Shredder Explosion − 20 April, 2007
On a Friday afternoon in Spring, I'm cleaning out our office at work. Tidying up, bringing out the trash. I start cleaning out our paper shredder (I LOVE to shred papers), which is jammed full of all kinds of little paper shreds.
This particular shredder has a little sensor to know when to automatically start shredding or not, and it's all covered up with paper particles. Naturally, I grab a can of compressed air so that I can blast away all of the shreddings. I start applying a constant spray of air as I activate the shredder, being very careful to not get the nozzle stuck in the shredding mechanism.
After a few seconds, there is a loud BANG and a lot of intense heat in my face. The compressed air from the can had gotten ignited by the shredder, and it had blown up in my face! The air reeked of burnt hair, and as I tried to open my eyes, I realized that most of my eyelashes had burned off, and the stubs that remained were curled up and attaching together... making it hard to open my eyes and really assess the situation.
I walked over to my coworkers office and knocked on the door.
"Yeah?"
"Brian, I have an emergency. I think." He bursts out of his office, and I tell him what happened.
As it turned out, my eyes are OK, my head isn't on fire, and I end up with what feels like a minor sunburn and very short eyelashes. It being a gorgeous afternoon, and with the burnt-hair-stench in our office, I went home early and barbecued myself some dinner!
This particular shredder has a little sensor to know when to automatically start shredding or not, and it's all covered up with paper particles. Naturally, I grab a can of compressed air so that I can blast away all of the shreddings. I start applying a constant spray of air as I activate the shredder, being very careful to not get the nozzle stuck in the shredding mechanism.
After a few seconds, there is a loud BANG and a lot of intense heat in my face. The compressed air from the can had gotten ignited by the shredder, and it had blown up in my face! The air reeked of burnt hair, and as I tried to open my eyes, I realized that most of my eyelashes had burned off, and the stubs that remained were curled up and attaching together... making it hard to open my eyes and really assess the situation.
I walked over to my coworkers office and knocked on the door.
"Yeah?"
"Brian, I have an emergency. I think." He bursts out of his office, and I tell him what happened.
As it turned out, my eyes are OK, my head isn't on fire, and I end up with what feels like a minor sunburn and very short eyelashes. It being a gorgeous afternoon, and with the burnt-hair-stench in our office, I went home early and barbecued myself some dinner!
Comments:
kga245 (May 1, 2007. 09:48pm)
LOL.