Has oil killed?

kidoil_2

Not what I expected but;
the incident in N.H. last winter claimed three lives.

For the ugly details on Blue Ray equipment, seven deaths, go to;
http://www.cpsc.gov./CPSCPUB/PREREL/PRHTML87/87066.html

if the link does not work, google 'deaths with blue ray furnaces'

kidoil_2

Has oil killed?

Interested in known carbon monoxide deaths with oil fired equipment. Someone mentioned to me that there were mulitple fatalities in New Enland, Maine?, this past winter with an out of adjustment water heater-anyone have info on this?

lchmb

One in NH

There was one earlier this year/late last year in Berlin NH. That case involved a boiler that had not been professionally serviced since 1999. The owner tried to save the money and did the work himself.

http://www.wcsh6.com/printfullstory.aspx?storyid=50186

Bruce M_2

Question Needs to be Refined

In almost all cases it is carbon monoxide that kills. It is not "oil" that kills but improper servicing of oil fired equipment.

Chris S

At a fire training seminar we learned about "white ghosts" which is described I think as atomized oil which did not combust. It becomes explosive like ng. The guy I was with retired from FDNY after 30 years had never seen or even heard of this. I'm a volly and had never heard of it before. The speaker- a 40 year FDNY chief had encountered it once as an explosion. That's all I can remember about it. As firemen we are used to sooted boilers puffing back & the mess that makes, so it was a new & briefly touched upon topic.
Chris

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Evil lution

Cover Your rear...?

In Googleing oil boiler deaths all could find were mechanical room fires no type of suffocation. However when googling carbonmonoxide boiler deaths, the numbers are pretty staggering. Out of the 10 stories I looked at most deaths are related to lack of maintiance or DIYS. However, most of the contractors and installers were sued for wrongful death in civil court and/or crim. neg. / manslaughter in criminal court. The contractors that lost were found guilty because they did not install a carbonmonoxide detector. Sounds like we should all do this to cover our butts.

Tom Blackwell_2

Haven't heard of any CO deaths from oil fired equipment, although surely there have been some. I believe the reason is this-an overly rich oil burner is quite odiferous, and the fumes would be noticed by the occupants. It's analagous to ammonia refrigeration, there is no problem with unnoticed leaks. A natural gas burner can be operating at over 1000ppm CO, and that portion of the flue gas that gets indoors is hardly noticeable, especially if it gradually increases over time. Service tech's can immediately identify the odor, but the average person is oblivious to it's presence.

Leo_10

I was called once

I was called once to a plugged/sooted boiler. It happened overnight and the smoke detector didn't activate but the CO did and woke them up.

Leo

kidoil

Thank you all for the responses, lchmb the unfortunate incident you cited is most probably the one I was told about, I appreciate the link.
For those of you old enough to remember Blue Ray equipment, I am told that there were two deaths associated with these applicances, both boilers, though I have never been able to confirm this.

J.C.A._3

Hey Tom.....

Get yourself to a Jim Davis class...and find out just how wrong your statement is.

An oil burner that is "over aired" OR underfired can be just as much....if not more dangerous than a "stinky" oil burner! Copious amounts of CO will STILL take far too long to offend the run of the mill CO detector, or will just plain take too long to notify the occupants.

The ONLY WAY TO KNOW...IS TO TEST!!!!! Caps MINE, and seriously....if you still believe that old wives tale, Get some help.

I ain't talkin' to hear my head roar. Chris

Tom Blackwell_2

Sorry, Cris; didn't mean to offend. You misunderstand, I am not saying that we don't need to test every installation. The days of tuning oil burners by flame characteristics left with the advent of secondary and tertiary air. I still believe the smell factor is the reason we see a lot more CO poisonings with Nat gas than oil; thats all. It's also true that there can be high levels of CO with no smell, as is common with small airplane heaters with cracks. I would love to attend one of Jim Davis's classes, by the way.

Tom R.

CO

Actually this can occur with ANY combustible, be it fuel oil, gas, wood or other boifuels. Fight back with a GOOD CO detector, common sense and competent professional service.

Unknown

Chris:

I had a scary experience with oil fog. I walked into our church on a weekday just after another member had entered and the entire inside was white oil fog. I chased everyone out and ran downstairs to throw the main switch off.

Inspection showed that a suspended furnace fed by a supply pump with a day tank had failed and the supply pump continued to feed oil till it escaped in a spray pattern and literally filled the entire upper floor with a white fog.

One spark would have done it.

J.C.A._3

Tom,

No offense taken, and I can truly understand your small airplane cockpit heater conundrum.

The guy who taught me the oil service trade, was also the owner of a Piper Archer 140. He took me for my first flight in a 4 seater in 1986 and we flew over the Louden N.H. racetrack...I picked out the landmarks,as he flew by instruments.

One of the first things I noticed was the credit card sized looking thing, with the"brown dot" on the bottom of the flight console.(old school..but that's what they had back then!)

My first question was...What is THAT for?. His answer made me teach myself about the whole CO thing...and being in the oil field....it just led to more thinking.

I found that it was almost always thought of as you first described, but NOT true.

"The neighbors will call when they see the smoke"...OR "you'll always smell when an oil burner is not functioning properly". until I started testing.

I found more truth than I wanted to know...but it still makes me curious. Chris