This past Thursday I was doing some work around the house, cutting grass, changing fluids on the bike and shocking the pool. The yard work and fluid change went fine. My problems started when I started getting stuff together to shock the pool!
I normally use three pounds of chlorine shock. I had one pound of Chlor-brite shock (granular chlorine) in an old bucket and I had a new fifty pound bucket of Power Powder (powdered chlorine). I dumped the one pound of Chlor-brite and two pounds of Power Powder into a clean five gallon bucket. Took the bucket into the kitchen and sat it in the sink and started adding warm water to dissolve the chemicals. BAD MOVE!!! After a few seconds the mixture started foaming up and then exploded! It sounded like a shotgun went off! Loud enough that my ears were ringing, but worse than that the chemicals covered me from my chest up and was in my eyes and mouth. I ran up stairs and jumped into the shower clothes and all. The mixture down stairs continued to explode over and over. I believe I heard it explode about eight times. I did my best to get the chemicals out of my eyes and mouth. After drying off and putting a pair of shorts on I headed back down stairs to see what kind of damage I had done to the house.
I thought it was odd that that there was no chlorine smell upstairs but as soon as I hit the bottom step it was as if my lungs filled with water. I couldn't breathe in, I was chocking. I made it to the door leading to the garage and made it to the garage door before I collapsed. I was home alone. Judy was in Panama City and Michael was racing at Barber in Alabama. I thought to myself "Is this how I'm going to die?" . I was able to get up and make it to my neighbor’s house and he called 911. He sent his wife to another neighbor’s house who are both doctors. By this time I was struggling to breath and my vision was getting worse. Everything was very blurry. I could see shapes but that was it. While waiting on the ambulance the doctors checked my vitals and flushed my eyes.
In the ambulance and at the emergency room they gave me breathing treatments that really helped. They also kept flushing my eyes until they got the ph down to 7.0. Also took chest x-rays. I was breathing much easier but I still couldn't see and my eyes felt like they had sand in them. The Ophthalmologist said I had a slight burn to both corneas but no ulcers. He said my vision would be back to 100% in a few days. Great news! They kept me overnight and continued the breathing treatments every four hours.
I'm at home now and doing much better! My vision is just about normal and my breathing is much better. I still get short of breath but I'm told that will get better with more breathing treatments which I'm doing at home.
I found out that when the fire department arrived at my house they called in the hazmat team and quarantined the house and evacuated the houses closest to mine. They also called in a hazmat clean up company to clean up the damage. They told me that the explosion spread the chemicals in a 15 foot diameter circle on the ceiling and twenty foot radius on the floor and cabinets. The cleand up crew threw away everything that was exposed in the kitchen and den. micro wave oven, toaster, coffee maker, coffee grinder, cooking utensils, window treatments, etc. Can't wait to see the bill for clean up. Hopefully my homeowners insurance will cover it!
Anyway, I feel lucky to be alive and I know God was watching over me! Also, next spring I'm changing my pool over to a salt system!
I now wonder if the one pound of chemical that I thought was Clor-brite was actually something else!
The doctors assure me that I'll still be able to attend the mini CVO Gathering in Highlands Wednesday then on to Grove Park Inn Sunday and Maggie Valley next Wednesday! See you there!
Author
Topic: Chemical explosion (Read 18119 times)