I posted a similar experience a couple of years ago, it may be in a deleted post so I'll repeat it. I was asked to do an investigation into an accident an aquaintance had in his garage. He had a pound of 2F black powder blow up on him, burning him severely. Firefighters had concluded a fan motor must have sparked and threw a spark 10 feet or more, onto the powder. I thought that doubtful, as the powder was in a covered container, and electrical motor sparks are minor. Plus, the fan didn't have any problems that were apparent, after the event. The conclusion I came to was that it was caused by a halogen light. He mounted a 400 watt construction light over his bench so he could see well. He had previously had the 400 watt bulb burn out and explode, cracking and smoking the protective glass over it. He had replaced the bulb, but not the glass, reasoning that it was smoked and wouldn't work well, and the light was better without it. The bulb again burned out, and broke, dropping a hot piece of glass onto the plastic butter tub of powder he had on the bench to dip powder out of. He had covered it with the lid, but it burned through and caught the powder on fire. He was about 5 feet away, and it still put a couple of square feet of 3rd degree burns on his face, neck, arms, and chest. Lesson I got from it, is only use fluorescent lights in the reloading area, and make sure they have a diffuser between the bulbs and you to catch hot fragments if the bulbs break. Absolutely do not use halogen or incandescent. Halogen should not be used directly anyway, anywhere, because it is damaging to your eyes and skin, and can burn you. Also, put the minimum amount of powder that you need, and keep it covered at all times possible. Things like this are preventable, by thinking ahead. Survey your bench today. Do you have a hot light? A grinder? Any open motors? dave
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