Possible gunpowder related tragedy

kh54 said:

My computer had a mind of its own yesterday - sorry about the incomplete response. I don't know what happened, but here's what I meant to write:

"Mr. M." is doing better than when I was with him a week ago. But he has been experiencing a bit of "hospital psychosis." I was told years ago that it is fairly common for trauma patients to become confused and disoriented and to turn on their doctors and even their families. M has been agitated and paranoid, but the doctors and nurses don't seem concerned. However, he had pulled free his IV and was refusing to go to the procedure room to change bandages. Yesterday he was starting to calm down and all seems better today. They will try a different schedule to change his bandages every third day instead of every day. This will also allow the docs to use general anesthesia. (I've been told that the wors part of burn care is changing the bandages. I shudder just thinking about it.)

I understand that M is likely to be hospitalized for weeks, as opposed to mere days. The expressions of support and concern on the forum will certainly help his recovery. Thank y'all again!

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kh54 said:

Thank you - that’s very thoughtful and kind of you to say. I really do appreciate the camaraderie that I/we enjoy on the forum, from (mostly) complete strangers.

Autocorrect caught a typo and changed that last word to “stranglers”. I’m sure glad I saw that before I posted. On the other hand, I appreciate all you stranglers, as well.

Be careful out there!

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Whitworth said:

Glad to hear he's improving. To me a hopper full of smokeless powder isn't nearly as scary as a loading press tube of full of stacked primers. YMMV

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kh54 said:

A few of y’all asked me to keep you updated. I haven’t for a while (sorry) but will now. I didn’t name my friends before because it hadn’t been in the news but that changed within a few days. The deceased friend and neighbor is Steve and my very dear friend who survived is Paul.

Paul has had a number of setbacks, such as internal bleeding and kidney failure and was moved back to the burn unit ICU. I saw him there several times last weekend but I never had a chance to speak with him. He was either sedated or just sort of out of it. He has lucid moments but they’re infrequent and short.

Doctors have concluded that going forward Paul will always need care, even if his wounds and burns heal. They weren’t encouraging about his future quality of life. They moved him back out of the ICU but he will not be leaving the hospital burn unit any time in the foreseeable future. Doctors can’t give him a skin graft because they said that trauma would likely kill him. They can’t give him wound care under general anesthetic because that is also likely to kill him. I’m afraid it’s all come to “make him comfortable and wait and see.”

I appreciate all the kind thoughts and prayers. Sometimes a loving Father knows what’s best for us even if we have other ideas and this may now be one of those times. On the other hand the human mind and body can do amazing things especially with God’s help so no one is just giving up.

Thank you all again and please be ultra careful in all you do. Your loved ones need you.

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kh54 said:

I don’t know where else to post this but I need to reach out to someone. Two neighbors/friends were in the gun room attached to the one neighbor’s garage this evening when there was a terrific explosion and fire. I just happened to be at the end of the driveway and another neighbor and I were able to pull one of the two to safety but we couldn’t reach the other. My dear friend who survived (so far) was badly burned and lacerated. He’s 85 and in poor health so it’s still possible he won’t live.

We may never know exactly what happened. My guess is they were loading ammo (probably smokeless but one is also a muzzleloader) for the hunting season, but how that became an explosion and fire is unknown. It’s possible the explosion was due to something else entirely - just don’t know.

No comments are necessary, especially not speculation, but I thought I’d share with y’all as a precautionary tale. Tomorrow all of my stored powder is going from the house to the back shed, about 25 yards away from the house. And I will certainly be handling things MUCH more carefully in the future.

Rest in Peace Brother Steve.

Y’all be safe. Stay safe.

Kim

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kh54 said:

I just reread my post. Sorry for such a long one.

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LonestarShootR said:

Thank you for posting this. It brings to light what can happen in an instant and at times we don't get second chances. I am certainly one that gets complacent because I have been hand loading for a long time. Have well over 100lbs of powder and 100,000 primers on on. This has raised awareness of just how dangerous this can be.i will certainly change some of what I do while hand loading, etc.
My prayers go out to all involved with this tradegy.

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kh54 said:

I know that the survivor doesn’t smoke at all. I think the other smoked occasionally, less than one smoke per day, but knowing how careful he was I can’t imagine that he would have been smoking. But no, I can’t be sure. The deceased was operating a four stage press, the other watching and chatting. No other equipment in use, e.g. bench grinder.



That’s possible. I’m not certain but I think the property owner (the deceased friend) had several four-stage loaders.

The explosion was BIG and was heard up to 15 miles away. I don’t know how much powder would have had to ignite for an explosion that size.

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smoothshooter said:

Believe it or not, the primers in large quantities close together are more dangerous than the powder.

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smoothshooter said:

I’ll bet a primer got jammed up somewhere and a lever pull squished it enough to pop, somehow igniting a bunch of priming compound dust on the bench and jumping to a carton or more of unfired primers and a large amount of powder close by.
Still seems like an odd situation.

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kh54 said:

A few of y’all asked me to keep you updated. I haven’t for a while (sorry) but will now. I didn’t name my friends before because it hadn’t been in the news but that changed within a few days. The deceased friend and neighbor is Steve and my very dear friend who survived is Paul.

Paul has had a number of setbacks, such as internal bleeding and kidney failure and was moved back to the burn unit ICU. I saw him there several times last weekend but I never had a chance to speak with him. He was either sedated or just sort of out of it. He has lucid moments but they’re infrequent and short.

Doctors have concluded that going forward Paul will always need care, even if his wounds and burns heal. They weren’t encouraging about his future quality of life. They moved him back out of the ICU but he will not be leaving the hospital burn unit any time in the foreseeable future. Doctors can’t give him a skin graft because they said that trauma would likely kill him. They can’t give him wound care under general anesthetic because that is also likely to kill him. I’m afraid it’s all come to “make him comfortable and wait and see.”

I appreciate all the kind thoughts and prayers. Sometimes a loving Father knows what’s best for us even if we have other ideas and this may now be one of those times. On the other hand the human mind and body can do amazing things especially with God’s help so no one is just giving up.

Thank you all again and please be ultra careful in all you do. Your loved ones need you.

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kh54 said:

A few of y’all asked me to keep you updated. I haven’t for a while (sorry) but will now. I didn’t name my friends before because it hadn’t been in the news but that changed within a few days. The deceased friend and neighbor is Steve and my very dear friend who survived is Paul.

Paul has had a number of setbacks, such as internal bleeding and kidney failure and was moved back to the burn unit ICU. I saw him there several times last weekend but I never had a chance to speak with him. He was either sedated or just sort of out of it. He has lucid moments but they’re infrequent and short.

Doctors have concluded that going forward Paul will always need care, even if his wounds and burns heal. They weren’t encouraging about his future quality of life. They moved him back out of the ICU but he will not be leaving the hospital burn unit any time in the foreseeable future. Doctors can’t give him a skin graft because they said that trauma would likely kill him. They can’t give him wound care under general anesthetic because that is also likely to kill him. I’m afraid it’s all come to “make him comfortable and wait and see.”

I appreciate all the kind thoughts and prayers. Sometimes a loving Father knows what’s best for us even if we have other ideas and this may now be one of those times. On the other hand the human mind and body can do amazing things especially with God’s help so no one is just giving up.

Thank you all again and please be ultra careful in all you do. Your loved ones need you.

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Brokennock said:

Speaking of updates, is there any official investigation being done into this incident?

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