Boiler explosion Revere, MA

BobC

No information as to the type of boiler.

Bob


One person killed in boiler explosion in Revere home

By John R. Ellement Globe Staff February 15, 2017

One person was killed in Revere Wednesday when the boiler in the basement of a single family home exploded, according to State Fire Marshal Peter J. Ostroskey’s office.

Revere firefighters responded to the residence at 785 Revere Beach Parkway around 5 a.m., Ostroskey’s office said.

One person was killed.

Investigators from the marshal’s office along with State and Revere police and Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s office remain on the scene Wednesday morning searching for the cause.

No further information is currently available.

Gordy

Or what exactly "exploded".

BobC

Revere is an old city and there is a lot of steam heat there. One report said one of the residents went down the basement to see why the heat wasn't working.

I don't know if we will ever know what failed.

Bob

Chris_L

The Boston Globe has published the name of the person killed, and described it as an oil burner explosion.

According to the public records for this house (789 Revere Beach Parkway is the address on file) it was built in 1950 (late for steam) and is heated with forced hot water fired with oil.

Tinman

I worked tech support for 5 years, covering the entire country and Canada. I never had a problem telling someone, professional or amateur, to put down the tools if I got the slightest inkling that they didn't know what they were doing. And, it happened a lot. I never made a friend doing it but I had bigger concerns than making friends.

It's also why I'm careful about who I share with on the internet.

kcopp

http://www.wcvb.com/article/1-dead-in-boiler-explosion/8841726

Gordy

Problems days before the incident. Makes one say hmmmm. Lucky there wasn't more people killed, or hurt.

EBEBRATT-Ed

Too bad. Sad. Could have been prevented. It had been malfunctioning so they had a warning something was wrong.

Unusual for oil to do that unless a safety was bypassed. That would be my guess

Jamie Hall

The trouble with something like that is that we -- who really do care, and would like to learn -- will likely never know what actually went wrong. Too many pushes on the reset button? Low water and adding lots of cold to a dry fired, red hot boiler? Failed high temperature limit and safety valve? I don't revel in other folk's misfortunes -- but I can always learn something, if the whole tale is ever told.

Gordy

You would think the investigation would be transparent so others do not meet the same fate....

Stet

The latest information was: It was an older model Oil fired hot water boiler. The explosion itself was "NOT" fuel related. The boiler becare completely disconnected from the blast and was found on the opposite side of the basement, as was the victim.

So going back to one of Dan's lessons, "One gallon of water is equal to 1700 gallons of steam. So let's say this old boiler held 20 gallons of water. (20 x 1700 = 34,000 gallons of steam). Relief valve not working or plugged for sure. Also the high limit must not have shut the burner down. Super heated water, and enough pressure to rupture a boiler section. Instant change from water to steam.

There is your answer!

Gordy

Or dry fired, and tried to fill with water.....

BobC

About 40 years ago I went down cellar to investigate a funny smell. I went into the landlords part of the cellar and found his old 1940's Delco 5 section steam boiler with a large glowing orange spot on the back of it and the oil burner blasting away. I killed the power to the boiler and cut the steel cable on the fuel safety to make sure no fuel could reach the chamber.

This was in the summer and the boiler was firing to satisfy the hot water coil. The landlord was upset at me for not just filling the dry steam boiler with water, I was just glad to be alive.

Bob

Leonard

Agreed likely not a fuel explosion, likely too little volume of air/fuel mix.

From what shows in the one pic, Cast iron water jacket appears to be intact. Cracked on other side maybe? Would account for sheet metal being blown off. Can see mangled front? sheet metal.

Adding water to hot dry boiler might cause a crack in water jacket and jet like venting propelling boiler to other side of room.

Steamhead

@Dan Holohan wrote a story about a similar explosion, but no one was hurt in that one. Can't find it quickly..............

EBEBRATT-Ed

It would seem that to have that type of explosion the safety valve was probably plugged or rusted shut. Or

Or added water to a red hot boiler and the valve couldn't relieve that capacity of steam.

safety or relief valves are rated to relieve boiler capacity. If the boiler was nearly dry and firing and water was added the steam generated could have overloaded a properly working valve

Leonard

Odd that inspectors called it a high pressure fuel issue, doesn't make sense. Sounds like they intentionally are misleading us or maybe he put in a nossel with a very much larger GPH rating.

Sounds like he bypassed the burner electrical safety's. Relief valve could have been wired shut or capped off because it was leaking.

Almost wonder if he had closed ball valves on boiler inlet and outlet. But boiler likely had lowest burst pressure rating of the whole system, particularly if it overheated.

j a_2

How would one wire shut a relief valve.? That seems pretty difficult, aren't they trip free...like a c/b

Jamie Hall

j a said:

How would one wire shut a relief valve.? That seems pretty difficult, aren't they trip free...like a c/b

I'm not going to even speculate. However, in relation to the above -- yes they are. So, if it is dripping, the obvious thing to do is to put a cap on the outlet pipe, right? ... I've seen it done.

Leonard

wired shut...... just heard of it. On some reliefs I've seen there is an arm on top that if you lift it then it opens. I ASSUME wiring it down prevents it from opening.

Chris_L

Leonard said:

Odd that inspectors called it a high pressure fuel issue, doesn't make sense. Sounds like they intentionally are misleading us or maybe he put in a nossel with a very much larger GPH rating.

@Leonard, can you describe where you saw that the inspectors said this? All the quotes I have read says it was not fuel related. Rather that the boiler itself was over-pressurized.

I don't know enough about hot water boilers to speculate about how that might happen.

Leonard

I think it was in the video link from post #6 ( from top).

To get a good look at boiler I hit "printscreen key" on keyboard, then pasted it in MS publisher , to zoom in on it.

Strangely the link doesn't have a video anymore, just text.
Ok I found the video

"...A malfunction in the oil burner's pressurization system caused it to fail..."

Initially I thought it meant pressurized oil, but seems it can also mean pressurized water/steam. Poor sentence. Guess the public uses the words burner/boiler/furnace interchangeably.

http://www.pritzkerlaw.com/personal-injury/2017/man-dies-in-boiler-explosion-in-revere-ma/

kcopp

Unbelievable the ambulance chasers arrive before the funeral.... shameful.

Leonard

Worse, heard if lawyer is not licensed in state victim and defendant reside in , they hire a lawyer who is . Then charge a fee on top of the other lawyer's fee.

I don't know , maybe as an alternative they charge a "finder's fee" like real estate brokers.