Hood leaking gas at the Port of Houston got real sketchy real fast

I was working a shutdown job at the Port of Houston last month, inside a feed tank on a cracker unit. We were hot-tapping a new nozzle and the hood started whistling - like a high pitch that cut through everything. Turns out the fresh air line had a pinhole leak right where it connects to the helmet, so I was getting way less oxygen than I thought. I signaled my tender and got out of the hole in about 30 seconds, but my head was already pounding and I felt dizzy. The safety guy came over and we found the damage was from the line rubbing against a beam edge (stupid oversight, really). We had to stop work for three hours while they patched the line and retested everyone's air packs. Has anyone else dealt with a fresh air hose failing like that on a critical job?

2 comments

2 Comments

skylerc8626d ago

That whistling sound is honestly one of the scariest things you can hear in a confined space. I've been in industrial hygiene for about 8 years now and a pinhole leak on a fresh air line is a classic failure point that doesn't get talked about enough. Usually it's from the line rubbing against something sharp over a long shift, but sometimes it's just a manufacturing defect in the hose itself. The worst part is that you can't really tell you're losing air until you start feeling the effects, and by then you're already in trouble. We had a similar situation at a refinery in Baton Rouge where a guy's line got pinched between a valve and a pipe, and he was getting about 60% of his required air for almost 15 minutes before anyone noticed. That's why I always make sure my tender checks the airflow at the start of every hour, not just at the beginning of the shift.

simon_wood7226d ago

Wait, 60 percent of required air for a full 15 minutes? That's insane, how did that guy not end up in the hospital? I mean, a pinhole leak is bad enough when it happens fast like mine did, but 15 minutes of slowly starving yourself of air sounds like a nightmare. I never would have thought the hose could get pinched like that either, seems like something that should have a guard or a better routing plan to keep it clear. It makes me wonder how many near misses happen every day that just don't get talked about because nobody gets badly hurt.