Blacksmith killed when tractor tyre he was inflating explodes in his face

[stock]

A blacksmith has been killed after a tractor tyre he was inflating exploded in his face.
Arwyn Rees, 35, was using a high pressure hose when the tyre suddenly burst sending a loud bang 'like a bomb going off' across the small village of Pumsaint, near Carmarthen, West Wales.
His two nephews heard the explosion and went running to the village forge where they found Mr Rees unconscious.

Tragedy: Arwyn Rees was taken to hospital following the explosion at Thomas Rees & Son in Pumsaint, Carmarthenshire, but later died
After calling 999 their uncle was flown by air ambulance to hospital but he died several hours later.
The freak accident happened at Thomas Rees and Son, a firm of metal workers and welders in the village

Jan Watkins, of a nearby caravan site said: 'We all heard an almighty explosion, it sounded like a bomb going off.
'There was an aftershock and everything. We rushed outside and saw the helicopter and emergency crews.
'It was a rear tractor tyre and they can be lethal. It's an incredibly tragic accident and everyone in the village is very upset.'
Mr Rees had won awards in the All Wales Truck and Transport Show and was very popular in the tiny village.
Villager Eiry Griffiths said: 'It's such a small community and this is an incredibly tragic loss which we we are all hugely upset about.'
Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue service confirmed two fire crews were sent to the scene.
A spokesman said: 'We were called to an incident following a tyre explosion, which occurred while a man was operating machinery.
'We liaised with paramedics before the casualty was taken to hospital via air ambulance.'
Dyfed-Powys Police confirmed they had launched an investigation alongside the Health and Safety Executive.
'No other persons are involved and the scene does not present a danger to other members of the public,' the spokesman said.
'The deceased's family have been informed and trained police family liaison officers have been deployed to support them.'
Swansea's coroners officer Howard Davies added: 'I can confirm that a death has been reported but a post mortem is yet to be taking place.'


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[Nige]

It would be interesting to see the coroner's report and find out if there was any heat involved. I'm just making the obvious connection that the deceased was a blacksmith by profession and he was using a high-pressure air line to inflate a tyre. Depending on the circumstances of the incident he could well be in line for a Darwin Award. Nobody in their right mind stands in front of a tyre that they're inflating.

 

[Komatsu 150]

This really made me think. Usually you hear of tires blowing up while being aired up or some other work being done. These tires were pulled off a truck a couple of months previously. They were old but not dry rotted junk. No one was around when this happened and there wasn't too much damage to our building but could have been ugly.

 

[flemfit]

just another freak accident to put on the list of freak possibilities....such is life.

 

[RocksnRoses]

It's not so freak, flemfit, I know of a few tyre explosion incidents that have resulted in death or very serious injury.

While we don't know the circumstances of this particular incident that Stock has posted, a local lad who is a tyre fitter here, was pumping up a super single truck tyre that he had fitted to a chaser bin, when the side of it blew out. It was a secondhand tyre that the farmer had in his shed, it looked fine, but obviously there was a weakness in the wall. He was very lucky, the exploding rubber hit him and threw him backwards, while the wire in the wall tore his shirt off and raked all the skin off his chest.

Needless to say, he is very careful when fitting and pumping up tyres these days.

RnR.

 

[Hendrik]

It's not so freak, flemfit, I know of a few tyre explosion incidents that have resulted in death or very serious injury.

While we don't know the circumstances of this particular incident that Stock has posted, a local lad who is a tyre fitter here, was pumping up a super single truck tyre that he had fitted to a chaser bin, when the side of it blew out. It was a secondhand tyre that the farmer had in his shed, it looked fine, but obviously there was a weakness in the wall. He was very lucky, the exploding rubber hit him and threw him backwards, while the wire in the wall tore his shirt off and raked all the skin off his chest.

Needless to say, he is very careful when fitting and pumping up tyres these days.

RnR.

I found a flat on the duals on the back of my truck the other day and while I was trying to get at the valve stem, found that it's friend had a 6 inch split in the sidewall, straight to the nearest tyre shop, put some new steers on the front and put the old steer tyres on the back.
I think the recommended age for a tyre is 10 years.
I might invest in one of those lock on tire inflaters, hook it up and walk away.

 

[Nige]

Perceived wisdom is to NEVER stand in front of a tyre you're inflating, always stand to the side of it. The sidewalls will usually let go before the tread does.

BTW there is a difference between a tyre blow-out & an explosion. A blow-out the tyre simply lets go under the air pressure inside it for whatever reason, an explosion results from having flammable material inside the tyre, it has to be inflated with air, and it needs an ignition source (spark) inside the tyre. The resulting explosion can be up to 50 times or more of the force of a blow-out. I had the unfortunate experience of having to do a fatal accident investigation that was the result of a tyre explosion and I can assure you the results were not pretty. Amongst other things the explosion blew the windshield clean out of another vehicle that was located 200 metres away from the exploding tyre.

 

[flemfit]

Perceived wisdom is to NEVER stand in front of a tyre you're inflating, always stand to the side of it. The sidewalls will usually let go before the tread does.

BTW there is a difference between a tyre blow-out & an explosion. A blow-out the tyre simply lets go under the air pressure inside it for whatever reason, an explosion results from having flammable material inside the tyre, it has to be inflated with air, and it needs an ignition source (spark) inside the tyre. The resulting explosion can be up to 50 times or more of the force of a blow-out. I had the unfortunate experience of having to do a fatal accident investigation that was the result of a tyre explosion and I can assure you the results were not pretty. Amongst other things the explosion blew the windshield clean out of another vehicle that was located 200 metres away from the exploding tyre.

I'm amazed! Scary.....definitely revised my safety practises.

Rocks and roses....I dont class a few accidents as typical, its still a freak occurance to have an explosion on that scale.....lets just call it 'freak' otherwise OH&Swill go to town and force us to build a remote controlled, steel concete reinforced, subterranean chamber to use for all tyre work in the mistaken belief that tyre work has the common likelihood of a serious explosion!

 

[Nige]

There was a reason WHY the tyre in my post above exploded, if you get my drift. I don't really want to go into the details here but suffice it to say that if you make sure a tyre is clean inside (i.e no leftover packaging materials, bits of wood, nails, etc or similar left in it) before you mount it, and you inflate it with dry air you'll never see a tyre explosion. Nitrogen as the inflation gas would be even better, WET air is a big NO-NO.

Ask yourself why ALL electrical equipment at lumber mills is built to higher standards of isolation ..? To prevent sawdust getting into the switches/contactors, etc. A combination of sawdust & a spark and you have yourself a good big bang. Think about combining that with the hot air inside a tyre.