This is something that happened to me a few years back...

Thought I'd share.

Copy of mail sent to friends abroad:

I've just had the scariest closest call I have ever had during my nine years in this job... we were to cut two pipes on a plate freezer (a plate freezer is used to freeze fish into nice 20kg blocks (44 pounds), a freezer has three pipes with various valves, non return and overflow and shut off valves, that regulates the freezing and the defrost. The chief engineer onboard said he had evacuated the freezers and sucked all the ***** back to the liquidtank (liquid tank = a tank that by law is required to hold all the ***** in the plant) and that all the freezers were empty. we had alot of work to do onboard and the pipework on the freezers were kinda inbetween work, my co worker, who were "supervising" this job said we were to change a piece of the liquid and hotgas line (he really meant to say hotgas return valve line), he was welding pipes for a oilcooler, so I went to depressurize the freezer, checked all valves needed, shut of everything in the line we were to work on and sent the last 14 psi overboard through a hose, the chief engineer said he had had shut of all valves, but sometimes they have small internal leaks and 14 psi can be justified to that.
so, the pressure was gone and my co-worker crawls behind the freezer, puts the grinder to a 2 inch pipe and goes at it, I usually make a small hole first to make really really sure the pipe is empty, but he just tore at it, when he is almost through the pipe it blows apart *BOOOOOMWHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH* the grinder disc shatters, I freeze in place like a deer caught in headlights, I want to run, cause I know this is bad bad stuff, but he was behind a freezer, it took him five minutes to get there and I aint going nowhere till I know he is on his way to safety...
He crawls over the freezer (something I thought impossible) grinder spooling down in his hand... He lands on the deck and we both make a run for fresh air, ***** gas (not liquid thank god) rushing out of the 2 inch pipe at 100 psi... We run towards the exit stairs and once close to fresh air, we have a short, 5 sec max, mental check on all the valves and I burst out "Main return valve!!" (the engineer had shut off the return valve on each freezer instead of the main return one, and we were working on pipes connected to the main line), I pull out my trusty 14"... (adjustable spanner that is you dirty dirty minds ) and run back down into the factory to the main return valve... my 14 inch is to small to get the valve cap off so I run back into the workshop, pick up a pipe wrench and back to the valve, get the cap off, out comes the spanner, I spot my co-worker as he runs up the stairs to fresh air... I'm working that valve spindle as a madman and manages maybe 5 complete turns on it when my brain kicks in again... up until this time I had been in a almost total "panic" to close the valve before it was unbreathable on the factory deck... Thinking I had plenty of time as ***** is heavier than air and I thought it would take some time to fill the whole factory with gas, I start to feel my heart beating at an extreme rate, I see "stars" and then my brain kicks back in, holy crap, hypoxia! I run through the factory towards the stairs up to fresh air, when I get up, my ears are ringing for some strage reason, all sounds are muted, my co-worker tells me that he was about to go back down to get me, I give him a weak smile and tell him I'm ok. The valve is still not closed and we confer and conclude that we should go down in turns of thirty seconds each.
So my co-worker goes back down but reemerges after ten seconds (he's a smoker and probably has less lung capacity), he huffs and puffs and tell me he managed two turns on the valve. I think to my self "f*ck this, at this rate we'll never get the damn valve closed" I tell him to get ready and I take a few deep breaths before I run back down and start working on the valve... man does it take alot of turns to close it... I'm turning and turning on that damn valve trying to close it, then I notice that my toes start tingling, a few seconds later my knees are shaking and my heart is working at an even more unbelievable rate than the first time, my hearing is close to gone again, and my vision is fading doing the scooby doo scene change effect (without the music tho ) and the air or whatever it is I'm breathing starts tasting kinda sweet...

the valve is closed

I run/stagger to the ladder and pull myself up to the deck, I meet my co worker on his way down the ladder, we both enter the sweet sweet fresh air... might not have been fresh, but it's the best thing I have ever felt, My co-worker said I looked like a robot when I stumbled out the door and he was on his way down to drag my body out of there (his words, not mine )... Luckily we both escaped without harm, but it's by far the worst and scariest episode I have ever had.

Usually I am very very bent up on double checking the valves before doing any pipe work, and I have never found anything wrong... until this time where we were short on time and had (for once) a competent chief engineer).


From now on, I will trust myself and myself alone when it comes to valves



I hope you all read through this and dont do the mistake I did... dont ever trust anyone with your life like this, if you are doing work that might affect yourself if it's not properly prepared, always double check. And last but not least, it's better to lose $50.000 in ***** then to lose your life.
we have an escape kit with 30 minutes of fresh air at our workshop, but we were to stressed out to think of driving the ten minutes to our workshop to get it... guess the boyscouts hat it right when they said "be prepared"