Scubaism

A diver who filled two cylinders which had incorrectly sized valves said he was lucky to escape alive when both tanks exploded through his roof in Cornwall. Phil Luxford, 63, owner of the caravan park Trevair Touring Site near Penzance, which also offers air fills for divers, said the explosion knocked him into a water tank and that he was lucky to survive.

The two cylinders, a 12-litre and a 15-litre, exploded one after the other. Both hit the roof. Another cylinder was sent flying through a window where it smashed into a parked car, narrowly missing another diver who was asleep in the passenger seat.

‘The explosion must have knocked me out because I don’t actually remember hearing the bang,’ Luxford, an experienced diver, told DIVE. ‘People outside said one of the cylinders flew about 30m high. I am covered in bruises; all my legs are completely blue. The doctor has given me painkillers, but there is no serious damage luckily. My lungs still hurt, however.’

The two cylinders had been left to be filled by a visiting diver over the late May Bank Holiday weekend. According to Luxford, both he and the diver were unaware that the British standard cylinders had been fitted with European standard metric valves. European standard valves are smaller than British standard valves, which Luxford blamed for the explosion.