| Name | Age | Sex | Injuries | Injured areas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jackson, Randy | 22 | Male | Puncture | Eye |
On November 3, Randy Jackson (22), Dave Black and Dan Dible were exploring and mapping in Hoosier National Forest Swallowhole Cave in southern Indiana. The group had been going for some seven hours and was taking a break to change carbide. Jackson fired up his lamp, but the bottom caught fire from gas leakage. Thinking he had dropped the gasket into his dump bag, he blew out the fire, then opened the bag and shined his light in. There was a flash of flame as acetylene and air in the bag exploded. Jackson experienced a sharp burning pain in his eyes. Even after several minutes with his eyes closed, it was extremely painful to move either eye. It became obvious that the trip out would be difficult. They began the long crawl, with Jackson opening one eye occasionally to get direction. A ten foot rappel was done without much problem. At a traverse over a 15-foot pit, he had some difficulty since one-eyed vision gives little depth perception. The other two guided him vocally. More crawlway and the climb out the 40-foot entrance pit were done without incident.
At Bloomington Hospital a piece of carbide was removed from Jackson's right eye leaving a 3-mm burn scar and slightly impaired vision. The eye later recovered completely.
Reference: Randy Jackson Personal Communications January 1980; February 25, 1980.
Analysis: Acetylene from "spent" carbide will mix with air in any closed space, dump bag, cave pack, etc., to form an explosive mixture. Such explosions are usually minor in the force they generate and are a relatively common occurrence. In this case, it had serious consequences. Beware.
acetylene resulted in carbide embedded in eye.
This record was last updated on 27th Apr 2024 at 23:11 UTC.