British diver suffered burns in chemical heating explosion

Gavin Anderson, a 50 year old diver from the British Isles suffered an unusual accident underwater. He was burned when a chemical heat pack he was carrying on his back exploded.

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The victim decided to use this form of heating because of his aching back. He did not anticipate that the situation could become very dangerous indeed. While about 50 metres below the surface, the heat pack simply exploded on contact with the oxygen-enriched breathing mixture.

As a result, the diver suffered very unpleasant burns. In his own words, it was only by remaining calm and reacting appropriately that he was saved. To avoid additional complications from the sudden ascent from a depth of around 50m, Anderson decided to overcome the pain and carry out a 20-minute ascent in accordance with procedures.

The whole situation was the result of ventilating the dry suit with a mixture with too much oxygen.

“This rather unusual situation shows, however, that we can never predict everything that can happen to us underwater,” the victim himself reported.

As you can see, absolutely anything can happen underwater. A similar problem would certainly not arise for people using an independent source of dry suit inflation, in the form of the so-called argon tube, filled with compressed atmospheric air.

Source: dailymail.co.uk