DC explosion

[Brent Smith]

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=msgleft width="1%" rowSpan=4></TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>22734.1 (http://forums.taunton.com/tp-knots/messages?msg=22734.1) </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt>I just saw on the news here in Montreal that a dust collector exploded in a high school woodshop today.Ten students were injured and four were taken to hospital.According to the shop teacher the dust collector was well maintained and was not over full.

We keep reading about the possibility of fire and explosion from dust and dust collectors but how many of us really do everything we can to make sure our shops are safe?I'll be spending the weekend going over my shop and doing maintenance on my machines and dust collection systems after hearing this.

The news didn't say if anyone was seriously injured,or if any lives were at risk.We can only hope not.

I also hope that this doesn't cause the closing of yet another school shop.High school wood shop was where I got my introduction to woodworking and I'm sure alot of you were the same.It would be a shame if the school board were to close the woodworking shop because of this.

Thanks for listening,

Brent

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[Sam Chambers]

Thanks for the info Brent. Here are a couple of links to news stories:

http://montreal.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=qc-blast20050324
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/cpress/20050324/ca_pr_on_na/school_explosion_1

I sure hope they'll all be OK.

[Jim Becker]

I hope they identify the "actual" cause of the explosion..."Dust Collector" and "sawdust" are a bit general...particularly since the teacher apparently smelled smoke before the explosion took place.

[Brent Smith]

Jim,
The later news reports confirmed it was the dust collector that exploded.They didn't have any info yet on what caused it,but probably will by tomorrow.

[Steven Wilson]

One potential cause that we don't normally consider is the layer of dust that collects on our pipes. When I was reading up on DC hazards a year or so back I came across a couple of articles (Oregon OSHA IIRC) that discussed the secondary explosion risk of dust on pipes. What happens is the DC becomes upset and then the DC fire or explosion causes the dust on the pipes to become airborn and then ignites the cloud resulting in a secondary explosion.

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Well it is interesting to see that this has actually happened. Hopefully everyone injured will be okay! It will be interesting to see what the actual cause was, if they find it.

[Byron Trantham]

One of the kids was probably smoking and threw a butt into a saw dust pile. :mad:

[Bart Leetch]

One thing to remember is that this school shop system is quite a bit bigger than the normal home system. That doesn't mean we can become lax & not do everything we can to keep our shops safe.

[George Summers]

Quote from article:

__________________________________________________ ___________

A student who didn't give his name said he and a teacher smelled smoke before the explosion.


"Everyone was panicking," said the student.


"I looked up and I saw a plume of smoke. So we just ran out after that and everyone was pushing, screaming. You could hardly see anything there

__________________________________________________ _________

Smelling smoke and seeing a plume of smoke tells me that there was a fire before there was any explosion. Heat from fire could then have ignited any loose fine dust in the DC system which being enclosed would explode.

George