One Random Assed Life Experience..

I now understand how all those people in the Aliens movies felt when the aliens acid end up getting splash on them. I recently had the joy of this experience. It is not a very joyful one as one might suspect, in fact, I dare say the feeling of your skin melting off you is excruciatingly painful.

I was standing next to an industrial strength chemical biocide for killing organic material earlier tonight. Me and the PVC chem pipe-line were chillin all buddy buddy like when suddenly, out of no-where, it screams out "Fuck You dinosaur" and explodes. So naturally, being betrayed by a seemingly dormant plastic pipe, I was caught off guard. Thankfully, I was in full bunker gear, so the only thing exposed was my face. This sudden burst of chemical anger gave me just slightly enough notice to stand there and take it front on fullforce. I used the face-defence.

It took a second to contemplate and realize the fact that I was now covered head to toe in acid. The burning sensation begining near immediately. Leaving me with the simplest yet most difficult of choices. The safety shower was accross the building 100 ft away or I could use the exit door 10 ft to my right and chance the snow might be enough.

Choosing the faster method I burst outside and dove into the snow. Flinging the hard hat, safety glasses, and 1 leather glove off whilst still airborne.

Knowing that I couldn't scrub myself off with one hand still in an acid covered glove, I gave it another even harder crack of the wrist attempting to fling the glove to freedom. But something was wrong. The glove was becoming tighter. Then it dawned on me, my gear was begining to melt.

Knowing I would shortly be drowning myself in snow, I didn't hesitate reaching through the caustic substance to forcibly remove the remaining glove. Followed by the rest of my bunker gear. Down to regular clothes in seconds. Realizing the neckline of my tshirt was contaminated as well, I tore it off instantly, scrubbed my entire head, neck, shoulders & now hands with ice cold snow. As the intense burning began to subside, I was afforded a moment of peace.

Kneeling in the snow, watching a cloud of steam rise off my adrenaline fueled body, I looked up at the starry night sky and chuckled a little to myself. Then I remembered the line was still spewing biocide everywhere, and I had a job to do. Back into the complex I went, gearless, no tools, and half naked, running straight to the isolation valves to stop the spill.

Leaving the complex, I threw all my contaminated gear in the box of the truck, re-washed the new burning off my hands, hopped in the truck and headed back to the operations complex. Where I stayed in a shower for an hour slowly cooling the afterburn. Been lotioning it ever since.

All in all I escaped relatively unscathed, face is a little red, mild throbbing pain. I attribute my exceedingly mild injuries due to quick thinking and having a 'No panic' type of reaction to emergancies, a few more seconds of hesitation could'vt made it much worse. Oh, and biocide tastes like shit.

And thats how I celebrated my 25th birthday.

 

Glad you made it out OK...why was the safety shower 100' away from this hazard?

When the investigation is complete on the mishap, let us know the details...

I have spent the last 25 years as a Safety Engineer...

Howard

 

Well.. That was intresting, good reactions on knowing what to do and great storytelling as well.

Good to hear you made it out all right.

 

Damn...

 

Yea, definitely going to be an investigation, lord knows I've been filling out paperwork all night. In reality the shower was closer to 80' feet away I'm guesstimating. Still a fair distance. And the entire complex handles hazardous commodities, the shower is placed in the middle. Still would've been nice to have it closer.

Thx

 

damn! glad you relatively all right!! could have been worse! guess it pays to be in a place that gets lots of snow.

 

Dam glad you are OK. So there is a use for snow!

 

there is MANY uses for snow.

 

Fuck that pipe!

 

Wowsers. Glad you're ok!

 

holy shit dude, glad your ok. Remind them that this is why they should pay you more to do your job.

 

Good thing you had those safety glasses on! I see so many get lazy with those, that things like this are a good story to tell them... So they'll put the damn things on!

 

Jeebus! Good reactions saved your hide for sure. Still, must've scared the daylights out of ya.

 

Amen. I got lazy about my safety glasses until one day, while I randomly had them on because I hardly ever wore them, I opened a drum of solvent and it splashed right into my face, 80% of it right on my safety glasses. Safety glasses became my new religion.

 

How do your dinosaur short arms reach your face? I call BS on this entire story..

 

I have seen a lot of your posts, but don't know you personally. I will say that I am very glad that you fared as well as you did. Thank God for there being snow. If you had to sprint that 80 feet things could have been much worse. I had the pleasure of having a radiator cap on a car explode, spraying my face and eyes with 240 degree coolant, so I have a hint of an idea how painful it was for you. I was in a bit of a panic on my end because the explosion blinded me and I had to rely on coworkers to get me to the shower. Thank God my sight returned in a few hours. I am very glad that you came out of this better for wear. Obviously it could have been worse. Best wishes for a full recovery, and I hope that nobody else was injured in this.

 

Glad you're OK Marcel. That is one messed up way to spend a birthday. Your quick thinking probably saved your skin, literally. And I second the comment on safety glasses, eyes aren't an easy thing to replace.

 

Glad your okay man!

 

Interesting evening to say the least. Hope everything turns out OK, glad you will get to see 26!