I have written about the risks associated with wanting to use larger CO2 containers in the restaurant industry. The IFC now has a section on the hazards associated with these larger cylinders. Still, most of the code deals with CO2 leaks causing an oxygen-deficient atmosphere, much like what happened in AZ McDonalds.
But there is another catastrophic risk associated with these "dewars"... vessel failure. This is what happened in this event at a restaurant over the weekend.
A "dewar" stores the CO2 in a pressurized liquid state, so much more volume is available than the older CO2 compressed gas cylinders. This improves "efficiency" but also increases risks in an industry where workers are usually not aware of the risks.
The failure mode of this dewar is unknown, but we can see from the images and video that it appears to be a failure of the bottom weld, which launched the container upward through the building, landing in the parking lot some 300' away. It destroyed the restaurant (empty at the time of the event) and cause serious structural damage.
More pictures in this News Video and this News Report
2023 Incident at a Restaurant/Bar (much smaller compressed gas cylinder failure)
5/4/2024 UPDATE: the container traveled ~ 486' as shown in the Google image to the left
The cylinder was stored against the wall next to the compactor outside. I still have not heard if it was being filled or in use at the time of the event.
