One Dead In McDonald's Air Con Explosion

[LRAC]

A faulty air conditioner has exploded at a McDonald's restaurant in India, leaving one person dead and three others injured.

The blast in the eastern city of Calcutta happened early in the morning before the fast food chain had opened.

City Police Commissioner Prasun Mukherjee said a passer-by had been killed in the incident.
"Three others were admitted to hospital in serious condition," he added.
Mr Mukherjee said that there was no evidence of sabotage, and initial investigations indicated that a faulty air conditioner had exploded.

The powerful blast ripped the front off the restaurant and smashed the windows of cars parked on the busy street outside.
"The explosion was deafening, and I saw a person lying in blood when the smoke from the explosion cleared," said a witness.
The restaurant opened in March and was the first McDonald's in Calcutta.

Any thoughts out there????

[HGS]

Hi.

I have a littel problem to belive that so powerfull explosion can come from an A/C.

hgs

[LRAC]

Hi.

I have a littel problem to belive that so powerfull explosion can come from an A/C.

hgs

Could be the old favourite Oxygen instead of Oxy free nitrogen or even a natural gas system.

[smpsmp45]

Well I am surprised to know that you could trace out the details in India in so short time.

As said above, the doubs about AC units are in everybody's mind & it seems that it has to do with the Burner & its equipemtns associated with it are the major cause.

[The Viking]

A terrorrist who don't like Bigmacs?

[DVaider]

A terrorrist who don't like Bigmacs?

+1:D:D:D I am one of theese people.

But the fact is very sad:(

[suny]

A terrorrist who don't like Bigmacs?

I am also with you Viking

Suny

[Renato RR]

This can be tru if anyone can explain how ac can explode in such mater i am listening.

RR

[Samarjit Sen]

It is very hard to believe that an A/C could this damage. Yes I have witnessed a case, where the technician after testing the system with Nitrogen had started the plant without evacuting the same and had even not opened the discharge vale. The result was that the compressor head gave away and a chip of the compressore hit the head of the helper of the mechanic who was standing to see which caused death on the spot. In this case at Kolkata there was no repair or use of Nitrogen in the system.

There must be other reasons behind this. At that time the A/C was not being repaired also.

[TXiceman]

Sounds a bit far fetched to me. What did they have in the system to test it?

I just love the way the news media immediately assign blame for explosions.

Ken

[US Iceman]

I just love the way the news media immediately assign blame for explosions.


:D

It's easier to make news than investigate and report news. And to be sure, they always get their facts correct in the rush to beat the other reporter to press.:rolleyes:

[expat]

UsIceman, you said "and to be sure". Now we know you have Irish origins!

ps, me to: county Tipperary - my Grandmother.

[frank]

Don't McDonalds use roof top air handlers with dx cooling and gas fired heating?

[chillin out]

Don't McDonalds use roof top air handlers with dx cooling and gas fired heating?
Thats what I thought as well.

They must be referring to the whole heating/cooling system as 'air conditioning'.

Chillin:):)

[US Iceman]

Hey expat,

I have not had the time to go back far enough yet in the old family tree, but I suspect you are right. There were some ministers & bishops with the same last name from Ireland and in England back to King Henry with the family name.

It would be interesting to find out if these are close.

My mom used to say I had my old mans temper, does that make me Irish too?:D

[Entropie]

Sometimes they use combined roof tops on such stores. Those units have additional gas heaters to maintain the temperature. I can only imagine that the natural gas was the cause.....

[LRAC]

This post will most likely get deleted but was Mcdonalds trying to get in on the Burger king market by experimenting with Flame grilled burgers.

[Samarjit Sen]

Generally in India, one does not require or install a central heating system. Either a Window unit would have been there or a Split Unit. But in any of such case a blast of this magnitude does not happen in AC systems. All these units are with hermitically sealed compressors. And then why and what is the reason for the compressor to explode. There are no valves such as discharge valve which could be closed and due to high pressure the compressor bursts. It has happened in many cases. But they were confined within the unit. This incidence has something else.

[Eeram]

Go to www.alder.co.za/blowup.htm (http://www.alder.co.za/blowup.htm)

Read all the stories!

[US Iceman]

Hi Eeram,

You're right that is a good article Geoff wrote. I posted a link to that not too long ago because it highlights one of the more disastrous events that can occur when someone works on refrigeration systems without full knowledge of things that can go boom.:eek:

[wineman]

cant see it being the air con sorry

[US Iceman]

cant see it being the air con sorry


That very well may be. It could be a host of things that went wrong. If you don't think a hermetic compressor can blow up, you need to read the article posted from South Africa. The pictures are the proof it can happen.:eek:

[neil]

Love this quote in one of the papers from an 'expert from the state forensic laboratory': “The pressure inside the ducts had risen, compressing the refrigerant ***** gas inside. The pressure burst the pipes and the gas spurted out, collecting mainly near the ceiling because it is lighter than air.”

Doh, there go the laws of physics

[neil]

Hopefully this from the expressindia website clears it up:

'Krishnan Sachdev, director, marketing, of Carrier India, whose machines had been installed at the McDonald’s, issued a press statement challenging the initial version of the Kolkata Police that the explosion had been triggered off by air-conditioners.
“The air conditioner units at the site were inspected in presence of the forensic department personnel and the police,” the statement said. All the eight A/C units were found to be intact and the gas pressure within them. There were also no signs of any damage/leakage of refrigerant gas from the piping. “No further query was raised by the forensic team,” the statement claimed.
“Furthermore, the refrigerant gas, R22, used in the system is non-combustible and non-inflammable,” it said, concluding that even in case of a leak, there’s no possibility of an explosion.'

An LPG leak is now suspected.

[The MG Pony]

Even then it's heavier then air! How the hell is it going to float up! erf, bad reporting or worse idiot investigators!

[US Iceman]

“The pressure inside the Ducts (http://www.refrigeration-engineer.com/forums/glossary.php?do=viewglossary&term=31) had risen, compressing the refrigerant ***** (http://www.refrigeration-engineer.com/forums/glossary.php?do=viewglossary&term=185) gas inside. The pressure burst the pipes and the gas spurted out, collecting mainly near the ceiling because it is lighter than air.”


There is a candidate for the Homer Simpson logic award.:rolleyes:

[ianybeany]

Funny how you mention this, last year in dublin, 3 guys nearly killed themselves appartly using oxygen instead of nitrogen for testing a pipe circuit. The result? The oxygen went back to the oil in the compressor and BOOM! THE WHOLE OUTDOOR UNIT EXPLODED, a lesson they will not forget in a hurry!!!!

[Youssef]

Terrible for someone to have been killed.

I agree however that an explosion simply from a 'faulty AC unit' could do this.
After doing some [google] reading it's now been reported by an indian news website that the AC was NOT to blame but poorly maintained kitchen equipment.

cities.expressindia.com
Search for story '251018'

It worries me the way the media use these broad brush stroke story-selling headlines, with obviously NO advise/input from anyone remotely technical or industry focused.
Also, the media is very quick to report these stories with the [possibly damaging] unconfirmed details, but now the REAL cause is confirmed it's just old news, no efforts to correct their reports.
Joe-public will just remember it was an AC unit.

Strange, i thought EVERYTHING in the news was 100% true! :rolleyes:

[Abe]

Strange, i thought EVERYTHING in the news was 100% true! :rolleyes:

Everything in the news is not TRUE, but as they say, theres no smoke without a fire, so not totally a fabrication.

However, they spin a yarn and make the story as exaggerated and colourful as possible to keep an audience captivated.

Moral, read between the lines. Think also about the person who writes the story, what if he or she is a young freshman straight out of journalism school lacking real life skills and experiences.

The worth of the detail is extracted from research data gleaned off search engines.

Yet, we envisage the writer to be an aged wizened learned man in flowing robes and white locks who is worthy of our attention and times.

Dont be fooled....Stories are made to entertain us, to initiate reactions.........

And before I get accused of getting all dramatic, I best pen off..........
:)

[coolments]

I would like to quote an incedent in sheffield a few years back, a condenser plant room at first floor level with lovers to outside, install engineers left the system under pressure test with oxygen, the commisioning engineer came along and turned the system on and the condenser exploded as a spark in side the compressor ignited the oxygen which he had no idea was in their. the louver aprox 8m long by 2m high blew out into the road 10m away and the compressor went straight through the roof into the floor above just missing some one, luckily it was still a site and no one was killed.

I think its some thing along these lines that has happened as oxygen compressed in a very tight space is highly volatile.

[Makanic]

Blame it on HC Gas filled AC System ?

[N.Lewis]

This also happened in stevenage bakery last year, think they used nitrogen, not oxy free, reportedly took out shop window as well as engineers head.

[cameron.e]

Here in sa there is a fake 134a going around which is flamable and comes from India ,so i would not be surprised

[PAXFREON]

This past May, A refrig tech was killed at a friendly's ice cream store in Philadelphia where I live. He was using a dry nitrogen..he started the unit without releasing the charge and the head of the compressor litterally decapatated him. This happened about 1/2 mile from United Refrigeration's Headquarters..I was @ united when this happened..Dam Shame