“Gun Death” SCUBA Tank

I’m a Licenced SCUBA diver, haven’t made bubbles in far too long, but I’ve been there and done that. One thing that always freaked me out was the tanks.

A St. Petersburg neighborhood was rocked early this morning after a SCUBA tank exploded, killing a man as he prepared to go diving.

St. Pete Fire Rescue officials said the SCUBA tank explosion inside the home literally blew the man, who was later identified as Russell Vanhorn, out of his home, killing him.

In this story they aren’t sure what happened, but I’m guessing he dropped the tank and cracked the tank-valve turning the tank into a ballistic Missile.

Say Uncle has “Rule 5” which is “Never Catch a Dropped Gun”, because you can grab a gun by the trigger causing a discharge, meanwhile most guns are drop safe, so you can drop them all day long, even with any manual safeties flipped off all day long and the gun won’t discharge. Still drop a SCUBA Tank…you can be dead as Disco.

But hey, guns are different because guns are different! And we certainly should give “Gun Death” special weight in the stats…well just because!

h/t Wallphone

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0 Responses to “Gun Death” SCUBA Tank

  1. If it’s the same incident I saw a month ago it was because it was an older steel tank that was brittle. When the tank dropped it quite literally exploded.

    These incidents are rare and it’s why tanks have to be inspected regularly. Dropping a tank is only really dangerous from the possibility of snapping off the valve stem. Then you have a rocket on your hands. At that point just stay the hell out of it’s way.

    • Weerd Beard says:

      Fuck, I have a few old steels from the 70s in my garage….probably with no pressure and a good deal of rust. Like I said, I haven’t dove in years, but I used to keep those steels around because I got them for a deal, and the extra heavy metal was awesome for the shallow work I used to do when I was getting paid to fix minor problems with people’s boats.

      I certainly don’t think I’d like to breath anything that comes out of these tanks these days.

  2. 45er says:

    Ugh, I was rescue diver certified and went all of the time. Then marriage and kids. The last time I went diving was on our one year anniversary in The Cayman Islands. Way too long ago. BTW, the tanks were always the scary part for me as well.

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