Hi...
Thought I would share a close call I had on the jobsite. I am a rig welder of about 24 yrs in Canada and was working at a refinery ... At the present I was welding a 6 inch sched 40 pipe flange to a 90* elbow. I set up the flange and elbow on the back of my welding truck on a "spinner" so that I could roll weld the joint. I had a coffee going on the deck of my truck that morning , I had laid the bead and hot pass and was minding my own buisness working away.
Meanwhile, aproximately 150 yards from me there was another outfit doing a hydrostatic test of a 8 inch pipeline we had "welded out" (finished) a few days prior. The test was completed and they were about to "Dewater" the pipeline (Drain it of the water used for the test). An engineer asked what the testers were going to do with the water used for the test and they said they normally just let it run on the gound etc..... as it was just local well water. The engineer said in no way would he have a bunch of water laying about for a few days around the refinery and he wanted the water trucked out with water trucks. They said no problem and brought in water trucks to load and haul the water away. The pipeline the trucks hooked up to was comming down a very long (1/4 to half a mile) sloping hill so the "head pressure" of an 8 inch pipeline must have been pretty high. One truck in question had hooked to the pipeline and was taking a load. Then the pipeline gave the truck a burst of air that was in the line followed by a rush of water combined with the head pressure. The top of the truck was blown off. I must admit I did hear a low sounding whoosh but wasn't about to stop a weld as I was laying a cap with a 3/16 X
7018 welding rod and wanted the weld to look uniform. I figured I would take a look after finishing the weld. What I didn't see or know about was that a sched #40 -4 inch pipe about 14 feet in length had been blown off the top of the truck and was a very "small stick" in the air as they told me later it probably went 300 feet in the air. What I didn't know was that it was comming down in the vacinity of my welding truck and I was welding off the back of it!. They started screaming and yelling at me. I forgot to mention that I was using a Lincoln Classic 3D ........with the "D" meaning deisel. I wouldn't have heard anybody yelling that far away. So I am welding away and am about three quarters away around the 6 inch pipe and "KERBANG" .....The pipe landed on my truck cab and welding machine. The impact of the pipe conecting with the truck broke the arc I was welding and thank God , because as I lifted my helmet in shock I was hit with a wave of deisel fuel....The missle had ruptured the fuel tank on my welding machine. I looked down at my hot weld and saw it starting to smoke like crazy so I ran like hell in case it ignited and I would have gone up with it. Luckily it didn't ignite and my truck and equipment was saved. The whole outcome of that was about ten thousand dollars worth of damage to my welding rig and nerve damage to me as I now lift my helmet when I hear funny noises. The oil Company was very good about the incident. They just said 'Whatever it takes to fix that truck...send us the bill and we'll look after it"....and they did... I just thought I would share this close call I had... Regards...Jim