I work in a completely different industry but these lessons are very applicable to my industry and many others. I hope people watch these, learn, and apply these lessons.
The biggest lesson I've taken away from this is that safety protocols are there because someone before you paid the ultimate price for fucking up. Never deviate from the safety plans!
@@Stopthisrightnow560 if ground loading is authorized Why would you top load? He didn't want to do the math to bottom load. He wanted to sight it full without over filling.
While in the Air Force (mid-60s) I cross trained from Survival Equipment to POL. While watching this slide show, I cannot tell you the memories this evoked. Bottom line, I worked on the flight line and in the fuel yard. I am beyond lucky to still be here some 50 odd years later. There were so many mistakes made...
somehow i was sent to an aviation unit in 'Nam. my mos was not not there. i was sent down to the flight line and was now a pol guy refueling acft. our fixed wings got av gas, 4 or 5 fuel tanks on the acft, depending on acft type, all were so very slow to refuel, no closed circuit stuff, all splash and go. you guys had a nice filling stand for the truck, concrete pad, nice pipes, everything clean, you could put the pipe deep in the tanker, but then sometimes i had to go to the navy to get fuel, a shit hole of a place, all mud or dust, and nothing against the navy either, a piece of suction hose would be handed up to me on top of the truck, i would wrestle into my tank opening and then have to lay on top of the hose to hold it inside the tank, hose was always filthy, all splash loading, then holler for the navy guy to turn off the gasoline pump and watch another 100 gals. go in the tank and spill over the top of the truck onto the ground, a big mess i did not like. no grounding cables here either. all we had was a 1200 gal. tanker and that amt. was gone in no time and then go back for more. if i had been you i would have stayed in the ALSE shop. no fun refueling in all kinds of weather and not even a damn rain coat. it got cold in Danang area especially in the rain. i hated that job and hated the unit for that matter, surely worst place i ever stopped at and i don't mean Vietnam either. no reply needed to my gibberish, thanks for your service.
@@williammorgan8786 this is incredible... amazing how bad it used to be and that lessons are still not learned from this important history. Thank you for sharing this.
@@williammorgan8786 what? That's how the Russkis did refuelling during World War Two! I'd have thought we'd have at least a moderately better system during Nam.
If you were working only with jet fuel, it's not as dangerous. Jet fuel will not ignite with a spark. Unlike gasoline. I don't know what fuel they used in aviation in the 60's.
I am a retired construction safety engineer. In my experience, employers are more concerned with money than safety. They say "Safety First" but that's a lie. When I would bring up safety violations to management the answer was usually "we've always done it this way, and we see no need to change."
Exactly right. No one follows the book. They take short cuts to get by quickly until things begin to break down and property is damaged and people die. Driving laws are not followed, maintenance is not kept and violations go uncorrected and even after fatalities they don't change the way they should but only attempt to appease the victims family.
Both employers and Employees are guilty of the "We've done it this way for years" attitude, its sometimes harder to get employees to accept new working practices, than getting the employer to agree and pay for their introduction.
I'm an event technician in Germany and in apprenticeship school we were always taught to do exactly the same like you said. If someone was like 'we've always done it this way and it works' we just say 'noooo, we are NOT gonna do it this way because it's not safe and 100% illegal, we're either gonna do it right or we are gonna cancel the job no matter what because safety is all we have'. Nobody is gonna risk such an illegal and unsafe way just to make something work. Just be creative and don't lose your job because of not carrying about safety as much as you should do. That's just essential. And btw if you'd do this in Germany and someone will find out (or even gets hurt) you'll be permanently banned for executing that job and will have to go to court, most likely paying a huge fine or even go to jail if someone gets injured.
It creates wealth for local law firms and since insurance agents are paid on commission the increase in rates due to claims gives the local agents a pay raise.
My takeaway from these incident reports is quite different: any one of these errors could allow an incident to occur, but as they stack up together the odds increase exponentially. On a similar note, not all errors can be classed the same way. Errors further up the chain of command (eg, moving the parking location without relocating the relevant safety equipment, ambivalent SWP, lack of inspection to correct these issues) create an environment where individual lapses in judgement are allowed to have tragic consequences. A lot of different errors occured here, and all those errors contribute to how badly things went, but every one of those errors constitutes a potential tragedy on their own.
seeing how ignorant the driver was to how dangerous his work procedures were, it makes you wonder how many times he did the same thing before, lucky enough to survive. it's sad to see someone die in that manner before safety issues were fixed
@@Danrul . . . thank you for clarifying this the correct way, there were no valid excuses ! Sometimes it's really astonishing how stupid behavior can sum up before there is an bad incident . . . finally - unable of counting this sadly lost life - having the necessary safety measures in place for sure wouldn't have implicated higher costs anyway . . .
@@carmenschumann826 the stupid behaviors were caused by the company. Have they had a video such as this one to show to all drivers and explain the importance of grounding..... That guy wouldn't be up there with his rayon t-shirt and Ray-Ban sunglasses and straw hat. I'm a floor layer by profession. I've never hired anyone to do work for me so I have some mechanical knowledge. I've rebuilt a couple of engines, ported a set of heads...... All kinds of stuff. I know nothing about how to load a truck with fuel but the first thing I would think about not knowing anything about that industry would be sparks. Some people grow up with mechanical smarts. Some people just go through the motions randomly. This company failed miserably to perform safety checks in safety meetings to explain what would happen if you are not properly grounded and if the truck was not properly grounded. that sort of cleaning should scare the living bejuses out of people so that they follow their instructions. Any employee sound not following those instructions should be fired immediately.
In electrical engineering, I have designed stations for 95% alcohol tanker unloading. Called a grounding indicator, it has a clamp you attach to the fuel tanker which then sends a signal to the control station, which only after it has been properly grounded, will allow the flow of alcohol to start. This guarantees that no static electricity can be discharged while unloading.
Check out the U.S. systems called Scully, used widely in the military especially the Air Force. They have an overfill protection system, that you can then add an ST-47 Groundhog. It won’t allow loading until there is a complete ground, and if during the operation that is broken it will shut down immediately. Many think it is a pain, but it keeps people alive.
In medical field we measure ground resistance, and leakgage current on all electrical devices to eliminate shock hazards, and to prevent static in areas where there are proximal O2, and anesthesia gases in use.
Watching a minute of this video and I already understand the importance of grounding when moving fuel on these trucks. Just the movement of fuel can cause the charge. I had no idea. I hope all employees watch this and learn how important grounding can be. It's something I would never be lazy about if I work there.
Tanker drivers should have a means of routinely testing continuity between the tank, nozzles and ground. It should be standard procedure to check it before pumping. It would only take a couple of seconds. And that splash-loading of gasoline is asking for trouble. Gasoline vapours in particular are highly explosive (the liquid itself doesn't burn). Some fun safety tips when you're at the gas station: touch the nozzle to a metal area of your vehicle before putting it in the filler hole so that any spark that occurs is far from gasoline vapours. Ensure that the metal nozzle is contacting the filling tube, which it does by design. And don't shuffle around in your shoes or get in the car while filling. That produces large static charges which may not dissipate quickly. Mobile phones do not cause explosions. That was a myth resulting from people who get in and out of the car while filling, often with a phone in hand.
Fuel equipment on single vehicle tanker trucks are so old and antiquated, a lot of the hardware used was made back in the 60's and 70s and the designs never changed.
I started with USCSB videos as well. For some reasion videos like this keep popping up on my feed and ai am not even out of high school. Guess J know where I will be working
Yeah I wonder what's up with their recent lack of posts... @dixie lol yup, I started there many years ago, I'm an electrical engineer designing auto assembly lines now and I look at things through a different lens than my coworkers. I think it has made our designs better and helped prevent injuries.
I am a fuel tanker driver of 15 years. When top loading like this guy you are supposed to lean the metal nozzle on the metal rim of the tank as you fill it for this reason. Back in the 80s and the 90s top loading was a common practice. Now it's very rare and most of the newer drivers are not trained how to do it properly. When I first started, I helped pump out an overturned tanker on a cold night I already had a small amount of Diesel at the bottom of the tank as I splash loaded the 87unl on top I could clearly see blue pops of static electricity in the tank, The static went away soon after and I surmised the static was due to the relative gravity between the two fuels being so different. As the small amount of Diesel turned to 87unl the static I witnessed also went away. Stay safe stay grounded ;)
I drove a tractor tanker-trailer for a major gasoline company for 25 yrs. The drivers performance was lacking from the word go! He should have NEVER been on the top side, pumping off. Big EPA violation right there! (Fumes were not contained) Plus, the static charge possibilities!!! ALWAYS pump off or gravity drop the fuel using the vapor recovery system!!!
I'm considering driving a similar fuel tanker (same as exploded one) so how dangerous would you consider these jobs if proper procedure is followed? I'm talking loading and accidents. This video has me thinking twice
There is no EPA in Canada. I have operated a smaller bulk tanker like this where our company bulk plant had a top loading rack. You are frequently loading on top of partially loaded compartments as you are making multiple smaller deliveries off a compartment as opposed to dumping the whole thing into an underground tank at a gas station. The larger terminals where you bottom load you can only load an empty compartment and have to open the internal and pail drain first. This is obviously so you don't overfill. I guess you could pump the whole thing off then reload it bottom, but this would cut into the 10-20 deliveries you had to do that day. A dip chart for each compartment would likely be the only way you could safely bottom load a partial compartment as thermal expansion would throw any calculations of dispensed product off, as well as discrepancy due to loading a partial compartment. It was not unusual to pump a few hundred litres more or less out of a compartment than your calculations state should be in it. You would never notice it gravity dropping, but you do pumping off through a meter
there is no epa requirement for controling vapor except at the refineries-states have different requirements-california is the toughest--when your pumping most do not have a vapor hookup to a tank your pumping into-i hated pumping gasoline,very very dangerous
The colder it is, the dryer the air is, the easier to induce static charge. So up here in Canada, getting out of your car during winter you automatically have a static charge. When you grab the fuel nozzle to fuel your vehicle, touch your bare hand/fingers to the stainless steel hose fitting for a three seconds to dissipate the static charge, before you even put the fuel nozzle into the vehicle filler pipe. If you are loading a vehicle and the the fuel vapor ignites, never, ever remove the nozzle. Leave the nozzle in the vehicle. Stop squeezing the lever, to stop any fuel flowing. On the fuel station, depending on the model, either press the on/off paddle with your hand, "it is at the top of the pocket where you removed the fuel nozzle. With the pump off and no fuel flowing the fire will burn the remaining oxygen in the vehicles fuel tank inside ten seconds and the fire will go out on it's own.
Hahaha you really made me laugh and embarrassed at the same time since I'm guilty as charged using a dirt cheap Chinese made DMMs at home since my boss don't let me take the Metrahits outside the Refinery that I'm working in. Maybe my boss is the Hulk Hogan/ boogie man of top end DMMs 😅
Thank You so much. I grew up in a commercial industrial construction family business. I knew about static dangers of course but I made assumptions that transfer hoses would auto ground, like plugging in our 10 gauge extension cords. I knew the company color coding that indicated the last date the grounding was check by our safety engineer (my brother). I likely day dreamed during the fuel safety, but I don’t understand how I passed the test. Anyway, great warning for up and coming workers (I’m retired).
When I was flying in light aircraft, the first step in refueling was to attach a ground wire to a lug on the aircraft. This was to ensure the aircraft was earthed. Then, and only then, was the cap on the tank opened, and the transfer hose lifted and the nozzle inserted into the filler or tank. The fueling equipment had inbuilt earthing wires, hence any static was safely discharged without any spark being possible.
I wasn't tanker driver for many years back in the 90s. When I was driving back then I was also aware of an empty trailer with vapors In the tanker only. The vapors could kill you is not the gas. Unless The trailer has to be Vented. And as I was watching the other articles in this video For comments. 1 driver said that when top loading which I did always had the nausea touch the trailer when Rim To prevent static electricity.... All all drivers who drive tankers should be very aware of this This is your life in their hands Management care less about the drivers Drivers or diamond dosen't. Dufing my years of being a truck driver I moved onto bigger and better things that paid me much, much better pay. ,because I realized that I can make way better money while becoming a mover for a great company who really cares for their drivers. I got out of the Hazmat buz because of this same reason and I didn't have to worry about being blown up or have my self killed for something as stupid as this. "If it NOT SAFE, DON'T DO IT"!!!!
If this resulted from Static? then was the bonding leads checked serviceable? Were they used? if not then I wonder how negligent people get to be in control of fuel tanker operations.
I was in south carolina getting gas and a black lady was on the opposite side of my pump getting gas. She was flapping her gums on her cell phone and I heard her give her cellphone number to the person she was talking to. After I filled my tank and pulled away I texted her telling her I was from the ATF and that she was seen using her cellphone while dispensing fuel at a public gas station and that if she ever did that again she would be arrested.
I deliver fuel in the UK and as far as I'm aware, gasoline is not pumped on any truck. Gasoline is only discharged by gravity flow through closed bulk hose. In all fuel delivery trucks I have seen there is a clear warning that gasoline must not be discharged through cargo pump. RIP to the guy in this video.
Im a security in a gatehouse, it is safe to stop those trucks to ask for name of the driver? Everytime i stop them the driver turns the truck off, is that safe? Or do they have to keep going?
And then you apply for a job or are given a task, and when you ask "what about static electricity?" the only response is "seriously? you take this job or not?". Accidents happen frequently if you look them up in Inet, but considering the universality of this job they're quite rare, and fatalities are very seldom. So, if there's just one fatality per a million activities, nobody's gonna care about it. It doesn't influence reputation severely enough and men are expandable.
Was he grounded??? Yeah soon as I read the caption I knew, also I never ever let anyone wear anything polyester on my lease in the oilfield, hoses cannot be grounded but there should of been a ground between the trucks. You would do this from wheel hub to wheel hub. An eample is when you fill a jerry can, always have that can on the ground when filling. The access is called hatch
I haul hazmat tankers. when loading unloading always attach a Grounding strap. Our customers load unload them. I haul mostly Kosher Food Grade Hazmat. Alcohols and cleaning products. Since their ISO Tank containers I get to placard them. The biggest problem with that is the product scientific name sticker some are pretty good size. And getting them placed square and wrinkle free can be a challenge. I clean the area then scribe lines for square. use spray adhesive Then peel the backing off and try to get all the wrinkles out.
@nicholas regarding EV are not dangerous...In a different respect, they do. Lithium batteries the primary energy source to power EV can be and are extremely difficult to extinguish during a fire event, for example, a breach of battery cell compartment due to an accident may result in an Immedient quick moving uncontrollable fire. Although they're safety precautions in place to minimize such an event it can happen and has, and it's worth noting, water should never be used in an attempt to extinguish an EV fire where the battery cell compartment is involved. Although static electricity for the most part isn't a Hugh factor in respect to an EV, nothing is 100% safe (not dangerous) especially when the human factor is involved. Be it fueling a tanker, transferring of ANY fuel type, petroleum base products (large or small) or simply fueling your Pov, be aware of potential hazards to minimize injury, use common sense, focus on the task at hand so as not to be distracted. For those that do pull into a filling station to fuel your gas vehicle, a good practice to follow prior to filling vehicles tank, locate the emergency shut off for gas/diesel pumps, these are clearing marked which is a large push button that's red in color to depress in an emergency to immediately shut fuel flow off. Also, locate fire extinguishers that are placed throughout the area where fuel is dispense. Lasty, prior to getting back into your vehicle, glance at fuel nozzle that it's securely returned, and hose is clear from any obstruction catching onto vehicle upon leaving station...
The thinner hose with the nozzle isn’t used like that very much. Gasoline going into underground tanks use the thicker hose that’s stored in the tubes on either side of the truck. This was careless behavior on behalf of everyone, sadly! Proper pod sites are safer than this, no proper training is the company’s fault!
I cannot believe they were not using noodles even when I used to work at the Airport when we drove the trucks up to the airplane that very first thing we had to do is hook are grounding cable from our truck to the airplane before we filled it they should have a grounding cable going from that tanker somebody to the other semi and that would have never happened
This is why I quit fuel delivery.... all the fuel delivery companies have inadequate work conditions. The hoses suposed to be marked with colors like green, red, blue or yellow. Some of those hoses were actually painted over with ather colors. Some of those hoses looked like rainbows. Most of those deliveries have to be delivered at night when the stations are closed. So you gota figure out how full the tanks are with a 10 foot stick, you have to figure out if the tank under ground is standing upside or laid sideways. How full it is in the dark with a long stick. And you got a flashlight lighting the stick next to the hole where the fumes are coming out. Then you got clowns flicking their cigarretes trying to.make it in the ground hole.so many times I thought I was going to go to jail for beating to death one of those clowns. Is it worth working for thise companies? At that time they were paying $19.00dlrs an hour.
This was asking for trouble. Why don't they use some gas like CO2 or Nitrogen when filling these tankers, for an extra level of safety? That is, before pumping fuel in, displace any air with some gas that does not support combustion, then even if there is a spark, there wont be enough oxygen (from air) to cause any issues like this. You don't even have to displace all the air to prevent combustion, but it is safer to do so.
Worked the line, then fuel manager, safety training manager, ran a FBO and then a pilot. Just a few things "not all safety related" I have seen working with JETA/Avgas. Deadman switches being tied off leading to thousands of gallons lost. Guys usually summer top loading 100ll truck getting stoned off fumes and falling off trucks, dropping in flashlights/calculators. Fuel transfers on airliners with the fuel truck valve open leading to overfilling and loss of 100s of gallons on ramp. Driving under wings. Hitting wings. Misfuelings 100ll with jet viceversa. Fueling propeller aircraft while running parked in front. "yes". Pilots taking off, immediate return and paying hush money to secretly fuel empty plane. Fuel delivery drivers paying linemen to partially dump the load and leave with it. Selling 100ll to racers off the books. A no no. Cheating on the tickets and putting 100ll in personal cars. Safety inspectors coming by a day early, going over "issues" coming back the next day "official" and writing excellent reports /grades. Fueling with lighting well within 20-25 miles often with 1 mile. Just a few but fortunately no fire injuries/deaths. Static education was stressed well trained enforced. Ones repeatedly caught were terminated. The fear of burning is a strong one stronger than a write up or losing a job.
Oh come on, since when are companies responsible for their workers? All they worried about is the bottom dollar, safety is way down the ladder and noticed how they tried to weasel out of their responsibilities by blaming it on the driver, yep, safe work practices are nonexistent when accidents are preventable
You have no idea what you are talking about. The driver was to blame for this, he was provided all the training required, he was provide and required to use all the PPE needed for the delivery, he made the decision to not follow procedures and he paid the price for it. The only thing the company is responsible for was not keeping a closer eye on him, this behavior doesn't all of a sudden happen, it becomes a habit after time. This is probably not the first time he has done this the way he did, but sadly it will be his last.
Because the filler hoses and nozzles are grounded. But other things can cause a spark. Fires at gas pumps have been caused by a driver placing the nozzle in the filler and starting the flow and then getting back in the seat. When they hear the nozzle shut off they slide across the seat to exit, reach for the filler and BOOM. The static electricity generated by sliding across the seat charged their bodies and it discharged to the grounded nozzle with a spark and fuel vaper present.
The underground tanks are grounded and so are the pumps. Retail sites have low speed pumps therefore do not generate as much static. A nozzle and pump will be of like charge. The odds become very low when not transferring at high speed and the vapors are too thick
The biggest problem seems to be most people don't understand that static can be created just by splash loading - simply filling a vessel the way we have hundreds of times before. It's just difficult to think that a liquid could produce electricity.
I watched a safety video at fuel terminal. I will never forget this statement from it. Gasoline has a designed mission. And that's to find an ignition source. It's very good at it. After all that's what it's designed to do.
I load allot of alcohol it's top loaded in a rack there's a cap comes down over the manhole product goes in one hose vapor comes out another. I've not hauled Gasoline or Diesel yet.
After working for the largest fuel carrier in the area, but on the fleet side, not as a driver, I know about how all the equipment works but didn’t run it myself so often. But outer guys would top load diesel when necessary. Really not a big deal if you make sure you’re bonded. But gassed to scare me. And the guys never too loaded it.
@@invictusbp1prop143diesel doesnt have dangerous gases like gasoline does you can unload diesel just with the favor open no hose needed but to unload gasoline thats another story you have to use the vapor hose or the cars hot exhaust will ignite the gases in the station or near by
Good video. My knee jerk reaction is it is the employee’s life is on the line so therefore they should have the the knowledge and process to do the job safely. However this shows there are some components of this system that are “hidden” and need to the validated outside of the employee’s control. I hope the employee’s dependents were fairly compensated.
This is one reason why the trades are dying. Safety ! I've read about numerous people who died while working in the trades.
. The employer didn't provide a physics specialist on site or hammer into the mind of the worker the importance of potential differences in the voltages of the truck's equipment. Heck Im a chemistry major and I have just learned From this video that gasoline can create a charge buildup from rubbing against the rubber of the tube and the metal of the nozzle. And yet they expect a layman to know all of this? Ha!
I work for this company and it is hammered into us about Using grounding and bonding. If you are caught not using it, you are written up and possibly suspended.
He would have been top loading to visually ensure the compartment was not overfilled. Quantity in a partially filled compartment is going to fluctuate with temperature. Also if the compartment has been filled several times without being completely emptied, you could easily have hundreds of litres more or less than what you have calculated on top of volume fluctuations from temperature. When you bottom load at a big terminal the compartments have to be empty. This is to ensure the compartment cannot be overfilled. you drain contents of loading pipe into a pail with compartment internal valve open to make sure the compartment is empty. You then program the rack to load less quantity than the compartment can safely hold. In a smaller bulk plant situation where you normally top load it does not have to be empty and often deliveries are to small tanks, as opposed to a gas station with large tanks where they order a quantity and that is what the truck is loaded with.
He had to meter off a volume even though there are levels inside the tank all fuel is temperature corrected. This is done all over the place unfortunately.
As a CSO I watch all sub-trades perform their tasks. I may not know how they do their job however I do know what good work practices look like. It is this sort of intuitiveness that alerts you to someone working unsafely and trying to cut corners. It's either stupid workers or stupid SWP's. This video presented some new technical information regarding safe fuel transfer that I was unaware of and that actually surprises me. I hope the 'end' of the Pandemic will bring forth a newly revived WSBC. I am certain that work will increase exponentially for the summer of 2021. Thx!
Would he have been less injured if he had been wearing the recommend PPE? I’m curious if it would have saved him or if this was going to be a fatal accident no matter the protection equipment. Seems pretty unsurvivable to me 🥺
I could see how goggles/face shield, fire retardant coveralls (which can be very effective), proper boots, gloves etc. could help protect his body. But if the flames burned his lungs and that's what killed him, then most PPE would be useless at that point. He probably never wore it much and was used to working alone and unsupervised. May he rest in peace.
It is not a requirement to recover vapours where i live in Canada during delivery or loading. I think some terminals have vapour recovery during loading, but the imperial oil terminal I loaded at did not, it just vented out the pipe at the back
We watched a video in my fire academy class about an incident that happened in Yuma AZ. In the 70's a rail tanker bleve occurred. 13 firefighters found out the hard way not to put out a tanker fire. They found half of the rail car 2 miles away, but never found the bodies. All of them were vaporized. That film is shown in every fire academy world wide. I'm surprised that didn't happen to this guy but he still died nonetheless. I would rather go quickly not suffering like him 🙏🙏🙏🙏
Not suffering? How do you figure that? That explosion was minimal. Not like an explosion that involves a large amount of fuel under pressure. The fuel was in the compartment with an open dome lid. The fire killed that man. Burning to death isn’t quite my idea of a pleasant way to go.
@@invictusbp1prop143 I was seconds away from crucifying you for your poor reading comprehension when I re-read the original comment and saw that the OP made a grammatical error. His last sentence, read exactly how he typed it, is read as him wanting to also go quickly and not suffering, like the guy involved in this incident. However, I'm pretty certain he did not mean that. He missed a comma, between "quickly", and "not". Typed out properly, it would be "I would rather go quickly, not suffering like him". That gives the sentence the meaning he was going for. So he definitely fucked up by not having the comma, but you also kinda fucked up by not interpreting his actual meaning. It took me only a few seconds to work out what he actually meant. While non-existent punctuation marks can be the difference between an English sentence being interpreted one way, or another, this sentence, unlike some in English which cannot be seen the other way without the punctuation marks, can be easily seen in the two different meanings, regardless of whether they punctuation is there or not. But this is an important lesson on why proper punctuation and grammar are important. Stay in school kids.
I used to fuel planes, and the first thing you do before you open any values is to connect the grounding clamp to a metal part of the plane. Ever fuel truck and fuel system is supposed to have one. It's a simple, mundane task, but it prevents explosions like this.
Driver should have known what could happen and not have allowed ito happen. Had he kepthe nozzle in constant contact withe tank, there would have beeno static electricity arc. So.rry that he died.
Exactly. When fueling anything from anything else (truck from pumps, aircraft from pumps, aircraft from tanker, truck from other tanker) ya have to keep the nozzle in contact with the port, outside grounding connection notwithstanding. As well, why he went out of his way for extra work by jumping on top of the truck to fuel, which as we all know, involved standing in a cloud of fuel vapour.
With governments everywhere thrusting tyranny in people's faces harder and harder each year - 2020 to 2022 has been a real eyeopener - your video is a refreshing change of tone from the horrible and strident demands of 'Comply or get shafted!' we have here in the UK. Your technique REALLY works, as everything you say is so gentle, so obviously true, and so obviously caring - without one word of threat. Looking back on my working life, there were several moments where, had circumstances been slightly different, someone could have been injured or killed. ...... I was lucky, took note, and did my best to do better from then on. Your videos are impressive - keep up the good work!
Find information and resources on workplace safety for fuel transfer and bonding and grounding here: www.worksafebc.com
I work in a completely different industry but these lessons are very applicable to my industry and many others. I hope people watch these, learn, and apply these lessons.
The biggest lesson I've taken away from this is that safety protocols are there because someone before you paid the ultimate price for fucking up.
Never deviate from the safety plans!
@@Stopthisrightnow560 if ground loading is authorized
Why would you top load? He didn't want to do the math to bottom load.
He wanted to sight it full without over filling.
i work in a medical laboratory and i will no longer be splash loading
I wonder how many times he did this exact same thing before he was killed by one spark.
I've pumped fuel over the top of the truck from one compartment into other compartments many of times over 14 years.
@@vtwinbreed top loading gasoline is plain stupid
@@vtwinbreed
I'm the president of Columbia.
well, he won't do THAT again.
@@User_92020 sick
While in the Air Force (mid-60s) I cross trained from Survival Equipment to POL. While watching this slide show, I cannot tell you the memories this evoked. Bottom line, I worked on the flight line and in the fuel yard. I am beyond lucky to still be here some 50 odd years later. There were so many mistakes made...
somehow i was sent to an aviation unit in 'Nam. my mos was not not there. i was sent down to the flight line and was now a pol guy refueling acft. our fixed wings got av gas, 4 or 5 fuel tanks on the acft, depending on acft type, all were so very slow to refuel, no closed circuit stuff, all splash and go. you guys had a nice filling stand for the truck, concrete pad, nice pipes, everything clean, you could put the pipe deep in the tanker, but then sometimes i had to go to the navy to get fuel, a shit hole of a place, all mud or dust, and nothing against the navy either, a piece of suction hose would be handed up to me on top of the truck, i would wrestle into my tank opening and then have to lay on top of the hose to hold it inside the tank, hose was always filthy, all splash loading, then holler for the navy guy to turn off the gasoline pump and watch another 100 gals. go in the tank and spill over the top of the truck onto the ground, a big mess i did not like. no grounding cables here either. all we had was a 1200 gal. tanker and that amt. was gone in no time and then go back for more. if i had been you i would have stayed in the ALSE shop. no fun refueling in all kinds of weather and not even a damn rain coat. it got cold in Danang area especially in the rain. i hated that job and hated the unit for that matter, surely worst place i ever stopped at and i don't mean Vietnam either. no reply needed to my gibberish, thanks for your service.
@@williammorgan8786 this is incredible... amazing how bad it used to be and that lessons are still not learned from this important history.
Thank you for sharing this.
@@williammorgan8786 Jesus, wow
@@williammorgan8786 what? That's how the Russkis did refuelling during World War Two!
I'd have thought we'd have at least a moderately better system during Nam.
If you were working only with jet fuel, it's not as dangerous. Jet fuel will not ignite with a spark. Unlike gasoline. I don't know what fuel they used in aviation in the 60's.
I am a retired construction safety engineer. In my experience, employers are more concerned with money than safety. They say "Safety First" but that's a lie. When I would bring up safety violations to management the answer was usually "we've always done it this way, and we see no need to change."
I've done It this way my whole life and never had a Accident... Your been lucky your whole life, Is my response.
Exactly right. No one follows the book. They take short cuts to get by quickly until things begin to break down and property is damaged and people die. Driving laws are not followed, maintenance is not kept and violations go uncorrected and even after fatalities they don't change the way they should but only attempt to appease the victims family.
Both employers and Employees are guilty of the "We've done it this way for years" attitude, its sometimes harder to get employees to accept new working practices, than getting the employer to agree and pay for their introduction.
I'm an event technician in Germany and in apprenticeship school we were always taught to do exactly the same like you said. If someone was like 'we've always done it this way and it works' we just say 'noooo, we are NOT gonna do it this way because it's not safe and 100% illegal, we're either gonna do it right or we are gonna cancel the job no matter what because safety is all we have'. Nobody is gonna risk such an illegal and unsafe way just to make something work. Just be creative and don't lose your job because of not carrying about safety as much as you should do. That's just essential. And btw if you'd do this in Germany and someone will find out (or even gets hurt) you'll be permanently banned for executing that job and will have to go to court, most likely paying a huge fine or even go to jail if someone gets injured.
It creates wealth for local law firms and since insurance agents are paid on commission the increase in rates due to claims gives the local agents a pay raise.
It's astonishing how many Errors you have to string together before you get an Incident.
My takeaway from these incident reports is quite different: any one of these errors could allow an incident to occur, but as they stack up together the odds increase exponentially. On a similar note, not all errors can be classed the same way. Errors further up the chain of command (eg, moving the parking location without relocating the relevant safety equipment, ambivalent SWP, lack of inspection to correct these issues) create an environment where individual lapses in judgement are allowed to have tragic consequences.
A lot of different errors occured here, and all those errors contribute to how badly things went, but every one of those errors constitutes a potential tragedy on their own.
Moral: If the bad thing CAN happen, take away it's chance to happen. This is risk control.
seeing how ignorant the driver was to how dangerous his work procedures were, it makes you wonder how many times he did the same thing before, lucky enough to survive. it's sad to see someone die in that manner before safety issues were fixed
@@Danrul . . . thank you for clarifying this the correct way, there were no valid excuses ! Sometimes it's really astonishing how stupid behavior can sum up before there is an bad incident . . . finally - unable of counting this sadly lost life - having the necessary safety measures in place for sure wouldn't have implicated higher costs anyway . . .
@@carmenschumann826 the stupid behaviors were caused by the company. Have they had a video such as this one to show to all drivers and explain the importance of grounding..... That guy wouldn't be up there with his rayon t-shirt and Ray-Ban sunglasses and straw hat.
I'm a floor layer by profession. I've never hired anyone to do work for me so I have some mechanical knowledge. I've rebuilt a couple of engines, ported a set of heads...... All kinds of stuff. I know nothing about how to load a truck with fuel but the first thing I would think about not knowing anything about that industry would be sparks.
Some people grow up with mechanical smarts. Some people just go through the motions randomly.
This company failed miserably to perform safety checks in safety meetings to explain what would happen if you are not properly grounded and if the truck was not properly grounded. that sort of cleaning should scare the living bejuses out of people so that they follow their instructions. Any employee sound not following those instructions should be fired immediately.
In electrical engineering, I have designed stations for 95% alcohol tanker unloading. Called a grounding indicator, it has a clamp you attach to the fuel tanker which then sends a signal to the control station, which only after it has been properly grounded, will allow the flow of alcohol to start. This guarantees that no static electricity can be discharged while unloading.
That system is in bulk fuel terminals. You must ground the vehicle before it will pump.
One driver didn't and came back to find his truck still empty.
Check out the U.S. systems called Scully, used widely in the military especially the Air Force. They have an overfill protection system, that you can then add an ST-47 Groundhog. It won’t allow loading until there is a complete ground, and if during the operation that is broken it will shut down immediately. Many think it is a pain, but it keeps people alive.
Scully plugs are the norm here and the static clamp you talk about. Without a green light the plant doesn’t initiate
In medical field we measure ground resistance, and leakgage current on all electrical devices to eliminate shock hazards, and to prevent static in areas where there are proximal O2, and anesthesia gases in use.
AKA as a scully.
Watching a minute of this video and I already understand the importance of grounding when moving fuel on these trucks. Just the movement of fuel can cause the charge. I had no idea. I hope all employees watch this and learn how important grounding can be. It's something I would never be lazy about if I work there.
Tanker drivers should have a means of routinely testing continuity between the tank, nozzles and ground. It should be standard procedure to check it before pumping. It would only take a couple of seconds. And that splash-loading of gasoline is asking for trouble. Gasoline vapours in particular are highly explosive (the liquid itself doesn't burn).
Some fun safety tips when you're at the gas station: touch the nozzle to a metal area of your vehicle before putting it in the filler hole so that any spark that occurs is far from gasoline vapours. Ensure that the metal nozzle is contacting the filling tube, which it does by design. And don't shuffle around in your shoes or get in the car while filling. That produces large static charges which may not dissipate quickly. Mobile phones do not cause explosions. That was a myth resulting from people who get in and out of the car while filling, often with a phone in hand.
They can check the system, I bet the company doesn’t know how. You’re right , very easily avoidable.
Tge myth is older than cell phones actually. I heard the myth in Georgia in the early 90s. With so many culprits.
Electric cars have none of these dangers
Fuel equipment on single vehicle tanker trucks are so old and antiquated, a lot of the hardware used was made back in the 60's and 70s and the designs never changed.
@@Nicholas-f5 no they just have lithium batteries which react violently with water vapor in the air
USCSB hasn't posted a video in months so this will do I suppose.
Ma man.
I started with USCSB videos as well. For some reasion videos like this keep popping up on my feed and ai am not even out of high school. Guess J know where I will be working
Yeah I wonder what's up with their recent lack of posts...
@dixie lol yup, I started there many years ago, I'm an electrical engineer designing auto assembly lines now and I look at things through a different lens than my coworkers. I think it has made our designs better and helped prevent injuries.
It was the USCSB that got me into these types of videos. I now watch WorkSafeBC videos and USCSB Videos
@@lgunderso2117 Trump administration cut their funding and basically gutted the agency
That poor, poor driver.
I am a fuel tanker driver of 15 years. When top loading like this guy you are supposed to lean the metal nozzle on the metal rim of the tank as you fill it for this reason. Back in the 80s and the 90s top loading was a common practice. Now it's very rare and most of the newer drivers are not trained how to do it properly. When I first started, I helped pump out an overturned tanker on a cold night I already had a small amount of Diesel at the bottom of the tank as I splash loaded the 87unl on top I could clearly see blue pops of static electricity in the tank, The static went away soon after and I surmised the static was due to the relative gravity between the two fuels being so different. As the small amount of Diesel turned to 87unl the static I witnessed also went away. Stay safe stay grounded ;)
Exactly. I top load when we're working hurricanes and I always touch the nozzle to the some part of the opening.
This is my dose of chemical and industrial safety after uscsb hasn't uploaded in months...
New one today
I was MMS/EOD, remembering all the things we were supposed to do, and didn't, makes me shudder today. It's a wonder any of us came home.
I do this exact thing for a living and we don’t have any grounding while delivering to customers such as farms.this has given me a lot to think about.
Hey captain, do you deliver gasoline, or fuel oil? I deliver heating oil, and never heard of a disaster such as this. It is an eye opening video.
I drove a tractor tanker-trailer for a major gasoline company for 25 yrs.
The drivers performance was lacking from the word go!
He should have NEVER been on the top side, pumping off.
Big EPA violation right there!
(Fumes were not contained)
Plus, the static charge possibilities!!!
ALWAYS pump off or gravity drop the fuel using the vapor recovery system!!!
I'm considering driving a similar fuel tanker (same as exploded one) so how dangerous would you consider these jobs if proper procedure is followed? I'm talking loading and accidents. This video has me thinking twice
@@hlk466 Very dangerous for low pay. Gas fumes cause cancer.
There is no EPA in Canada. I have operated a smaller bulk tanker like this where our company bulk plant had a top loading rack. You are frequently loading on top of partially loaded compartments as you are making multiple smaller deliveries off a compartment as opposed to dumping the whole thing into an underground tank at a gas station. The larger terminals where you bottom load you can only load an empty compartment and have to open the internal and pail drain first. This is obviously so you don't overfill. I guess you could pump the whole thing off then reload it bottom, but this would cut into the 10-20 deliveries you had to do that day. A dip chart for each compartment would likely be the only way you could safely bottom load a partial compartment as thermal expansion would throw any calculations of dispensed product off, as well as discrepancy due to loading a partial compartment. It was not unusual to pump a few hundred litres more or less out of a compartment than your calculations state should be in it. You would never notice it gravity dropping, but you do pumping off through a meter
This was in Canada, completely different responsible agencies. In the U.S. workplace safety is the purview of OSHA, not the EPA.
there is no epa requirement for controling vapor except at the refineries-states have different requirements-california is the toughest--when your pumping most do not have a vapor hookup to a tank your pumping into-i hated pumping gasoline,very very dangerous
I had no idea that a spark created by static electricity can be created so easily
The colder it is, the dryer the air is, the easier to induce static charge. So up here in Canada, getting out of your car during winter you automatically have a static charge. When you grab the fuel nozzle to fuel your vehicle, touch your bare hand/fingers to the stainless steel hose fitting for a three seconds to dissipate the static charge, before you even put the fuel nozzle into the vehicle filler pipe. If you are loading a vehicle and the the fuel vapor ignites, never, ever remove the nozzle. Leave the nozzle in the vehicle. Stop squeezing the lever, to stop any fuel flowing. On the fuel station, depending on the model, either press the on/off paddle with your hand, "it is at the top of the pocket where you removed the fuel nozzle. With the pump off and no fuel flowing the fire will burn the remaining oxygen in the vehicles fuel tank inside ten seconds and the fire will go out on it's own.
2:39 Canadian Tire Multimeter? C'mon guys did Hulk Horgan take your Flukes away?!
LOL! As an EE I am dissapointed, but I think even a Canadian tire meter can accurately tell you if something is in the sub ohm or gigaohm range lol.
Hahaha you really made me laugh and embarrassed at the same time since I'm guilty as charged using a dirt cheap Chinese made DMMs at home since my boss don't let me take the Metrahits outside the Refinery that I'm working in. Maybe my boss is the Hulk Hogan/ boogie man of top end DMMs 😅
Thank You so much. I grew up in a commercial industrial construction family business. I knew about static dangers of course but I made assumptions that transfer hoses would auto ground, like plugging in our 10 gauge extension cords. I knew the company color coding that indicated the last date the grounding was check by our safety engineer (my brother). I likely day dreamed during the fuel safety, but I don’t understand how I passed the test. Anyway, great warning for up and coming workers (I’m retired).
Crazy after being blown up he was still worried about turning it off.
Petrol vapour is heavier than air.Hence petrol vapour will travel along the ground.It would only need ignition to ignite.
not true--depends on many factors--temp being the biggest
That tanker truck is in remarkably-good shape for having been in an explosion and fire.
What's up with the phrase "taken to hospital" vs "was taken to the hospital" ?
When I was flying in light aircraft, the first step in refueling was to attach a ground wire to a lug on the aircraft. This was to ensure the aircraft was earthed. Then, and only then, was the cap on the tank opened, and the transfer hose lifted and the nozzle inserted into the filler or tank. The fueling equipment had inbuilt earthing wires, hence any static was safely discharged without any spark being possible.
I wasn't tanker driver for many years back in the 90s. When I was driving back then I was also aware of an empty trailer with vapors In the tanker only. The vapors could kill you is not the gas. Unless The trailer has to be Vented. And as I was watching the other articles in this video For comments. 1 driver said that when top loading which I did always had the nausea touch the trailer when Rim To prevent static electricity.... All all drivers who drive tankers should be very aware of this This is your life in their hands Management care less about the drivers Drivers or diamond dosen't. Dufing my years of being a truck driver I moved onto bigger and better things that paid me much, much better pay. ,because I realized that I can make way better money while becoming a mover for a great company who really cares for their drivers. I got out of the Hazmat buz because of this same reason and I didn't have to worry about being blown up or have my self killed for something as stupid as this. "If it NOT SAFE, DON'T DO IT"!!!!
"The sea was angry that day my friends, like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli."
Hell of a man worried about saving others as he is leaving this world!!! Apparently we lost ANOTHER real winner and family man!
I HOPE SOMEONE PAID FOR THIS!!
If this resulted from Static? then was the bonding leads checked serviceable? Were they used? if not then I wonder how negligent people get to be in control of fuel tanker operations.
I was in south carolina getting gas and a black lady was on the opposite side of my pump getting gas. She was flapping her gums on her cell phone and I heard her give her cellphone number to the person she was talking to. After I filled my tank and pulled away I texted her telling her I was from the ATF and that she was seen using her cellphone while dispensing fuel at a public gas station and that if she ever did that again she would be arrested.
Bonding and Grounding along with esd shoes would and proper labeling of hoses would have eliminated all static concerns.
I deliver fuel in the UK and as far as I'm aware, gasoline is not pumped on any truck. Gasoline is only discharged by gravity flow through closed bulk hose.
In all fuel delivery trucks I have seen there is a clear warning that gasoline must not be discharged through cargo pump.
RIP to the guy in this video.
In Canada we pump gas daily, we dont top load though.
6:50 I don't get it, doesn't the fuel stop flowing when the driver takes his hand off the nosle ?
RIP in peace 🙏
Im a security in a gatehouse, it is safe to stop those trucks to ask for name of the driver? Everytime i stop them the driver turns the truck off, is that safe? Or do they have to keep going?
Super sad. "Splash loading"??? That just sounds like disaster in and of itself.
there's another safety measure that could've been added to this and I'm surprised that it hasn't been added.
this was NOT included in my last TD Cargo coarse
And then you apply for a job or are given a task, and when you ask "what about static electricity?" the only response is "seriously? you take this job or not?". Accidents happen frequently if you look them up in Inet, but considering the universality of this job they're quite rare, and fatalities are very seldom. So, if there's just one fatality per a million activities, nobody's gonna care about it. It doesn't influence reputation severely enough and men are expandable.
You couldn't PAY ME ENOGH to work around huge tankers of farmable liquids 😬
poor guy
Was he grounded??? Yeah soon as I read the caption I knew, also I never ever let anyone wear anything polyester on my lease in the oilfield, hoses cannot be grounded but there should of been a ground between the trucks. You would do this from wheel hub to wheel hub. An eample is when you fill a jerry can, always have that can on the ground when filling. The access is called hatch
I haul hazmat tankers. when loading unloading always attach a Grounding strap. Our customers load unload them. I haul mostly Kosher Food Grade Hazmat. Alcohols and cleaning products.
Since their ISO Tank containers I get to placard them. The biggest problem with that is the product scientific name sticker some are pretty good size.
And getting them placed square and wrinkle free can be a challenge.
I clean the area then scribe lines for square. use spray adhesive
Then peel the backing off and try to get all the wrinkles out.
And why is there an option to have a shorter nozzle??
Why wasn't the truck grounded.
They said why in the audio narrative.
Save a few bucks
Back in the mid 80s a propane truck exploded on NYS hwy killing the driver and buring a mile on the thruway shoulder.
The driver wanted to orbit earth without a spaceship
Does anyone re- member when the old fuel tanker T/T's or home delivery oil trucks had the static chains that dragged on the road surface?
yup!
@nicholas regarding EV are not dangerous...In a different respect, they do. Lithium batteries the primary energy source to power EV can be and are extremely difficult to extinguish during a fire event, for example, a breach of battery cell compartment due to an accident may result in an Immedient quick moving uncontrollable fire. Although they're safety precautions in place to minimize such an event it can happen and has, and it's worth noting, water should never be used in an attempt to extinguish an EV fire where the battery cell compartment is involved. Although static electricity for the most part isn't a Hugh factor in respect to an EV, nothing is 100% safe (not dangerous) especially when the human factor is involved. Be it fueling a tanker, transferring of ANY fuel type, petroleum base products (large or small) or simply fueling your Pov, be aware of potential hazards to minimize injury, use common sense, focus on the task at hand so as not to be distracted. For those that do pull into a filling station to fuel your gas vehicle, a good practice to follow prior to filling vehicles tank, locate the emergency shut off for gas/diesel pumps, these are clearing marked which is a large push button that's red in color to depress in an emergency to immediately shut fuel flow off. Also, locate fire extinguishers that are placed throughout the area where fuel is dispense. Lasty, prior to getting back into your vehicle, glance at fuel nozzle that it's securely returned, and hose is clear from any obstruction catching onto vehicle upon leaving station...
The driver should have known better than to carry out transfers without proper earthing
The thinner hose with the nozzle isn’t used like that very much. Gasoline going into underground tanks use the thicker hose that’s stored in the tubes on either side of the truck. This was careless behavior on behalf of everyone, sadly! Proper pod sites are safer than this, no proper training is the company’s fault!
This is very unfortunate. At least he died doing what he loved
I cannot believe they were not using noodles even when I used to work at the Airport when we drove the trucks up to the airplane that very first thing we had to do is hook are grounding cable from our truck to the airplane before we filled it they should have a grounding cable going from that tanker somebody to the other semi and that would have never happened
Yikes
Very common for polluting companies not to have needed permits as they shift around to avoid regulation.
This is why I quit fuel delivery.... all the fuel delivery companies have inadequate work conditions. The hoses suposed to be marked with colors like green, red, blue or yellow. Some of those hoses were actually painted over with ather colors. Some of those hoses looked like rainbows. Most of those deliveries have to be delivered at night when the stations are closed. So you gota figure out how full the tanks are with a 10 foot stick, you have to figure out if the tank under ground is standing upside or laid sideways. How full it is in the dark with a long stick. And you got a flashlight lighting the stick next to the hole where the fumes are coming out. Then you got clowns flicking their cigarretes trying to.make it in the ground hole.so many times I thought I was going to go to jail for beating to death one of those clowns. Is it worth working for thise companies? At that time they were paying $19.00dlrs an hour.
sad
@Hello John, How are you doing?
i wasn't even aware that fuel running through hoses built up charges but i knew my clothes do so i always touch metal on my car while fueling
air running through a hose builds up a charge
Bottom loading is the only way this should have been done
Didn't ground the truck??
This was asking for trouble. Why don't they use some gas like CO2 or Nitrogen when filling these tankers, for an extra level of safety? That is, before pumping fuel in, displace any air with some gas that does not support combustion, then even if there is a spark, there wont be enough oxygen (from air) to cause any issues like this. You don't even have to displace all the air to prevent combustion, but it is safer to do so.
Would cost a few bucks
Worked the line, then fuel manager, safety training manager, ran a FBO and then a pilot. Just a few things "not all safety related" I have seen working with JETA/Avgas. Deadman switches being tied off leading to thousands of gallons lost. Guys usually summer top loading 100ll truck getting stoned off fumes and falling off trucks, dropping in flashlights/calculators. Fuel transfers on airliners with the fuel truck valve open leading to overfilling and loss of 100s of gallons on ramp. Driving under wings. Hitting wings. Misfuelings 100ll with jet viceversa.
Fueling propeller aircraft while running parked in front. "yes". Pilots taking off, immediate return and paying hush money to secretly fuel empty plane. Fuel delivery drivers paying linemen to partially dump the load and leave with it. Selling 100ll to racers off the books. A no no. Cheating on the tickets and putting 100ll in personal cars. Safety inspectors coming by a day early, going over "issues" coming back the next day "official" and writing excellent reports /grades. Fueling with lighting well within 20-25 miles often with 1 mile. Just a few but fortunately no fire injuries/deaths. Static education was stressed well trained enforced. Ones repeatedly caught were terminated. The fear of burning is a strong one stronger than a write up or losing a job.
Murphys law
Being a Hazmat Tanker Yanker for 27 years 1 thing i will not haul/unload is gasoline
this guy sounds like chills' dad
I transport fuel and always ground my truck when I top load
So scary
Due you have a portable grounding rod or do you use the customers installation?
@@kentpaterson6218 you are not allowed by law to install any kind of ground rod into the ground do to ground disturbance and buried cabling.
Give murphy's law enough opportunities and something bad will eventually happen.
Oh come on, since when are companies responsible for their workers? All they worried about is the bottom dollar, safety is way down the ladder and noticed how they tried to weasel out of their responsibilities by blaming it on the driver, yep, safe work practices are nonexistent when accidents are preventable
You have no idea what you are talking about. The driver was to blame for this, he was provided all the training required, he was provide and required to use all the PPE needed for the delivery, he made the decision to not follow procedures and he paid the price for it. The only thing the company is responsible for was not keeping a closer eye on him, this behavior doesn't all of a sudden happen, it becomes a habit after time. This is probably not the first time he has done this the way he did, but sadly it will be his last.
How come putting gas into my car doesn't cause this static charge? Does it enter the tank better?
Because the filler hoses and nozzles are grounded. But other things can cause a spark. Fires at gas pumps have been caused by a driver placing the nozzle in the filler and starting the flow and then getting back in the seat. When they hear the nozzle shut off they slide across the seat to exit, reach for the filler and BOOM. The static electricity generated by sliding across the seat charged their bodies and it discharged to the grounded nozzle with a spark and fuel vaper present.
The underground tanks are grounded and so are the pumps. Retail sites have low speed pumps therefore do not generate as much static. A nozzle and pump will be of like charge. The odds become very low when not transferring at high speed and the vapors are too thick
It also seems like proper education was missing.
i use to haul flour, i had to ground my trailer b4 unloading otherwise wouldn't allow for unload
Complacency is a bitch.
Crazy
The employer is always at fault. They don't care at the end of the day ...your dead and they keep making money
Wow, I've driven trucks for 35 years and never realized something like this was a possibility, this was a very informative video here.
Hopefully not fuel tanker trucks.
Now you'll understand why you must fill your jerry-can on the ground, and not the bed of your truck.
This info needs to be taught more. I had no idea the fuel itself brings in charge buildup under improper conditions.
@@lakecityransom I learned something new today, too.
@@lakecityransom I didn't realize this either, very informative video right here.
My plastic Jerry can also?
what difference does it make? you fuel your car with the same hose, but the car is not grounded since it is sitting on four rubber mounts.
The biggest problem seems to be most people don't understand that static can be created just by splash loading - simply filling a vessel the way we have hundreds of times before. It's just difficult to think that a liquid could produce electricity.
I watched a safety video at fuel terminal. I will never forget this statement from it. Gasoline has a designed mission. And that's to find an ignition source. It's very good at it. After all that's what it's designed to do.
Pretty good saying but it should have said gasoline vapors.
I worked with fuels for 6 years. You NEVER top fill a tank. Especially a low flashpoint fuel like gasoline.
I load allot of alcohol it's top loaded in a rack there's a cap comes down over the manhole product goes in one hose vapor comes out another. I've not hauled Gasoline or Diesel yet.
After working for the largest fuel carrier in the area, but on the fleet side, not as a driver, I know about how all the equipment works but didn’t run it myself so often. But outer guys would top load diesel when necessary. Really not a big deal if you make sure you’re bonded. But gassed to scare me. And the guys never too loaded it.
@@invictusbp1prop143diesel doesnt have dangerous gases like gasoline does you can unload diesel just with the favor open no hose needed but to unload gasoline thats another story you have to use the vapor hose or the cars hot exhaust will ignite the gases in the station or near by
There are many oil well that are loaded through the top with a 5 foot long 4 inch hose. You have to ground the truck though.
@@mcrangelvlogs9396 when unloading air is sucked into the tank so there are minimal fumes
As a truck driver considering getting into hazmat you definitely changed my mind
I was a propane delivery driver. It's alot different than gasoline or oil. Cleaner,easier to load and discharge. It's a hard job nonetheless.
I've hauled acetylene, ammonia, hydrogen, poison gas, nitroglycerin, and swinging meat but I've never hauled gasoline or propane, too dangerous.
Oh don't be a pansy. You hook up properly and no problems.
@@kcook8119 exactly 😂
@@JohnSmith-cf4gnhow is nitroglycerin any safer?
I work on a ranch and we deal with fuel all the time. Mostly diesel but all of this and other videos are good to know about.
Diesel isn’t anywhere near as scar6 as gas.
Good video. My knee jerk reaction is it is the employee’s life is on the line so therefore they should have the the knowledge and process to do the job safely. However this shows there are some components of this system that are “hidden” and need to the validated outside of the employee’s control. I hope the employee’s dependents were fairly compensated.
pays $15 an hour at best
$36hr here in So-cal
Shake hands with danger!
This is one reason why the trades are dying. Safety !
I've read about numerous people who died while working in the trades.
. The employer didn't provide a physics specialist on site or hammer into the mind of the worker the importance of potential differences in the voltages of the truck's equipment.
Heck Im a chemistry major and I have just learned From this video that gasoline can create a charge buildup from rubbing against the rubber of the tube and the metal of the nozzle.
And yet they expect a layman to know all of this? Ha!
I just learned from it that splashing gas isn't good either
You can get hydrostatic charges in water. Are you that surprised, as a chemistry major, that it can happen in other liquids?
Yeah, i have a minor in chemistry and i just learned that too 😞
I work for this company and it is hammered into us about Using grounding and bonding. If you are caught not using it, you are written up and possibly suspended.
Save a life... great info, and sad the guy didnt make it.
It is better to keep oxygen separated from fuel vapors. You can't avoid all sparks and other ignition sources all the time.
Why would he top load? Sounds so much more difficult than ground loading. And clearly more dangerous.
The grounding system wasn't installed at the new location
He would have been top loading to visually ensure the compartment was not overfilled. Quantity in a partially filled compartment is going to fluctuate with temperature. Also if the compartment has been filled several times without being completely emptied, you could easily have hundreds of litres more or less than what you have calculated on top of volume fluctuations from temperature. When you bottom load at a big terminal the compartments have to be empty. This is to ensure the compartment cannot be overfilled. you drain contents of loading pipe into a pail with compartment internal valve open to make sure the compartment is empty. You then program the rack to load less quantity than the compartment can safely hold. In a smaller bulk plant situation where you normally top load it does not have to be empty and often deliveries are to small tanks, as opposed to a gas station with large tanks where they order a quantity and that is what the truck is loaded with.
He had to meter off a volume even though there are levels inside the tank all fuel is temperature corrected. This is done all over the place unfortunately.
…And people wonder why I’m so paranoid about gasoline/fuel systems 😰
As a CSO I watch all sub-trades perform their tasks. I may not know how they do their job however I do know what good work practices look like.
It is this sort of intuitiveness that alerts you to someone working unsafely and trying to cut corners. It's either stupid workers or stupid SWP's.
This video presented some new technical information regarding safe fuel transfer that I was unaware of and that actually surprises me.
I hope the 'end' of the Pandemic will bring forth a newly revived WSBC. I am certain that work will increase exponentially for the summer of 2021. Thx!
👍🏼
Would he have been less injured if he had been wearing the recommend PPE? I’m curious if it would have saved him or if this was going to be a fatal accident no matter the protection equipment. Seems pretty unsurvivable to me 🥺
I could see how goggles/face shield, fire retardant coveralls (which can be very effective), proper boots, gloves etc. could help protect his body. But if the flames burned his lungs and that's what killed him, then most PPE would be useless at that point. He probably never wore it much and was used to working alone and unsupervised. May he rest in peace.
He was also thrown to the ground and sprayed with burning petrol...the only measure that has any real value is PREVENTION.
Former USAF POL here. One of the first things we learned in tech school was the hazard of static electricity.
Hindsight is a wonderful tool. All who handle such volatile substances should watch videos such as this one, forewarned is forearmed.
I love how matter of fact these videos are; it's like Joe Friday of Dragnet; narrating the chain of events that lead to the incident.
Just the facts, ma’am.
Bulk gasoline transfers should always have a sealed vapor recovery system connected that was the biggest issue with this accident
It is not a requirement to recover vapours where i live in Canada during delivery or loading. I think some terminals have vapour recovery during loading, but the imperial oil terminal I loaded at did not, it just vented out the pipe at the back
We watched a video in my fire academy class about an incident that happened in Yuma AZ. In the 70's a rail tanker bleve occurred. 13 firefighters found out the hard way not to put out a tanker fire. They found half of the rail car 2 miles away, but never found the bodies. All of them were vaporized. That film is shown in every fire academy world wide. I'm surprised that didn't happen to this guy but he still died nonetheless. I would rather go quickly not suffering like him 🙏🙏🙏🙏
That was in Kingman Arizona, not Yuma. You can find the video on UA-cam.
The video you talked can be found here in youtube. It is titled ”BLEVE Video from the 1970’s”
Not suffering? How do you figure that? That explosion was minimal. Not like an explosion that involves a large amount of fuel under pressure. The fuel was in the compartment with an open dome lid. The fire killed that man. Burning to death isn’t quite my idea of a pleasant way to go.
@@invictusbp1prop143 I was seconds away from crucifying you for your poor reading comprehension when I re-read the original comment and saw that the OP made a grammatical error. His last sentence, read exactly how he typed it, is read as him wanting to also go quickly and not suffering, like the guy involved in this incident. However, I'm pretty certain he did not mean that. He missed a comma, between "quickly", and "not". Typed out properly, it would be "I would rather go quickly, not suffering like him". That gives the sentence the meaning he was going for. So he definitely fucked up by not having the comma, but you also kinda fucked up by not interpreting his actual meaning. It took me only a few seconds to work out what he actually meant. While non-existent punctuation marks can be the difference between an English sentence being interpreted one way, or another, this sentence, unlike some in English which cannot be seen the other way without the punctuation marks, can be easily seen in the two different meanings, regardless of whether they punctuation is there or not. But this is an important lesson on why proper punctuation and grammar are important. Stay in school kids.
The video is here (among others): ua-cam.com/video/03kKQS8KzRs/v-deo.html
I used to fuel planes, and the first thing you do before you open any values is to connect the grounding clamp to a metal part of the plane. Ever fuel truck and fuel system is supposed to have one.
It's a simple, mundane task, but it prevents explosions like this.
Driver should have known what could happen and not have allowed ito happen. Had he kepthe nozzle in constant contact withe tank, there would have beeno static electricity arc. So.rry that he died.
Exactly. When fueling anything from anything else (truck from pumps, aircraft from pumps, aircraft from tanker, truck from other tanker) ya have to keep the nozzle in contact with the port, outside grounding connection notwithstanding. As well, why he went out of his way for extra work by jumping on top of the truck to fuel, which as we all know, involved standing in a cloud of fuel vapour.
the pump hose had no bonding wire so holding the nozzle against the tanker would do no good
When I worked at refueling operations at an airport that was the number one thing you always did very first... Connect your ground
And disconnecting it is the last thing you do.
With governments everywhere thrusting tyranny in people's faces harder and harder each year - 2020 to 2022 has been a real eyeopener - your video is a refreshing change of tone from the horrible and strident demands of 'Comply or get shafted!' we have here in the UK.
Your technique REALLY works, as everything you say is so gentle, so obviously true, and so obviously caring - without one word of threat.
Looking back on my working life, there were several moments where, had circumstances been slightly different, someone could have been injured or killed. ...... I was lucky, took note, and did my best to do better from then on.
Your videos are impressive - keep up the good work!
The company's behavior comes across as criminally negligent.