My Accident

[Gunzway]

Well, where to start…

 

In a nutshell, what essentially happened is having about 1lb of meal covered ‘grass seed’ going off in my hands. So obviously my hands are not great and well, I’m typing with only one (but the other one is still there, don’t worry, it’s just bandaged like crazy). I also suffered burns to my arms, legs and face.

 

Before we all conclude Gunzway must be a fucking idiot to have this happen to him and he deserves whatever he got, just let me explain how misfortunate I am for this to happen to me. I am not going say I’m totally not at fault, because I am at fault and I made a few stupid mistakes that led me to having this accident. BUT such mistakes and unwise decisions can and as you can see, lead to harsh consequences.

 

Basically it was a little chemistry day with a friend and we were doing various sensible chemical reactions. I’m sixteen just for your information, but we weren’t being idiots and both of us are responsible people believe it or not. Reactions such as adding Al powder to a solution of copper chloride in a beaker and then I would explain it to my friend and make him write out the equation and balance it. So yes, I guess we are nerds.

 

Time progressed and we got into more the pyrotechnic side of things. I previously had made a Ti fountain and such etc. I decided to start testing my various pyrotechnic compositions that I had been storing. Things like colored stars etc. Well… the meal covered grass seed seemed interesting and so we decided to take that out. There was about 1lb of it left because I didn’t end up using it all from new years. It was in one of those plastic Chinese take away containers, the container was damaged (small crack of missing plastic at the top).

 

We ended up changing the place where we would test the compositions because we were making too much smoke/mess on that side of the property. We ended up finding an area but the place we would burn the compositions was above the ground at around the level of our waists (it was on a stack of bricks). First mistake.

 

I was unable to locate a spoon but it seemed fine just to pour a little onto the bricks and put the container a few meters back with the lid on. Another mistake.

 

Well, I ignited the small amount of meal coated grass seed and all went well. I walk back a few meters and retrieve the container. I commence walking past the bricks when the tiniest ember (like one of those TT embers) slips into the damaged part of my container (the lid was closed) and ignites the entire thing in my hands.

 

Wow… intense light that’s all I can say. The first thing I do is run over to my friend to see if he’s ok. He seems alright and we run into the house where it seems all my family is panicking. I apparently walked into the house with my shirt on fire without me even realizing.

 

 

Although not so comical, I had that stereotypical thing going like when you see a cartoon character that has just ‘blown himself up’. My hair all sticking up, the black soot on my face etc. Well, I’m obviously burned badly and I jump into a cold shower and then get wrapped up into wet towels and get driven to hospital. Stayed overnight, had a lot of morphine.

 

I am apparently lucky to be alive. If I had my mouth open when it went off there was a large chance of me dying. I am lucky that I sustained no real damage to my face, it has been peeling and it’s been red but nothing serious. Out of most, I am thankful my friend is all right.

 

Who knows what permanent damage I have sustained. My legs are not looking good right now and some people have even mentioned plastic surgery. Arms are looking terrible too and my left hand as well. I am just happy I am still alive and my friend isn’t hurt. Good thing I was also wearing a garment predominately made of cotton.

 

It was a freak accident. I know there is an accident thread but I believe this is a good reminder that accidents do happen and how little things make all the difference. So I would like to keep it separate and considering it is a bit more serious than other accidents. As well, a reminder to all to NEVER BE TOO COMFORTABLE AROUND BLACK POWDER.

 

I have some images, they look like nothing but I’ll take some more today and show you the real damage. Feel free to ask questions and comment. My story is missing details and may not make all too sense. It was quite difficult to type this all up with one hand and I’m still on pain medication.

 

Stay safe.

 

 

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb95/Gunzway/IMG_0836.jpg

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb95/Gunzway/IMG_0831.jpg

[NightHawkInLight]

Ow! To say the least. What's up with your legs? It doesn't look like a burn, more like bruising from swelling?

 

I suppose the main lesson here is to never have the mass of your powder near your test area, even in a closed container. Glad to hear you're mostly alright, at least well enough to type. Sounds like you were fortunate enough to have your adrenaline take care of the initial pain, still, I do not envy the experience.

 

Best wishes on a speedy recovery.

[Gunzway]

Yeah, I don't get what's happening with my legs. People are actually worried about what's going to happen with them. All I know is that the hospital didn't think much through. I've had a few problems regarding their methods and general 'over-kill'.

 

When I try to remove bandages off (these ones act as like skin, they are like stuck on like band-aids) off areas that weren't burned that bad I'm having problems with the skin peeling off as well. They told me to use oil to help get them off but that does nothing. I'll find out more on Monday.

 

If you want to see what my left-hand looked like the day before when the nurse re-did the bandaging, click the link below. But I do warn you, IT IS NOT PLEASANT. I wouldn't click it if you have a 'weak' stomach.

 

http://s206.photobucket.com/albums/bb95/Gunzway/IMG_0844.jpg

 

It's not as bad as it looks. The previous image depicts my hand being much better so you can kind of figure that out yourself. The hospital just had my hand bandaged like a 'claw' and it was saturated. So my hand was very water logged at the time. The whole darkening of the skin (brown, black patches) is due to the special pads they are putting on the wounds (contains silver).

 

So really the look of it does not correspond with the actual severity. Just the hospital realizing wrapping my hand in glad wrap and keeping it that wet was not a good idea and silver pads making my skin look dead. But hey, I might just get that zombie part I have always wanted .

[Xtreme Pyro]

OUCH! That just goes to show that even the most simple compositions (like blackpowder) can have nasty outcomes. Glad to see you're alright though. Did law enforcement get involved when you explained what happened at the hospital? I hope things go alright for you.

 

EDIT: Yikes that's a nasty burn you got there on your left hand, I bet that didn't feel very good eh?

Edited April 30, 2010 by Xtreme Pyro

[Gunzway]

Strangely no-one has been involved. I told the truth, there's no real bluffing to say it was anything else at hospital. At school the tragic story of my friend and I being involved in a BBQ accident seems to work just fine. My chemistry teacher took one look at my friend's hand and knew it wasn't what he claimed it to be. But he said he won't be saying anything.

 

But that's to say, I'm not out of the woods yet.

[pyrochris732]

very sorry this happened to you.. glad it wasnt worse. Correct me if im wrong but isnt jumping in the shower a no no for a burn?

[Arthur]

Cooling the wound is a good thing and it minimises the depth of the damage, so a cool shower in this case would be a good thing as the area was probably too large for simply holding under a tap. (I'm a UK ambulance driver, just requalified (which we do regularly!)).

 

Gunzaway I wish you a recovery, it will not be speedy, and it will be painful. I hope you can make peace with your parents, who are probably as scared as you are at the moment.

[50AE]

I am very sorry Gunzway. I hope you recover fast! Many thanks for sharing this accident, it will be a lesson to us all.

 

No pyrotechnic composition should be underestimated. Some people think "because it's BP and not flash, I can play with it the way I want". Wrong!

Every pyrotechnic composition burns at extremely high temperatures and you don't want your body parts near it.

I'm very nervous when I store large batches of BP in the container. Sometimes I imagine what could happen if it accidently ignites. (An idiot throws his cigarette, for example).

I'm not saying you've been "playing" with your hulls, but it seems you have trusted the container and ignored the tiny chance of the entering of a burning residue in the container.

[mike_au]

Ow! That looks fairly nasty.

 

Before we all conclude Gunzway must be a fucking idiot to have this happen to him and he deserves whatever he got

I doubt anyone is thinking that, I suspect that people who have never had an accident are in the minority, and some of the accidents (mine included) were from far stupider things. It sounds like you were just unlucky in that your accident happened with larger quantities.

 

I hope you recover soon!

 

( Apparently I sound like a d*ck when I am trying to be positive, so I hope I don't offend you when I say - ) On the upside, you will no doubt end up safer as a result of this. Nothing makes you stop and think about possible dangers as much as that nagging memory of the first second or two after you get burnt.

[50AE]

I'm maybe one of those who have never had accidents with pyrotechnic mixtures (knocking on wood).

My most serious accident happened from stupidness, while handling flammable liquids. I once threw a 20mL filled cup of acetone into a crucible. Lesson learned - slightly burned hair and eyebrows.

[Gunzway]

Thanks for your wishes guys.

 

Yes, it serves as a good reminder to all. It was one of those moments when you just get careless and well, I paid the price. I know for one I get a bit more reckless when I have a friend over and become impatient. I'm sure we have all suffered the experience of testing something infront of some people and the fuse fails or something and we get a bit reckless and we do potentially dangerous things to resolve the situation.

 

It's been over two years since I have started this hobby and this is another thing I want to point out. You get too relaxed naturally because it comes off as common practice. Stay safe guys.

[jwitt]

Yikes, that looks unpleasant.

 

I've had near-accidents with huge disc sander machines, painful ones with drill presses, and almost blew myself up with natural gas. This is a good reminder for me since I'm going to start making pounds of BP next weekend. I wish you a speedy recovery, and hopefully it won't take too long so you can get back to pyrotechnics.

Edited April 30, 2010 by jwitt

[Seymour]

Is it really bad luck that this happened to you?

 

Or should I think it's good luck because you are alive?

 

I really hope that you recover, perhaps speedily, but more importantly, thoroughly and with as little discomfort possible!

 

It's a good sign that you are typing, and I'm sure I can look forward to more pyro chats in the future!

 

Get well mate.

[FREAKYDUTCHMEN]

First of all, I hope you recover well.

 

But you said

I’m sixteen just for your information, but we weren’t being idiots and both of us are responsible people believe it or not.

 

If you are ten or twenty years older, you'll think different about that

[TheEskimo]

Damn those burns look nasty. I am so glad that I have only had one injury-my hand. Good luck on the recovery, and hopefully authorities don't get involved. I also hope that your parents don't freak out too much.

[Gunzway]

First of all, I hope you recover well.

 

But you said

I’m sixteen just for your information, but we weren’t being idiots and both of us are responsible people believe it or not.

 

If you are ten or twenty years older, you'll think different about that

 

Hah, you're probably right. Main point I was trying to get out is that we weren't doing stupid stuff like you see every sixteen year old on Youtube doing and we're reasonably wiser than that.

 

Thank you for your wishes, I am making a good recovery and due to my age I should have a full recovery with hopefully none or very subtle marks from the accident. Thank god my modeling dream is not down the toilet just yet!

 

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb95/Gunzway/IMG_0848.jpg

Hand is looking better. The darker regions of my hand are not caused from the burn, but the silver pads that rest on the damaged tissue; they stain my skin for a while.

 

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb95/Gunzway/IMG_0849.jpg

I'm suffering a lot of this. Basically with the removal of the bandages it sometimes ends up taking some skin off. I have this happen with my left leg a lot, so half of it is still wrapped up. I SHOULD have it off by Monday.

 

I will report in with more grotesque photographs for your entertainment and hopefully eventually pictures of it back to normal.

 

Stay safe.

[ausfire]

Gunzway,

 

The fact that this happen to you, someone who i know to be one of the more cautious pyro's is proof that these accidents do happen and are a real part of this hobby. You know just as well as i do that there are other Aussies out there with half the brains just waiting for something many times worse then this to happen to them. It kind of annoys me knowing that this accident happened to you and not someone who really needed to learn some lessons in safety.

 

I have had similar incidents too this but i was just fortunate enough that the container was at my feet and contained probobly a 1/4 of whats yours did, i was lucky and only received a bit of burnt hair. Anyway considering the circumstances i would say you where lucky that you only received a few burns, and i hope you make a full and speedy recovery.

 

Also those stains look very similar to the stains you get when you spill silver nitrate solution all over your hand

[Gunzway]

I promised I would post pictures of my recovery, I've been slack with that as after a few weeks it was virtually back to normal. Anyway, here's some pictures I took the other day. Marks left from the ordeal are minimal and will surely be even less visible in another month or so.

 

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb95/Gunzway/IMG_0790.jpg

 

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb95/Gunzway/IMG_0789.jpg

 

You couldn't even tell I had something happen to me, eh? It's the areas are less pink when my hands are warm (although they're not very anyway). When it's cold the pinkness becomes more obvious but it was fairly cold when I took that photo. The slight pinkness will be there for a little while, I have some minor colouration on my last two left fingers as well. But from experience, it'll just take a little more time till that is gone.

 

My legs seemed to be the slowest to recover. I had weird flash burns that I wasn't exactly sure what would happen with them, but in the end they ended up flaking and new skin came. Also along with the hospital ripping off my bandages brutally and ripped all my skin with it, it took a little while longer to heal but the burns were of less severity.

I didn't bother taking a photo of my legs as there's nothing really to show. The area where I got burned on my legs is more pale than the rest of my skin, but I'll wait till summer to fix that problem. But there's no scars, my skin feels normal and everything like that. I had my arms burned as well and they all pealed but that's all better.

 

At the hospital my skin was called weird and miraculous. Many people came to take a look at my progress as they found it quite unbelievable. At first, the surgeon was talking about skin grafts and how I'll almost definitely need to do something so my apparent 'scars' will be less obvious. Till when he didn't even come to look at me for a check-up probably due to the fact he would be embarrassed. I've got really good skin, so don't think the case will be the same with you as even the doctors there was pretty much shocked at how well and fast my skin recovered.

 

The authorities weren't involved. I had a lot of bullshit happening with a fire intervention program and apparently I was to have someone come over to talk to me about the dangers of fire. That never happened, so I had no legal issues or troubles with the authority.

 

I cannot stress enough to NEVER EVER take composition outside when you're testing something. Even if it's stars, a sealed container or a device nearby. It's actually unbelievable how many times this accident occurs. I've been reading through past accident threads in some archives and it's happened so many times. Even when it does happen/a close call people still continue to do this. Even if you have the container 10m just because you honestly can't be stuffed walking from the workshop to the test area again, it's just not worth it.

 

It only takes one lapse of thought and you can be in a world of trouble. Remember, the purpose of sharing these accidents isn't to get some attention; but to learn from them. I honestly would rather not sharing this accident as it's a stupid one and I feel embarassed about it. Although, undoubtably I'm sure many people have done the same. It only takes one thing to go wrong, one very misfortunate thing to happen.

I learned the hard way, I hope through this I can reach out the people and they can learn the lesson without needing to get hurt.

 

But all is well and I'm back into the hobby, you simply can't leave it.

Edited June 12, 2010 by Gunzway

[Pretty green flame]

Nice recovery man.

[bikemaster]

Two year ago a go the same type of burn as you, but just on the back of my finger (was stiring 25g of black powder "cia method" over the stove, and it goes off...). I got the same remission, it was painful, but after 2 months my hand was back to normal! The doctor was really impress of the quality of the remission too. I think the skin recover much better of flash burn, because boilling water burn cause much more dommage over long time because it burn the skin much longer (contact time).

 

P.S.: Be careful of the sun on your new skin, it burn easily the first summer.

[Swede]

I'm late to this thread. Thank you for sharing, Gunzway. First off, I am glad you are apparently 90% mended. I suspect one thing you didn't mention was the pain from this recovery. When I was about 10, I was playing with gasoline and set my leg on fire, wearing jeans. I ran around like an idiot until I found a healthy puddle to jump into. Off to the hospital. I tell my mom "There's still gas on my leg." "No, that's your body fluid."

 

So I get home after treatment, scared of what my Dad would say. He just shook his head and said "There's nothing I can say or do. You will be punished enough." He was right. Swapping those bandages took living tissue with it, and what was underneath made me want to puke.

 

I'm not trying to bogart the story; I'm saying I know how much it hurts. Folks, it SUCKS to be severely burnt.

 

All of the safety pointers are so important. One of the big ones you mentioned: When operating for an audience, regardless of age, there is a tendency to take shortcuts, to get things going. Whether you are alone, or in front of 100 people, the procedures should be identical.

 

There is another thought I have. A lot of guys operate on a tight budget, understandably. I am referring to containers. Remember the guy with a garbage bag full of seed burst? PLEASE don't skimp on containers. Obviously you don't take bulk anything out to a test area, but it is a good idea to have containers that are absolutely proof against flying embers, that can travel scary distances. I'm not talking about steel ammo cans, but at a minimum, a container of thick HDPE plastic, and inside that, a poly bag with the comp, twist-tied shut.

 

Good containers are a safety issue, and they have the benefit of keeping moisture out, and comp in.

 

Enough preaching, I'm glad you are OK. Again, thanks for sharing.

[Skycastlefish]

Wow, nice recovery! Its good to be young. I'm probably only 10 years older than you and I don't think I would heal that well. You said having your mouth closed may have saved your life? Would the deflagration of BP force its way into your lungs?

[Gunzway]

Wow, nice recovery! Its good to be young. I'm probably only 10 years older than you and I don't think I would heal that well. You said having your mouth closed may have saved your life? Would the deflagration of BP force its way into your lungs?

 

Yeah, although it is a given doctors tend to exaggerate things. But if I had my mouth open, the flame would have burned my mouth and could have burned me further down my throat etc. As well as I would have probably inhaled a large amount of smoke, my throat would have become swollen and it could have been very difficult to breathe and if I didn't reach a hospital fast enough, I could have been in real trouble. Thankfully I was lucky (whilst being unlucky for it to happen) and it was all fine. I'm all healed and I won't have anything to remind me of the incident other than the t-shirt I was wearing that serves as a hefty reminder. Thank god it was cotton and I had the common sense for that. If it was synthetic, I would have been in hospital for at least a month and I would be severely burned. In the end, I blame the incident on my stupidity and my impatience that tends to show when I am showing friend/s.

[apcqazwsx]

Link?

[TheEskimo]

Anyka, you didn't even read his later posts. He has no scarring, and he hasn't lost any movement, nerve sensory, etc. PLEASE read the entire topic before replying. And I always get suspicious of these "miracle cures" that just need more research, and aren't accepted because they "are too extraordinary" and work "too well". Sorry, but I call BS on this product. If the FDA bans a medicine, it's generally for good reason.

As for the American FDA, this has no bearing on Gunzwayz, due to the fact that he is Austalian.

I don't know why, as an accredited MD (if you are indeed one), you are promoting such questionable methods.

If you would like to give the good doctor's name, and the substance he promotes, and I find that it is indeed a real and useful product, I will be glad to withdraw my prior comments.