70's. Real bad memory be careful folks.

[bigjohn]

I got a small bit of slag down a pocket and it stuck to the screen of my treo 650 cell phone. I wondered why I didn't get any calls all week. I finally pulled it out to check it. A call came in while I was looking at it and right where the slag hit, is the touch screen button for "ignore". The hot metal shrunk the screen just enough to put pressure on the button. Good thing it didn't hit answer so everyone would hear me cussing in the shop.

[archiphile]

I must be rubin' off on ya. You gotta not listen to me about how to get burned

[Dodge]

I was welding overhead with stick in a boiler room in an old beef packing house and the only way to get positioned for this particular spot was to lay on one of the boilers that were 8 or 9 feet in diameter I was wearing full leathers with a bib, but since I was laying hanging down the side of this boiler, my pants had slid up my legs to just expose the tops of my boots. So I'm welding away and slag is rolling off me, down the side of the boiler and to the floor. One particular bead got too hot and caused gravity to allow a rather large globual of slag roll this time as luck would have it, between my legs and down into the top of my boot. They were lace-up boots but there was just enough space at the top to catch the glob. It didn't hurt at first because it was so hot but I didn't have any room to move to dig it out and sliding down off the boiler wasn't an option. I didn't know what I would land on, so all I could do is grin a bear it as my flesh quenched the heat. I don't think I grinned much though. By the time I was able to get down and get it out, I had a 3/8" round third degree burn. Molten balls look much bigger when they are molten an feel astronomic when stuck in the top of your boot. Turned out to only be about an 1/8" in diameter, but big enough to leave a scar I wear to this day

[Ecart]

Late summer or early fall last year, we had a nor-easter blow through here. There were a lot of tree limbs down in the yard. The wife and I had the kids pick them up and throw them into the barrel that I had used for making charcoal. It has a cut out at the bottom for shoveling out the coals that fall down through the grate. So a couple of Saturdays later, I went out and decided to burn the limbs. I poured some gas on the limbs and noticed that some of the gas poured down into the bottom of the barrel. I didn't want the fire shooting out the bottom when I lit it at the top, so I stuck the lighter at the cut out and pulled the trigger. I don't know where I thought the flames would go if I did this. Well, any thinking person could see a while ago where this was going. In an instant, I watched the fireball race up my arm and into my face. I fell down trying to get away from it. I half crawled/half ran out of range of the fire. My glasses went flying somewhere. Once I came to my senses with the water hose dousing my burned and hurting right arm, I thought, "wait, am I on fire?!" A quick patdown told me I was not. But I spent quite some time with my arm in a bathtub of cold water to stop the burning. My wife wanted to take me to the emergency room, but I flatly refused. Well, Sunday night I had flu-like symptoms and stayed home from work Monday to go to the Doctor. I have a pretty cool Doc and he was rather impressed with my burns, which he said were causing hte symptoms for the most part, that and the nasty cold that was setting in. Thankfully most of the burns were 1st degree. The scars from the small 2nd degree burns on my hand are almost gone. I singed my eyelashes and my hair.
Why I didn't use lighter fluid, or make a trail of gas away from the burn barrel is still a mystery to me. :confused:

[Junksmith]

Raked a hot klinker out of the fire 2 weeks ago and I didn't realize that it had landed on top of my shoe. Leather shoes, but the laces were nylon. Ooops. My brother in law kindly told me that my shoe was on fire and I brushed it away with my hand. I guess I should'a used the gloved hand, because burning nylon really sticks well to skin and holds the heat too. Irony? The watering can was 2 feet away! Reflexes are great, but the man who can think as fast as he can react is fortunate indeed.

[archiphile]

By the time I was able to get down and get it out, I had a 3/8" round third degree burn. Molten balls look much bigger when they are molten an feel astronomic when stuck in the top of your boot. Turned out to only be about an 1/8" in diameter, but big enough to leave a scar I wear to this day

I had this happen in welding school.I was learning how to weld vertical up, I was using E7018, on a 1/4" thick plate. I was sitting on top of the welder that was for the booth next to mine. I had my leg under the bottom edge of the plate and was welding away. I was not moving the rod fast enough and a huge blob of molten steel feel out of the puddle and burned a hole clear though my boots on the outside of my left foot near my ankle bone. I watched the ball of steel drop and hit my boot, I thew my hood off and was hopping around like nobody's business, yelling and screaming. I have a scare that is 1/8" deep x 1/4" wide and 1" long. The boots had a hole in them and I had to go and get another pair to wear for the day. These were the boots that they had issued us, I use only boots that I had purchased from there on out. ( I went to ClearField Job Corps Center, Clearfield UT, for welding school.)

[Avadon]

I had this happen in welding school.I was learning how to weld vertical up, I was using E7018, on a 1/4" thick plate. I was sitting on top of the welder that was for the booth next to mine. I had my leg under the bottom edge of the plate and was welding away. I was not moving the rod fast enough and a huge blob of molten steel feel out of the puddle and burned a hole clear though my boots on the outside of my left foot near my ankle bone. I watched the ball of steel drop and hit my boot, I thew my hood off and was hopping around like nobody's business, yelling and screaming. I have a scare that is 1/8" deep x 1/4" wide and 1" long. The boots had a hole in them and I had to go and get another pair to wear for the day. These were the boots that they had issued us, I use only boots that I had purchased from there on out. ( I went to ClearField Job Corps Center, Clearfield UT, for welding school.)

mmmm welcome to the burnt foot club I was oxy/acet welding on a scupture in Oregon and the sculpture was inverted and in a vice, as I was welding the base. It was fairly blocking my vision and a piece of the brass-flux-coated rod I was working with dropped through an open part of the sculpture and guess where it landed, yep, right on the tounge of my shoe. It vaporized through the tounge and laces like the blood of one of sigourneys aliens.

It cut deep into my foot and the pain was excruciating. I had my shoe off in a second or toe as I clawed to get the burning piece of metal away all that I was pulling at was melted flesh and sock. It was a nasty 3'rd degree burn the size of a 25c piece. Took about a month to heal and left me with a nice black scar circle on my left foot.

Moral of the story, always be mindful of where your feet are when your welding over yourself.


The other close call I had was when my acet regulator lit fiire, ignited by some grinding sparks. I didn't notice it for probably a minute. It was licking a small flame out right where the regulator knob and the brass fitting is and the flame was melting the plastic cover on the guage. I got the gas shut off immediately and put out the fire. Scary because both the acet regulator was hot and the tank valve was hot. It could have been way, way worse! These days I always make sure those fittings are nice and tight.

[Mick]

Another burnt foot story. In the days before O.H.& S. the fitter in the cannery I worked at was cutting a can race overhead with the O/A. He was on a ladder but because he was reaching up so far, his overalls rode well up exposing the top of his boots. Murphy's law dictated that the great lump of slag went straight down the top of his boot, instantly melted his synthetic sock and effectively glued the whole lot to his kin. Smell was worse than oxidised tomato puree. Very nasty burn but............ the worse part was that he grabbed onto the can race as he fell from the ladder. Caught his wedding ring on a protrusion and hung there until the skin and half the meat peeled off his ring finger and he fell to the floor. Meantime the slag and melted sock was burrowing deeper into his foot. Ambulance and hospital job that one. His missus walked out o n him the day he got home from hospital. That was 34 years ago but I can still feel Ralphs pain now.

[j.w.s.]

Well, you asked for it. Some background first. I have done many things for a living, most of them odd and dangerous. I started blacksmithing at 19 and have taken a few years off here and there to do the stupider things in life. I've been a fire eater/manipulator doing over a thousand shows infront of an audience, I did stage pyrotechnics, live stunt shows and was even a full contact jouster at renaissance faires infront of crowds of thousands. I'm not a novice when it comes to putting my body on the line for other peoples enjoyment. No matter how much you train to be precise on any given activity, Murphy's Law always has a chance of being proven right. I've had horses trample me, swords break, guns misfire and last but not least, the following story. This past Halloween I was asked to do a fire manipulation show for a local event. Everything went great at first. Fireballs, torches, body transfers, sustained blows, all routine stuff. My memory has not fully recovered so I can't give details as to what happened next. I do know that someone else was involved and somehow came in contact with me. I do know that for several seconds I was on fire from the waist up. Fire went out. Very calmly I smiled, put my equipment away, said good night to a few people and went home. Jumped in a cold shower, my girlfriend who had witnessed it came running into the house wondering where I had gone. I was in great pain by that point and skin was starting to peel away from my body, but being a "man" I said that a little burn cream and perhaps a shot of whiskey and I'd be good. Wrong! An hour later I walked out to a waiting ambulance, then off to the emergency room. I was drugged, intebated, strapped to a board and airlifted out to another hospital in Philadelphia. I woke up a two weeks later when they were trying to remove my breathing tube. I was on the threshold of having a permanent tracheotomy if the swelling started in my airway again. Needless to say, everything went well. A few days later I learned how to walk again, very slowly at first and with a ring of nurses and physical therapists. After three days I was ready to walk on my own, by day five I was running on the treadmill, lifting weights and even doing card tricks with my badly burnt hand! I had to do barium swallow tests to figure out what I could eat. After two days of mashed everything, I couldn't take it any more and insisted I be re-evaluated, by nine o'clock that night I was having sushi delivered to my room in the burn ward!

To sum everything up, I had second degree burns over my right hand/arm and my face and neck. I was treated at one of the best burn centers in world. I was fortunate enough to have not needed any surgeries and I am recovering with a minimal amount of scaring, some people have even said that I look better than when I went in! I still have some issues with fire, however it will always be my beckoning mistress, three weeks ago I fired up my forge again and started working.

My girlfriend probably saved my life by calling 911 when I wasn't looking. She rarely left my side in the hospital from what I've been told and probably deserves a ring on that finger by now (any pointers on damascus rings welcomed)! Someone above was definitely watching out for me and listening to a lot of prayers.

I have trained with some of the greatest, have always done things with a professional degree of safety and yet things do go wrong. God works in mysterious ways, don't ever for a moment think you have anything figured out. Most people call them accidents or tragic events, I prefer to call them opportunities, it just depends on your outlook of the situation.

Well, you wanted a human fireball story.

-J

[Frosty]

That's a heck of a story. And yes she deserves a ring!

Try one of Jim's, Deb and I wear a pair of his wedding rings. Unique Mokume Wedding Rings, Wedding Bands, Engagement Rings by James Binnion

Frosty

[Krush]

was workng in the forge last night, only 10 x 12 feet with room for a 100lb P hammer. i had been forging some old drive shaft in to flat stock for a really heavy duty Barn door hinge. i had the coal forge ripping hot so the steel would move and i smelled a little burning but thought it was a pc. of steel that fell on the wood floor which i had picked up and then quenched. Anyway i got the steel good and hot and walked over to the powerhammer, started to draw the material out when the room got really bright (it was 9:00 at night) looked over my shoulder and "the roof, the roof was on fire" just like the song. Managed to douse the first flames with te quench bucket which bought me just enough time to run to the house and get the hose to water down the roof and walls for about an hour. had to check my pants when all was done but the building was still there this morning. Frosty i dont remember working with you before but MORON fits my description as of last night.

[canuk]

the best one i have so far in life was when my dad and i were brazing an oil line on the tractor, that had been leaking badly. by half way thru the job i needed more water to keep the engine from burning up

[tech413]

A few years ago, I was welding the drum on a cement truck at work, from the inside:(. The sleeve of my coveralls caught fire (fire resistant my ***) and I didn't notice for a bit I guess. The flame spread almost to my shoulder before I realised and put it out, it was not cool!! Plus other small leg fires and such over time, but nothing major.

Adam

[archiphile]

I was welding on this piece of dung AL boat that was in the yard to be retro'd and I was below decks, welding on the underside of the deck when the insulation on the wall caught fire, I ran for the nearest fire extinguisher and put it out and was coughing the rest of the day from the smoke inhalation that I had from putting out said fire.

Then there was the time I was welding and caught my shirt sleeve on fire. I could not feel it and a buddy of my came over and asked whats cookin doc. I looked down and saw the flame and pounded my arm somethin fierce. No burns on that one. Just some charred pride.

[bonehead11]

I had filled my 70 caddy convertible with diesel the day before and drained the tank and rebuilt the carb and was rushing to make an appointment acrooss the bay bridge in the pooring rain and bumper to bumper traffic in the dark when my caddy flooded and stalled in the fast lane approaching the bridge. I jumped out, opened the hood, I couldn't see a thing so I held my lighter 2 feet above the carb and you guessed it ,it burst into fflame,Iwas missing some eye brows
I smothered the fire with my coat,and the fire had burnt all the extra fuel, the car started and I drove off the freeway.
my buddies bought me a package of 5 flashlights.

[forgemaster]

When you get that big glob of molten anything in the laces/top of your boot/anywhere, run for the water tub and just stick your whole foot in it. Looks as funny as all get out to anyone else, but wait till it happens to them. Dont waste time trying to undo that boot just run for the water tub.
Speaking from experience here.
Phil

[Iron Falcon 72]

My glasses went flying somewhere. :confused:

Did you ever find your glasses?

[Frosty]

To keep hot bits from burning in through boot laces wither wear slip ons with your pants legs outside OR weldor's laceup tongue boots. (or whatever they're called) They have a tongue that is laced into the boot but covers the laces.

Foundry boots are another very good option.

Frosty