Once again somebody has put a beer keg in a fire and sent sharpnel into party goers. This happens multiple times a year in this country. Why don’t they require a pressure safty valve that blows before the barrel explodes. It’s a simple but necessary device on something like a beer keg. It’s got to be about the same as a boiler explosion as far as the near bystanders are concerned. Also how about big letters declaring “Putting keg in fire kills people every year”.
Bet they didn’t get their deposit back, either. Dumb.
Cream rises to the top. (bump)
I would argue that it is expensive and unnecessary, unless this happens often. How many kegs are rented out each year? How many end up exploding in a fire? I don’t know the answer, but my WAG is 1) A helluvalot and 2) damfew.
Why place the burden on the keg manufacturers when it is the fault of the dumbasses who put kegs in a fire?
That’s an arguement for any safety device.
Since we’re not in The Pit, I have to say I respectfully disagree. I have no problem with safety devices which protect people from catastrophic events which they lacked the reasonable ability to predict and correct (ex: defective hi-limit thermostat on water heater), but not those catastrophic events in which the parties acted to create said hazard by nature of failure to exercise the good sense Og gave a tree toad.
How much would it cost to put a warning label on the keg?
Zero, since they already put other words on there.
Works for other things like spray cans: Do not dispose of in fire, will explode.
You’re right. I’m sure that intoxicated people will carefully read those labels prior to engaging in potentially injurious conduct, and those sober souls who consider the act will be dissuaded.
I’d have to agree. Warning labels seem like a good idea in theory, but once you’re so drunk that throwing a keg into a firepit seems like a really fun thing to do, a warning label just ain’t gonna stop you.
Well, if they are too damned stupid to read a label, I’m not sure what to do for them.
Jesus.
I am so sick of truly moronic people and the costs of protecting them from themselves. There is no earthly reason to put a keg in a fire! This was not a safety issue, but a stupidity issue.
“Hey Johnny, think this’ll explode? Haw haw haw…”
There’s plenty of hunters each year who throw bullets into the campfire when they buy a new gun that can’t fire them.
Ho ho!
Maybe each one should have a safety valve?
That’s different. A hunter should already know not to do that, and why. Perhaps it’s time to trot out my pet project: beer licenses. A brief safety course, and a straightforward test, and you’re good to drink. The first test, when you’re 17, would involve having a guy ask you if you want to play quarters. If you say yes, you fail. You are too young to drink, and must reapply in 12 months. Other tests could involve shots of Goldschlager, or drinking wort coolers, or keeping your damn voice down.
Barring that, perhaps the kegs could be emblazoned with big red letters that say
NO NO FIRE BAD
I’m actually surprised that kegs don’t come with a pressure safety valve. Not because some idiot might throw it into a fire, but because kegs are routinely pressurized with carbon dioxide, nitrogen, or air. That’s normal use.
Kids, any vessel containing any commodity can be caused to BLEVE if the appropriate amount of thermal energy and poor judgement is applied thereto.
Normal use of a keg releases the pressure. That’s why you have to keep pumping it up.
Big Loud Explosion, Very Exciting, right? 
(Actually it’s Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion. Hazmat 101)
Quite. If we’re going to put warning labels on the thing, why stop at ‘do not dispose of in fire’? Why not also have ‘do not drop onto people from a tall building’, ‘do not place on railway line’, ‘Do not fill with concrete, tie to your feet and take swimming’, etc?
Thing is, some dumbass put the keg on the fire. From the article, it sounds like a number of people saw him do it. Obviously I wasn’t there, so I can’t say for sure, but it does sound very much like he was fully expecting it to blow up. Maybe some of the bystanders were too.
It works? I actually know several guys who got the notion of stealing their mothers’ hairspray cans and tossing them into a bonfire from that sign. Until then it just hadn’t crossed their mind.
Those same guys liked to cook up batches of gunpowder, stuff bricks with it, put the brick at a toolshed’s corner and throw rocks at it until it exploded. I understand their most epic success was one toolshed completely destroyed.
They all still have all their body parts and don’t seem dumber than before but also haven’t grown a brain between all of them.
So what’s the good reason not to put a large warning on the barrels side? Is it because only some pople might heed it’s warning? Is it the maimed and dying deserve to die, because they had it coming? Think how thick these barrels are and how much more dangerous one of them are exploding in a crowd than an aerosol can. Aerosol cans contain an explosion warning. I still believe that a pressure release device should be built into all barrels in the future, due to their high potential to kill when extreme pressure builds up. A large warning on the side is not requiring too much of anybody.
I knew a kid that shot his eye out with a homemade bottle rocket. A warning on the gun powder, wouldn’t have helped him. Many times somebody that is about to do something dangerous, just had a brain fart for a moment. Seeing a large warning triggers the person to think “What the hell was I about to do! Dah!”