2 Fires in 3 days
Sooo… I don’t know where to begin. Maybe with I am traumatized and having a hard time returning to the trap. I am owner and currently “the” operator, I am self taught & In 6 years of doing this I have never had work place fire. Ive had lots of employees and I have had accidents but nothing I couldn’t explain. Below I will leave a photo of my current system, to better help you understand what im working with. You will forsure notice things. Go ahead point them out, im open to criticism. Its probably best aswell for others to learn from this too. Id also like to open up and share sometime in the last year I lost my business to a wild fire that took out 200+ structures. Least to say… Finically Im fucked and doing the best with what I was abled to round up. Im so grateful to even be abled to tack a system together and continue my passion. I have been juggling debt trying to get back on my feet. This being said I am going to swallow my pride and be open with the community here in hopes to find sanity and hopefully prevent someone else from going through what I just went threw a couple weeks ago.
1st day. Just a normal day just like any other. Nothing new, nothing had changed. What I was about to experience caught me offgaurd I swear my subconscious had me screaming out loud 4 times, fire fire fire holy fuck fire before I relised. Holy fuck my slab caught on fire
Lab was 13Celius and 26% RH my spout was clogged. The slab I sprayed was going on about 5 minutes, normally it takes 1 minute to spray a slab. Wasn’t a whole lot coming out. I really don’t see the static friction build up being a cause unlike the next day. Soo I think this voids the static friction charge up from the spout to the aluminum pan that hold my parchment boat. Pressure in R2D2 I cant remember exactly but I believe 20-30psi because I charged it with N2 due to my impatience. For the record, I have sprayed thousands of slabs with great pressure behind it. Not saying its ok but I have never had a issue. Again the yield dribbled out of the spout. I just want to mention again 2 fires over 3 days in a span of 6 years. Im doing nothing new.
2nd day I sprayed over 40 slabs this day. Was a normal day other than my anxiety in the early part of my shift which I got over quick.
3rd day. 16Celius 30%RH and me pretty much back to normal, but super cautious and living life now expecting it to happen again. Ran my 1st batch sprayed 5/6 slabs with no problem. The last slab being said… Fire! No clog. Full stream out of the spout. Psi in R2D2 If I had to guess 5-10psi as the last bit of extract exited the system I reach down to turn off the valve and the vapour inside rushed out as the liquid exited. WOOOF! Bye eye brows, eye lashes and hello melted plastic clothing. FML
Again I handled it calmly and had the fire out in seconds. Lost another 300g. I was pissed off more than anything because it happened again but was also relieved. Now I know something was causing the fire and it wasn’t just a fluke and I don’t have to live the next 6 years waiting for another freak accident to catch me offgaurd
I was actually going to continue running, that is how calm I was in the moment. it wasn’t until I got home again reality set in.
Now I will share…. For 4 months I have been operating in the conditions of my new place. Humidity in which I didn’t realise was the danger zone. My lab every day <38% generally 30% Average 16Celius average. Everything in my system is bonded and grounded. Im no electrician but my electrician is more than certified, he is overly qualified and I have had him back to go over everything. We grounded the hot water tank that cycles my system. Hot water tank is heated by a boiler waaaay far away up above from my work space. Yes the hot water tank is next to my system I don’t see this as a concern though beside the pumps that cycle the water which are 7 ft above the ground. It is what it is. I will be isolating the system from everything shortly. Money has been more than tight.
I am going to share this and I know it will get a lot of flak but I have been told there is no moving electrical components so the scale I used to weigh my slabs couldn’t have started the fire. I have had several people tell me it was not the cause. Honestly personaly I don’t know. But I have been using this same scale for 2 years to do this exact job and well… 2 fires in 3 days did it cause it I don’t know. This scale was purchased again 4 months ago as I lost my old one in the forest fire.
Scale sits on the concrete floor. A glass pyrex ontop of it and a aluminum tray ontop holding the parchment boat.
Did a charge potentially build up and arc from the aluminum tray to R2D2s legs and light the slabs or as I mentioned on day 1 there wasn’t any static friction build up. Leaving me feeling hopeless… Idk…
But I did bond/ground the scale day 2 and well day 3 it still lit up in flames.
Honestly I don’t know, but everyone telling me it’s the humidity. I am not convinced. I returned today and well… I cleaned inside my system, cycled everything etc etc. I was supposed to continue and run more biomass… instead I went home shaking. im shaking right now. I am traumatized. What I never feared now scares me and I don’t know how too go back in there and continue in confidence. Im so scared at this current moment and I have no choice but to continue because of debt. Im hoping making this post can help find a solution to my unknowns and ultimately prevent someone else from going through this same experience or even worse lose there life.
On the last note I got the humidity up to 45-47% today. Im really looking forward to it keeping the dust down lol. Working inside a retired grow op sucks
Have you done continuity testing on each step of your system to ensure yourself everything is grounded? Something caused ignition. I can’t see anything down by your pour spout that could be causing it. Last thing would be grounding yourself any time you are working in there. Any other electrical we can’t see in you picture. I see your outlet there, not ideal, did you plug in or unplug anything?
Yes we did continuity testing on everything the other day after the 2nd fire. Nothing stood out. Im on the phone with my electrician friend right now.
The electrical plug on the wall was set up to a thermal probe but disconnected along time ago and never actually used it. I had crazy plans for it but now im deffinetly not going through with it
Were wondering now if static build up came from the pex water lines.
Plastic clothing? Whats up with that?
Also, Static electricity occurs when there is an imbalance of electric charge on the surface of objects. When the fire started, was the flame first visible on the pyrex dish or on the pour spout?
Apparently my pants are 98% cotton and 2% latex
My long sleeve shirt is 100% polyester.
Whats up with that is i never took this serious enough. I never really thought it mattered that much. I got away with it far to long and felt my clothes would never start a fire.
When the fire started? The first time i noticed it on the slab above everything it sat on.
The 2nd time i noticed it from the spout.
All in all i shouldnt be saying that because it happened so fast i dont know where it came from. It happened in such a small contained area so quickly. I feel im convincing myself at this point where i think it started and i have been thinking about this question alot
I dont know
Agreed on the dust. I think the dust now will stay away with the humidity increase. Its so bad in there. Everyday when i come in i clean the table i work off. I literally can wipe streaks on it. My building is surrounded by soft mud and its that time of the year where the grounds wet. It track into the building. I hate it… drives me crazy. I clean and sweep everyday. It sticks to the outdoor shoes. Still makes its way in the building. Drys on the floor and goes airborn. On my to buy list on high priority was “explosion proof” fan so i could filter the air in the room.
Yeah bro, definitely don’t wear that and yeah man take some time to really clean that up. Im sure that will help. Also uline has a fire retardant coveralls for like $70, should get one. And just for good luck, touch your walls before pouring as that can help with grounding you. Stay safe and alert man. Best of luck to you.
Glad your here!
As for humidity your air is friggin dry
Try to up that to the >30% range
What’s the best way to get that done actually in grows we would hang some wet beach towels and lay some on the floor
Also very curious as to how the fire developed once ignited
Did it yust flare of at the sprout ?
Did the slab on fire yust flamed off till all butane was depleted ?
Did you use an extinguisher ? If so what type ? Powder / foam /else ?
Anti-static mats look like an option for your set-up. That plastic vent ought to be replaced with metal. Replacing your wrench with a brass one just in case. You say that outlet is not functioning but the wires above don’t work for me. You have some good ideas incorporated in your set-up, stay thoughtful and focused you are already brave to continue.
Treu
at the same time not beeing ashamed and talking about it is the right mindset
In my opinion
Your good at this you will be even beter now with the lessons learned
Don t let fear stand in your way of your passion and be happy you got some for otherwise you where a fool
Do you not already have an explosion proof fan removing the vapors from the room? if not that should be your first purchase. get those flammable vapors out of the booth!!
@Roguelab it basically flared up in my face both times. First time i tried running outside with the slab but R2D2 turned into a flame thrower so i reached within and turned off the valve. Than grab the extinguisher and put it out.
2nd time it flared up i screamed fuck at it and turned off the valve grabbed the last extiguisher i used. It was dead luckily i had 3 more beside it. Grabbed the next 1 fought 2 safety pins on it. Within 10 seconds of the whole ordeal i had it out. For future to anyone new i highly suggest keeping your pins out based on my experience. Id rather knock one over and spray baking soda everywhere.
Not sure what kind of extinguishers i got. Im laying in bed rn will udpate later. I have a ton of them kicking around. I got 10 filled 2 weeks ago and im getting them all back today. They are red and taste like baking soda
Random question and its a long shot. Have you had any work done on your air conditioner recently? ive seen a couple times in my A/C days where a wire on the control board is grounded out on the unit and instead of tripping a breaker or popping the fuse it actually provided low voltage to the ducts
@thesk8nmidget yes i have an explosion proof fan up in the attict so i dont have to hear it blowing outside. Its attached to that orange pvc duct.
Id like to pick up 2 more and circulate the dusty air in the room using a filter. Again everything has been a upgrading progress. Im so luckily to even be running again. I started out spraying slabs on carboard on the floor in the first week before i could afford a bun rack. its been me juggling my needs/wants/debts this last 4-5 months
The ducts were deactivated before the fires
I had my explosion proof exhaust passively pulling air in the room through the dead airhandler because the airhandler over powered my exhuast resulting in a postive room. My door kept pusning open.
The air handler is now on. It sucks from the other room and difuses positive airflow across 1 side of the room sweeping the floor. My rooms still postive im getting another exhaust fan in a quick second
Also prior to the fire that orange exhuast duct layed on the floor behind the system. I now have it beside R2D2.
Yesterday it sucked up a boat i need to move it over a bit farther. Thing sucks
