Attn: Burn Victims

[FB7777]

In this industry, one of the occupational hazards seems to be getting scorched by our equipment.

This weekend I experienced my latest and greatest injury.

I was filling a Hydro jug with 240 degree water from my convenience hose off the front panel of my machine, knelt down and the hose jumped out of the container and burned the right side of my face.

Second degree burns above and below my right eye.

Incredibly fortunate that I have no eye damage.

Sometimes being a veteran at this might be a disadvantage, you occasionally forget what types of dangers are right in front of you.

I should be back to my handsome self in a week or two in case any of you were concerned.

Anybody else have a good burn story?

 

[Brian L]

I have burned my hands a few times. When all my hoses are inside the house and the tm is running, I have a male qd on the end of the solution line and I run the water through the vac hose until it is hot. Then I connect to the wand. My hands have been hit with the hot water when I take the solution hose out of the vac hose. (It really hurts)

That is nothing like you did Fred. You are very lucky.

 

[Derek]

ouch Fred :x

here's a tip on how i treated my burn blisters..posted this 2-3 years back on ics:
___________
"several years back i just finished up a job (with my portable) and was packing up the van. i forgot to switch off my inline electric heater during this process, so as you can imagine, a great amount of HEAT & PRESSURE was building up. so here comes me not knowing what i am about to get hit with. i turn it off and goto pull off the QD. i barely touch it and the QD shoots off followed by steam and boiling water. hit me square in the belly button... my shirt was of little protection.

i think i went into a small amount of shock as the blisters formed all over me belly....talk about a sensitive spot on your body. when i made it home i quick put ice on it. that helped only a little bit and as soon as the ice was removed, the pain was unbearable. so my wife calls up her naturepathic (sp) doctor / acupuncturist. he tells her to try something. he said we wont like the sound of it, but in the far east it is how they handle burns of this nature. he instructs me to turn on a lamp with a 100 watt bulb. leave it on for 10-20 seconds and then bring it as close to the blisters / burned area as i can handle, without touching the skin, and to leave it there for as long as i can bear it. this sounded like the dumbest thing in the world to me, but i was in alotta pain and was desperate enuff to try it. the pain of the bulb near my skin was pretty bad....i only lasted 3-5 seconds. we did it 2-3 times. after doing this, the pain was completely gone, it was as if the bulb drew out all of the heat. the skin was still tender, but it never returned to that level of pain again."
___________

hope this helps someone like it helped me --- Derek.

 

[Jim Pemberton]

I'm glad you're ok Fred. Had my last "convenience hose burn" over 15 years ago, on the inside of my thigh..very close call.

Derek, do you have any information as to why the bulb worked? Did you get any medical attention later?

BTW: Great snake pic Derek! You and Mikey might get me back into keeping snakes again.

 

[White-Magic rebuilder]

My White Magic Triton with it's over heating issues has burned my son and I on a few occasions.

In my opinion it is a dangerous machine!!!

Truck mount builders need to test their equipment for at least 1 year in my opinion to resolve any problems. Then they need service to back it up when it does fail.

 

[vincent]

Another reason one should wear safety glasses.

Glad you're ok fred

 

[The Preacher]

hope ya get better fast.

PS maybe you should say a prayer of thanks if you haven't done so yet!!!LOL

 

[Derek]

thanx Jim, wish she was mine i used to breed (colubrids, not boids) but got busy with work and other interests and didn't have time to properly care for them, so sold off my stock. i got fed up with other owners who didn't properly care for their animals and i didn't want to be the same way...too many ppl buying burmese as cute 18" babies, only to let them die for fear of opening the cage after the 1st year when they're only several feet.

no clue why the bulb worked Jim.:?:. all i know is that it did, as the pain was gone after that "treatment". i never went to the dr's...blisters eventually cleared up. was still sensitive to touch, but the constant pain / burning was gone.

thanx --- Derek.

 

[-JB-]

Okay, the light bulb trick is a pretty cool (pun intended ) idea.
Is it possible it worked because, as my brother a HVAC guy said, heat always goes to cold, not the other way around?

 

[Jim Williams]

I had a White Magic auxillary hose burn also Rob. I was checking my pressure by cracking the valve to read the guage and the temp. had spiked just like all the WM machines that have a design flaw,, and when I opened the valve the hose whipped around across my chest and arm. The arm was the worst of it. The skin peeled off. Installers need to come up with something to prevent this. This is a lawsuit waiting to happen.

 

[Greenie]

For me it was simple, Lisa and I were working the truck together, I don't remember specifics of the job , but anyhow she turned the unit off and bled the steam real quick like we usually do before shut down.

Without realizing where the courtesy hose was just then it I turned the key to fire the unit up...holy cow, got a 1/4" solid stream of 200º water right on the top of my foot as the hose was hanging about 10" from the ground, you never saw someone try to get a shoe and sock off so quick, it instantly peeled the skin, talk about pain!

Still have a nice pinkish scar across the top of my foot from that damn "courtesy" hose, not courteous if you ask me. Never left that ball valve open ever again, and was always real careful when opening it.

 

[Goldenboy]

Hard to miss.


Golden Boy

 

[Guest]

And I thought someone talking about tender pink was good! :wink:

 

[Jack May]

When I was working for my Dad and just learning the trade, I was working on my own at an out of town address. We had a small off shoot hose for filling bottles etc off the side of the QD on the machine.

I had filled up the container, and instead of turning the valve off, I just killed the pump. I went in and prepped the first rooms and then came out, set up and started the machine. The pressure coming through flicked the loose hose upo from the van floor and shot a stream of hot water straight down the inside heel of my shoe.

I think I had the shoe and sock (and skin with it) off inside 2 seconds flat!!!

Off week walking around in thongs/jandals in you know what they are for quite a while.

Worst thing was ringing dad and asking him to come out to job and take over for me

John