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http://www.floridatoday.com/news/local/stories/2001/nov/loc112001e.htm Nov. 20, 2001 Dive experts think owner failed to inspect tank By Enrique Heredero FLORIDA TODAY SEBASTIAN - Dive experts in Brevard and Indian River counties say the scuba tank explosion that killed a 72-year-old Sebastian shop owner last week is a rare occurrence in their industry. Richard Ronald Scherrer of the Sebastian Dive Center on U.S. 1 was filling a tank for a customer Nov. 13 when it exploded, killing him and blowing chunks of debris onto the highway. Since the scuba tank that exploded was filled with rust, police said Scherrer might have overlooked a visual inspection of the tank. Jerry Hatt, of Hatts' Diving Headquarters, Inc. in Melbourne, said safety precautions are in place to prevent such incidents from happening. He said the Department of Transportation requires scuba tanks to be pressure-tested every five years, and the scuba diving industry has an industry-wide rule that all tanks should be visually inspected annually. Hatt said rust could form inside tanks if people aren't careful. "If the person lets the tank get empty, water can get in through the mouthpiece," he said. "It only takes one or two drops of salt water to get the rust going. If it creeps in, the tank can get rusty in a week." Sebastian police Detective Joe Dillon said his preliminary investigation revealed the tank, which was probably made in 1988, hadn't been pressure-tested since 1991, and the tank wasn't visually inspected since 1999. Dillon said Scherrer must have forgotten to conduct a visual inspection. "I don't think there's a dive shop owner in the world that would've filled that tank. Being a nice guy caused his death. He must've been conversing with the customer and overlooked the inspection," he said. Hatt said a tank is supposed to be tested by pressurizing it with water and stretching it slightly. The water is let out and if the tank stays stretched, it's disposed of. This allows dive shop workers to know ahead of time if a tank is bad before anything life-threatening like an explosion is possible. Chris Hammett of Deep Six Dive and Water Sports in Vero Beach, said checking scuba tanks isn't expensive. Hammett said his shop charges $3.50 to conduct the mandatory 5-year test. "It's like any sport. There has to be maintenance of equipment," he said. "The most important thing is that people do their checks." Hatt said divers should get their tanks checked often as a precaution. His business does the visual check, hydro test, fill the tank and replace the neck-o-ring at the end of the cylinder for $25. "My personal belief is that the more active divers should have their tanks looked at every six months," he said. Bill High, president of the Professional Scuba Inspectors in Seattle, Wash., said 90 percent of cylinder explosions occur during the filling process. High also said most cylinder explosions occur in Florida than anywhere nationally or internationally. If it's true that the tank that exploded wasn't visually inspected for two years, High said, than there's no reason why the explosion couldn't have been avoided. "(Scherrer) shouldn't have touched that tank with a 20-foot pole unless he had visually inspected it," he said. "That's undefendable." Hatt said scuba tank explosions are very rare. "Steel tanks should never go if they check them every year. We check thousands of tanks a year," he said. Dillon said the customer and Scherrer's wife, the only people in the shop at the time of the explosion, were lucky to be alive. "It's by the grace of God that nobody else was killed because there were cinder blocks that were shot 20 feet from where they were and busted a hole in the wall. There were four-by-fours that were shredded like toothpicks," Dillon said. "The explosion cleared the place out. The customer was about five to seven feet away when the explosion took place," he said. Dillon said no charges would be filed against the customer. "It's not illegal to keep a tank. It's the dive shop owner's responsibility to make sure the tank qualifies to get this air. If the safety precaution had taken place, this probably wouldn't have happened," he said. Meanwhile, residents who knew Scherrer said his friends and acquaintances in Sebastian are wondering about funeral arrangements. Friends of the family said Scherrer's family hasn't made any service plans. Ed Moore, owner of the Ferndale Lodge in Sebastian, said Scherrer helped him feel welcome when he first came to Sebastian. "When I first came to town eight years ago, Ron was one of the first people I met and he made me feel very comfortable here. He didn't do it for any business reason because he knew I wasn't a diver," he said. "When you come into a new town, it's easy to feel like an outsider. Ron transcended all that and made you feel welcome," he said. "I'm going to miss the guy." -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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