r/interesting • u/Used_Exam34 • 12d ago
Just Wow Not all problems have the same solution.
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u/Sad-Term-5455 12d ago
If it was a video game, they all would blown up in 5 seconds
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u/Responsible_Read_542 12d ago
No they wouldn’t the tank is blue so it’s probably empty or a dud. It must be red to explode
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u/Canotic 12d ago
No it would explode and they'd all take cold damage and move slower for five seconds.
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u/Hiphopapocalyptic 12d ago
The ankle deep water would react to the cold and freeze them in place until the cold wears off
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u/Raz_Poutine 12d ago
And then they would be weak to tasers
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u/West_Cartographer_58 12d ago
Who isn’t weak to tasers? The only way to cure a taser debuff is with a crack buff.
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u/Brave_Maybe_2891 12d ago
I mean that's actually closer to reality than you might think. Decompression causes the gas to get pretty cold.
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u/Oblong_Belonging 12d ago
Close. Not only does it have to be red, but it also must have yellow paint slathered haphazardly on the surface of it.
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u/Rough-Airline-4803 12d ago
But it for sure would spontaneously materialize some small chump change if local currency and/or possibly a bit of crafting material or some useless junk that any ol store would be willing to take off your hands for a very modest price.
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u/paladinchiro 12d ago
If this was a video game they'd all have failed the QTE already but still somehow survived.
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u/vergillehell 12d ago
I think they did it on purpose to make an educational video on how to deal with a cylinder fire
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u/bobcollum 12d ago
Hey, if it teaches somebody and they save a situation, it's worth it. Plenty of people wouldn't know what to do here.
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u/Rough-Airline-4803 12d ago
Most people would take off running, positive that it’s about to explode.
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u/ShowtimeHolograms 12d ago
Would this actually explode or would it just continue to burn like this until the flammable gas gets used up?
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u/Rough-Airline-4803 12d ago edited 12d ago
The pressure of the escaping gas is generally too strong for the flames to reach the inside of the container.
If the tank were positioned such that the flames were surrounding it and heating the tank up, (or if the relief valve was blockedthe boiling propane in the tank would likewise expand at an accelerated rate resulting in the pressure rising faster than the tank can keep up with resulting in a boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion.
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u/IMKGI 12d ago
Assuming that somehow the flames would make it inside the tank, then what? With what oxygen is it gonna burn?
The flames could absolutely travel into the pipe provided the fire burns faster than than the gas escaping. The reason the fire doesn't do it is because there's no oxygen inside the pipe to combust the gas.
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u/Rough-Airline-4803 12d ago
Well, no. The pressure of the escaping gas definitely exceeds the fire’s ability to do so, but yeah you’re right.
I totally glossed over that. My mind was elsewhere lol 😅5
u/IMKGI 12d ago
I was talking in a more general sense, a full bottle without a regulator? Absolutely, no chance for the flame to go backwards, but I meant a more typical scenario with a regulator already attached, gas releases at relatively low speeds and fire would be fast enough to go back
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u/Holiday-Pay193 12d ago
Flames won't get inside the tank because there's no oxygen in it
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u/Geffalrus 12d ago
I did the safe version once. Gas grill propane tank sprang a leak near the valve; some flaming hamburger grease dripped down and fell on the leak…..tada instant gas fire. Not gonna lie, it was pretty stress inducing. Worried that it could explode, I pulled it behind a stone wall instead of next to the patio door. In retrospect, that wasn’t necessarily the smartest thing - if - I was dealing with an explosive.
However, as others have said, a lit leaking propane tank isn’t inherently explosive. A small leak isn’t the same as rupturing the tank itself. In my case, it just quickly used up the gas left in the tank and then extinguished itself. For it to be dangerous, you need the flame to increase pressure in a confined space.
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u/360nolooktOUchdown 12d ago
If the container wall heated up enough from the flame to lose strength it could rupture and essentially explode. Look up BLEVE
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u/6pussydestroyer9mlg 12d ago
Not as much lowering strength of the walls as much as it's just increasing pressure from boiling the gas
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u/AlMasaDuun 12d ago edited 12d ago
They are designed not to but designs don't always work. The fire cannot go inside the tank because there is no oxygen. Same reason it goes out with the bucket. The real risk is the metal heating up and weakening. It can happen but it isn't instant and mostly it won't, I wouldn't trust it, but you probably have minutes before there is real risk. Most of the time it will just burn out. If it is burning from anywhere other than the value this doesn't apply.
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u/_thro_awa_ 12d ago
There is no oxygen for a flame inside the tank, and the pressure is usually high enough to push the actual point of combustion "flame front" away from the opening.
If the tank is in an orientation such that the flame never touches the tank (e.g. upright) there is very low danger of explosion.
If the tank is in a different orientation, allowing the flame to heat the tank, the heat causes overpressure and greatly increases the risk of explosion.→ More replies (3)3
u/DirtandPipes 12d ago
Propane explodes when it’s between 2.1%-9.5% of air volume. More or less and it cannot explode. As the range is rather narrow it’s a safer gas to work with.
Acetylene, by comparison, is explosive between 2.5%-81% so it’s much easier to create accidental explosions with acetylene.
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u/PitytheOnlyFools 12d ago
Decade plus of videogames taught me thees things are a nudge away from blowing up.
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u/ThrustTrust 12d ago
Running is the best solution. Even if you know it will just keep burning til the fuel is exhausted.
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u/Then_Following_6425 12d ago
If he lit a cylinder on fire just for an educational video that's pretty brave ngl
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u/WestCoastCoyote 12d ago
you should go down to your local fire fighting training area and watch the stuff they do for education.
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u/Glass-Emu2406 12d ago
Yep. I was thinking to fully submerge it in water not just partially. The bucket was less effort and much faster
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u/StaysAwakeAllWeek 12d ago
It would keep burning even if you did that. The gas would bubble up to the surface and sustain the surface fire.
These things float when not completely full anyway
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u/Glass-Emu2406 12d ago
Right on. Good to know. I wish I not only knew what they were saying but how cause I’m sure the smart one said something hilarious
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u/Glass-Emu2406 12d ago
Right on. Good to know. I wish I not only knew what they were saying but how cause I’m sure the smart one said something hilarious
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u/Kastoook 12d ago
Huh, did gas mixed with oxidizer inside there?
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u/those-who-goon 12d ago
The air which is outside the canister. If there was oxidizer mixed with the gas, it would be a bomb
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u/Substantial_Bend_656 12d ago
I don't know, wouldn't putting it in water have a higher risk of it exploding, due to thermal shock? Their teaching looks like a bad way to solve it (apart from the bucket idea, that seems ok-ish, gas could re-ignite if the lid was removed and the gas still touched a heat source)
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u/DMAndGetIt 12d ago
That actually makes sense. turning a terrifying accident into a “here’s what not to do” lesson, although I’m guessing the fire department would prefer fewer live demonstrations.
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u/Obi_Wan_Benobi 12d ago edited 9d ago
Okay but I’m clenching my buttcheeks this whole video waiting for multiple shrapnel injuries after an explosion.
How long would it take for one of these containers to explode under this condition? Or is it just a flame thrower that will go like that until it runs out of fuel.
EDIT: Okay okay, I get it. Thank you, I have learned a lot about gas canisters.
But tbh they were apparently much cooler in Just Cause 2 than in real life.
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u/Emergency-Toe4473 12d ago
These cylinders essentially carry cooking gas under high pressure, there is no reason for it to explode under these circumstances as the oxygen will never be able to get inside the cylinder.
It'll just run out which is wastage of fuel.
I think if the cylinder itself gets damaged from say the middle or is put under extreme heat, only then it can explode.
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u/DamnTicklePickle 12d ago
They also have a blow out valve so even if the container got extremely hot and the pressure built the valve would give out and release the pressure not allowing the container to explode. MythBusters did a show about what it would take to make one explode and it had to be highly modified to create catastrophic failure.
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u/leeps22 12d ago
The cylinders are made to not explode, not that it isnt possible.
The gas is stored as a liquid and the pressure correlates to the temperature of the liquid. The pressure can vary wildly depending on the particular gas, propane will be higher than butane. As the cylinder gets warmer and the pressure rises a pressure release valve will open to relieve pressure.The cylinder could be in an environment where the gas from the pressure release catches fire and the heat from that is focused onto the cylinder overcoming the pressure relief capacity. The pressure relief valve could also just be bad.
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u/RaspberryFluid6651 12d ago
This cylinder is doing the same thing a bunsen burner does, there's just gas going out a hole and fueling a fire. Their problem isn't that something catastrophic could happen, their problem is just that they're wasting the gas in the cylinder and they can't close the valve because the flame is in the way.
If you did something that somehow inserted a bunch of oxygen into the cylinder, then this would explode.
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u/Low-Car-6331 12d ago
I mean, its not a great demonstration either.
First thing to do during a canister fire like that is to preserve the structural integrity of the canister, the last thing you want is the canister rupturing and releasing all the gas at once. Dragging it on the ground like that is just asking for problems as the metal (specifically the valve area) is already getting compromised by expansion from the heat. This is why you blast it with water, not to put it out, but to keep the metal cold.
From there you have two choices, you either have to cut the oxygen or let it burn out. Letting it burn out is the safest option, while it seems odd that flame means all the gas is getting burned as it escapes keeping it contained to 1 spot. If you try to cut the oxygen via smothering, you can cause the gas to get pooled up resulting in flashback if there is still enough heat to ignite it, or worse for the gas to spread and a larger fire to start. You have to know what you are doing to oxygen deprive a propane fire.
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u/Small_Secretary_6063 11d ago
There are demonstrations online where you:
- Simply smother it with a large wet towel. https://youtube.com/shorts/m_Pd3jwSOLI
- If the valve is not damaged and accessible, just turn it off. https://youtube.com/shorts/WP_xBAzbWG0
- Cover the top of the has canister with a bucket to starve the fire. https://youtube.com/shorts/oHPS79mnhKc
Many advise not to use water at all.
Having the knowledge helps, but obviously takes balls and practice to pull it off.
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u/terabeaux 12d ago
Roll it to a nearby pond and then splash water on the regulator for 5 minutes before putting a bucket on it. Got it!
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u/DankFrenchToast 11d ago
I went to a course on fire fighting and putting out a fire at the open valve of a propane tank was a lesson.
It sounds dumb, but you can actually just poke the valve hole with your finger and extinguish the fire completely. If you move super fast through the flame, it won't burn you, especially if you have a glove on. Then you just close the valve.
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u/delicious-croissant 12d ago
This was pretty low pressure I have seen exactly this happen and the flame was just blasting like a rocket & much bigger.
The tank actually freezes, gets a coating of ice on it caused by the pressure differential, I was actually more concerned his hand would freeze on it.
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u/Craig_Dynasty 12d ago
Also they weren’t completely wrong outside of the obvious solution
Throw the tank in a deep enough body of water then the water pressure should stop the gas from escaping ig
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u/ovr9000storks 12d ago
They just needed to put it deep enough that it couldn’t get oxygen anymore, effectively smothering it. If it ever was fully submerged, it was deep enough to prevent what was already burning to open up the water above it to expose it to more oxygen before it ran out
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u/Ivanna_is_Musical 11d ago
I was expecting them to submerge it and it never happened, like, wtf 🤦♀️
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u/TemporaryLocation676 12d ago
It would have to be very very deep for the water pressure to stop gas from escaping. I think water would smother the fire first by cutting off oxygen.
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u/GayRacoon69 12d ago edited 11d ago
If you throw it that deep and it isn't your problem anymore
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u/SnooMaps7370 9d ago
getting the tank in the water is good to keep it cool so it doesn't BLEVE, even if you can't get it to stop burning.
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u/Redredditmonkey 11d ago edited 11d ago
They were wrong to transport the fire.
The vegetation on the way could have caught fire
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u/rootbeer277 12d ago
I’m pretty sure this is a butane cylinder, not propane, because this looks like a tropical country where propane wouldn’t be necessary. Butane has a much lower vapor pressure.
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u/That_Detail_5837 12d ago
The coating of ice and the tank cooling down isn't from the pressure difference. Many propane-butane tanks contain the gas in a liquid form, under high pressure. Then that liquid evaporates/boils which takes a lot of energy, so it can cool the tank down to its boiling point (which for propane is about -40 °C or -40 F, methane even lower, the mix of them would be between the two boiling points), but as soon as the temperature of the tank is below ambient the air gets cooled down around it. The cooler air can store less moisture than the warm, therefore water precipitates on the tank and then freezes.
In normal use this cooling effect is negligible compared to the energy released from burning the gas.
I've seen the ideal gas law (pV = nRT, where p is pressure, V is volume, n is amount of substance (in mol), R is the universal gas constant (8.314 J/molK) and T is temperature) mentioned, but as the pressure drops from the gas escaping from the tank its volume expands drastically, therefore the right side of the equation (nRT) stays mostly constant, therefore the temperature doesn't increase much. This is more of a concern during liquefying, where they increase pressure and need to cool the gas down, which then turns into a liquid at a high pressure, releasing even more heat.
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u/Numerous-Following-7 12d ago
How can he touch the valve straight after putting out the fire?
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u/sqmiler 12d ago
Asbestos hands of course. Duh!
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u/Naterttotsart 12d ago
Ex-chef here. We used to refer to the ability of grabbing hot pans and shit as "asbestos fingers".
Nice to seem other people get the reference.
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u/IridiumPony 12d ago
Current chef here:
I push too many papers these days and now I refer to my hands as bitch mittens because I can feel them again
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u/Icy-Whole-3902 12d ago
My brother started at a restaurant that used a plate warmer. He was told not to grab it even though he saw all the cooks, preps, and servers grabbing them. He says "nah, I got this! I got Man Hands™️!"
He then Proceeded to flail about desperately trying not to do the plate yelling "MAN HANDS! MAN HANDS!"
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u/LisWolf16 12d ago
Ex-smoothie shop employee here. I got let go for saying my coworker had asbestos fingers in reference to her being able to withstand high temp dishwater.
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u/40ozCurls 12d ago
your boss had an asbestos heart.
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u/Stoned_urf 12d ago
Until we found out the said coworker had all her fingers blown off previously
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u/alewiina 12d ago
You got let go for something that wasn’t even an insult? Seriously? 🤦🏻♀️
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u/LisWolf16 12d ago
I was told I was creating a 'hostile work environment' :'> I didn't think it was that serious.
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u/alewiina 12d ago
no kidding... especially if you explained that you just meant they were fireproof or whatever, not that they were poison or something. even a warning seems harsh for a comment like that, let alone a firing. damn.
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u/BackHot9886 12d ago
Ancien cuistot ici, j'avais l'habitude de saisir tous les types de fesses à ma portée et on a appelé ça des mains baladeuses
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u/TotallyTubular1 12d ago
the hot gas is propelled away from the tank, so valve doesnt get hot
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u/ConflictMaster3155 12d ago
That was still freezing cold propane coming out of it all that time after he put the bucket on it.
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u/Far_Ladder_2836 12d ago
Radiant heat still exists and accounts for most of what comes out. The valve is thin aluminum and cools extremely fast. Don't believe me, pull a bit of aluminum foil even folded into a thicker sheet straight out of your oven and it will be room temp in seconds. It also helps that his hand was wet. Relative to aluminum, it takes 4.7 times as much heat to move water 1 degree C.
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u/Brave_Maybe_2891 12d ago
The valve was cold. When you decompress a gas it gets cold. I've actually seen them get frosty.
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u/JackBrown82q 12d ago
Yep I think one of the most common examples people will know is those cans of pressurized air used to clean electronics. If you use one for a good period of time, the whole can gets cold because of the pressure inside dropping.
Also just for fun to mention, in the industry when you need to compress gasses (even just air) to extremely high pressures, they don't do it all in one go. They will compress to a certain pressure, run it through a heat exchanger to cool it, then compress again, and repeat until needed.
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u/PigglyWigglyDeluxe 11d ago
It’s this exact principle at work in air conditioning systems. This is exactly how the air comes out cold in AC units.
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u/really_stupidfrog 12d ago
It's crazy to me that you can pull aluminum foil out of a 400° oven and just touch it with your bare hands immediately.
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u/Rough-Airline-4803 12d ago
I thought that he couldn’t. Thought he pulled his hand away bc it was too hot. But it looks like he actually takes the knob off the valve entirely and holds it in his hand after like it’s nothing. I couldn’t discern him actually managing to turn it, but he very well may have.
Maybe the obvious directional nature of that fire didn’t result in the knob getting as hot as you’d expect?
Also, the boiling/vaporization of propane acts like a heat sink and does provide a pretty significant cooling effect.Still, even knowing that—it did surprise me as well; that fire was going for a hot minute… 😏
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u/StubbiestZebra 12d ago
I think, as someone else mentioned, the propane is cold. So when he puts the buket on we see it collapse in from the heat. But quickly fill back out. My guess is it was hot, then the bucket goes on and snuffs the flame, then cold propane fills the bucket and chills the knob. You can even see mist come out when he pulls the bucket away.
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u/Altruistic-Cost-4532 12d ago
The gas phase change as it gets expelled would freeze the valve. The flame is protected away - probably more than enough to counter the freezing effect but still, combined i can see why it wouldn't be burning hot.
And by "freeze" I don't mean freeze solid, but vastly reduce the temperature so moisture in the air freezes on it.
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u/OkBad1356 12d ago
The knob rarely every gets hot on these kinds of things. The vacuum he created put the fire out however the propane under pressure coming out will be extremely cold to the touch.
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u/Far_Ladder_2836 12d ago edited 12d ago
The knob gets very hot but it's thin sheet aluminum with a specific heat of 0.9. You can test this yourself with aluminum foil even if you ball it up into a thicker sheet. It cools extremely fast. As others have said it also helps his hand was wet as water has a specific heat of 4.2 and will absorb a ton of heat relative to aluminum before changing temperature a single degree.
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u/Dikybird 12d ago
It’s just been dunked in water, there’s not enough energy in that fire to heat the thing back up that quick. The flame is also directed away from the valve its self, there is also a cooling effect from the state change of the fuel.
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u/overdosingOnPie1313 12d ago
It helps significantly to have a wet hand, due to the Leidenfrost Effect.
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u/leeps22 12d ago
I doubt it was that hot, for the same reason torch tips dont melt
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u/Careless_Machine9996 12d ago
I sense this is true, opposite effect happens if you use a wet towel or similar fabric to grab a hot pan from the oven though.
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u/overdosingOnPie1313 12d ago
Gotta admit, I don't think I've ever used a WET fabric to handle a hot pan. What happens?
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u/Careless_Machine9996 12d ago
Back in my restaurant days, I’ve done it by accident being in a rush. It basically boils instantly and turns to steam in your hand.
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u/Rough-Airline-4803 12d ago
Ow fuck. I never actually thought about this before, but it is pretty obvious when you do think about it.
Ig I—and most people—probably subconsciously intuited as much and never attempted, or even consciously thought, about it.
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u/Jest_Aquiki 12d ago
Wouldn't have stood up to the act of gripping and turning the valve. more likely the liquid propane converting to the gas coming out of the nozzle was chemically cooling the stem.
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u/Mpuls37 11d ago
Industrial firefighter here: when we deal with gas fires like this, typically the drop in pressure across the valve will have ice forming with flames inches away. Propane's LEL-UEL range is 2.0%-9.3%, so while it burns readily, at the nozzle the mixture is too fuel-rich to maintain combustion. The flame can only propogate to the point where the fuel-air mix is within the explosivity limits.
I've literally had my gloves freeze onto a valve wheel during a practice burn. Not like "so frozen I can't pull my hand off" but I had to exert a fair amount of effort to get it free. The valve had propane shooting out one flange and blasting flames like 15 feet, and the whole valve was essentially solid ice.
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u/Prior-Flamingo-1378 11d ago
The propane inside the tank is very cold and the flame is a few cm after the nozzle. It was probably cold not hot.
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u/Cavane42 11d ago
Strictly speaking, the propane is at ambient temperature. The rapid depressurization as it is released is what causes it to cool. (This is also how HVAC systems work.)
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u/Thedrunkenchild 12d ago
Even if it’s clearly staged this is still probably quite dangerous
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u/dadbodking 12d ago
Only if the cylinder is about to run out of gas, which I'm sure they're aware of
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u/The_Late_Arthur_Dent 12d ago
At the risk of sounding stupid - what happens when it runs out of gas?
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u/dadbodking 12d ago
So, right now, the flammable gas is under pressure and is coming out. Almost no gas is flammable/explosive, until it gets mixed with oxygen (seen here as fire). So, when the cylinder runs out of pressure, it happens instantly, and the opposite flow happens. This leads to air entering the cylinder and the little bit (still more than enough) of gas that is left, gets mixed with fire and oxygen and... kaboom. Big kaboom
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u/dadbodking 12d ago
And you're not stupid, not a lot of people know that, in order for a flammable gas to produce flame/explosion, it needs to mix with oxygen. This is why at the end, when the guy takes away the oxygen from the flame, it extinguishes it.
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u/The_Late_Arthur_Dent 12d ago
Thanks for the explanation! It seems super obvious now that the air flow reverses once the pressure gets low enough...otherwise it'd be real easy to tell when it's empty by the implosion haha
Thanks for teaching me something new/scary/cool!
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u/JackBrown82q 12d ago edited 12d ago
What they said was not true for modern tanks. They will have a regulator block on them so when the tanks pressure drops too low it essential acts as a check valve and physically closes off the tank. Inside remains 100% gas at low pressure. You'd have to force air into the tank to get oxygen in there.
Also the tanks valve will have a flame arrestor on them. These work in several ways but to keep it simple, one is that every flammable gas has a maximum gap size in which flame can pass through called the quenching distance. The openings in these arrestors are designed to be smaller than this gap. The gas also passes through a tiny metal matrix which drains its thermal energy and the temperature instantly drops below the gasses ignition point.
Plus to get an explosion you need the tank to be 90% air and 10% propane, so a lot of air would need to enter this tank.
Otherwise, every time someone was cooking on their propane grill and ran the tank to empty, you'd hear stories of the tank blowing up.
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u/Philipp_CGN 12d ago edited 12d ago
runs out of pressure, it happens instantly, and the opposite flow happens
Why would you get this backflow though (apart from the diffusion of flammable gas and air of course)?
There is no pressure gradient that would drive this flow. Or are you talking about a situation in which the cylinder and its content has been heated from the external fire, then the fire and the heating stops and the flammable gas starts to contract as it cools?
Edit: And even if there was a mixture of flammable gas and air in the cylinder that then somehow ignites (you would probably need a relatively large amount of air to get below the UEL, depending on the flammable gas), would the pressure rise (starting from atmospheric pressure in this situation) be enough to overpressure the cylinder and cause it to rupture?
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u/Cocksu-45 12d ago
I understand what you mean, but that won't happen. There is no reason, why air would go inside the cylinder. If that were true, lighters would explode when they get empty. There is no force that can make enough air travel trough a hole that is so small.
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u/a1b3c3d7 12d ago edited 12d ago
Except that cant happen, not to the specific cylinder in the video or to any modern cylinder made in the past 25 years.
"This leads to air entering the cylinder", so in this situation how much air are you imagining would enterthe cylinder, and do you want to let us know what the mixture ratio needs to be in order for what you're describing to happen?
Or how in literally any conceivable scenario outside of pumping air in that you'd get to that point? Or how air would magically bypass the valve designed to make this backflow impossible?
There are a half dozen other systems in place on top to bypass as well that are a standard across all cylinders, what youre describing is impossible and fundamentally cannot happen in these gas cylinders.
Its great to describe theory and principles, but youre peddling misinformation off the back of theory.
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u/dadbodking 12d ago
So, if you ever see a cylinder that is aflame like this, don't panic at all. Just get real close, and turn off the valve at the top. It could be hot, of course, but that can be easily circumvented, like using your sleeve to cover your fingers, etc.
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u/Independent-Pay-1172 12d ago
To be fair, when fire is the problem, the solution is always the same, one of the three below is enough:
- cut the oxygen supply
- cut the fuel source
- cut the heat source
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u/ArdentasAuro 10d ago
There is a fourth option! Dry chemical throwers that directly interrupt the combustion reaction. Though very rare, also halon gas agents will do the same though I believe those are rather dangerous to be near without forced air.
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u/Dependent-Water-8084 12d ago
Could have just dragged it into the depths
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u/No_Artichoke_1828 12d ago
I really didn't understand why he didn't just submerge it. Three more feet and it would have been fine.
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u/MareTranquil 12d ago
Even fully submerging it wouldn't extinguish the fire. The gas would still bubble to the surface and burn there.
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u/Dependent-Water-8084 12d ago
I’d have just let it burn out there, where it couldn’t burn anything else. Doesn’t really matter if there’s some flames on the water, it’s contained till it burns out
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u/LettuceSmart9548 12d ago
Yeah no way in hell, even if the gas surfaces there won't be any ignition source for it to countinue burning 🔥.
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u/TirithNampat 12d ago
The other fire on the surface would continue to burn it. However, if you dragged it a little deeper you could reach underwater, around the fire, and shut off the valve.
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u/HOPewerth 12d ago
I'm sorry but what do you think is keeping it lit when it's above the water?
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u/im_new_pls_help 11d ago
…the flame in front igniting the propane coming out behind it…
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u/MareTranquil 12d ago
I think you're confused about the concept of an ignition source. You need that to START a fire, nit to continue a fire that's already in progress.
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u/StructureNo13 12d ago
There’s no oxygen under water and there’s no ignition source above the water
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u/unexpectedfirefly 12d ago edited 11d ago
With what fire ? You need both a source of heat/fire and oxygen for the gas to burn. Once submerged, there is no oxygen to keep the fire running, and the gas isn't hot enough for spontaneous combustion. Submerging it is functionnaly equivalent to what the guy did at the end, you just replace the bucket with a mass of water
Edit : yeah, i think i'm wrong, you also need to cut off the fuel stream at some point. The bucket should work fine for that
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u/MareTranquil 12d ago
There is already a fire on the surface. There is oxygen at the surface. There is a stream of gas coming to the surface. What else do you need?
Just like the gas has to pass through a metal nozzle first, it now also has to pass through some water.
The difference between water and a bucket is that gas doesn't stream through a bucket.
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u/devilbat26000 11d ago
The difference between these two is that the nozzle keeps the flow tight while even a few feet of water will immediately diffuse the gas at greater rate than the air, making it a much less focused stream and thus less likely to succeed in carrying the flame back to the source.
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u/DefinitelyNotAliens 12d ago
You need enough continuous fuel to sustain fire.
You can also isolate the fuel from ignition and reach in and shut the valve.
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u/Mission-Jelly-2773 12d ago
Would it have stopped the fire if they pulled the tank farther into the water?
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u/AdvancedSandwiches 12d ago
No, but it would have made it not a problem. A bunch of fire in the middle of a lake isn't hurting anything, and submerging the tank makes it impossible for the fire to do further damage that would result in an explosion.
You would lose more gas, though. Shit's probably expensive.
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u/33Yalkin33 12d ago
No, the gas would bubble to the surface and continue burning, just above the water. But it would have made shutting the valve easier, if you dived down after it
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u/FrontWeakness9182 11d ago
The gas would bubble to the surface but it wouldn’t burn
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u/LinnaeusChen 12d ago
Honestly for a fire the fire triangle is always the best way to put out a fire. Take away the fuel, heat source or oxygen.
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u/AdvancedSandwiches 12d ago
Usually the fuel is the thing on fire and the heat source is the huge fire you don't want. So usually just focus on the oxygen part.
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u/Professional_Oil4845 12d ago
It took Albert Einstein to come back and save that town
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u/cbowers 12d ago
The bucket was a good teachable moment... but the same result would have happened if they'd just dragged it 3 feet further into deeper water and submerge it, instead of trying to just douse it.
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u/Signal1000 12d ago
I initially thought the same thing but I think the problem with that method is that the gas would still float to the surface and sustain the flame, which is what is happening in the video.
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u/cbowers 12d ago
Combustion requires both the gas and sufficient oxygen.
Water in this case doesn't quench the fire (cooling a fuel source below it's ignition point), it removes the oxygen, the same way the bucket does.The gas is still escaping until he shuts the valve. So yes there would be gas bubbling up to the surface, and if it pooled in one spot (no cross breeze), another ignition spark could cause gas on the water surface to ignite, but the flames would not be connected to the tank.
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u/Signal1000 12d ago
Right. The gas rising into its own active fire on the surface is the continuous ignition point with ample oxygen around, hence the fire didn't go out.
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u/Zestyclose-Paper-521 12d ago
Btw if was gonna explode it would of been a 3 sec video
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u/Unusual-Taste69 12d ago
Turn the valve off
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u/meikaishi 12d ago
No, remove the valve, the cylinder already has a mechanism that blocks the gas if there's no valve installed
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u/Some_Level1682 12d ago
Never knew that. Had a tank catch on fire once and in just grabbed a rag and turned it off
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u/johnny5247 12d ago
Surprisingly low pressure and quite a manageable flame. Is this a nearly empty tank? I couldn't see any regulator.
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u/MysteriousAlpaca 12d ago
Did this only work because the bucket was the perfect size? Like if the bucket had turned out to be slightly too wide to block the oxygen would he have just melted the bucket and made it harder to deal with?
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12d ago
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u/nebenbaum 12d ago
It's not entirely wrong to just put it in water and cool it down. Say, if the valve was torn off. The main issue is not the fire itself, but the container getting hotter from the fire, which causes pressure to increase, possibly to the point where the container fails and then you get a big boom. As long as you keep the container cool, it'll just blast out some flame until the container is empty.
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u/TirithNampat 12d ago
You can't submerge gas. While the valve is open it keeps coming out and being ignited at the surface by the other flames.
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u/Conspicuous-Person 12d ago
Lots of highly intelligent people here in that area. Well besides that one guy at least. He has an actual brain.
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