On June 24, 2018, a 33-year-old male career part-time fire fighter (Fire Fighter 2) died after being struck in the head by a pressurized compressed-air self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA) cylinder. Fire Fighter 2 was working his regular shift at Station 22 and was assisting Fire Fighter 1 and an off-duty captain with the inspection of a lot of 22 used SCUBA cylinders. The SCUBA cylinders had been recently privately purchased by members of the fire department’s dive rescue team. The cylinders were all used and all had expired hydrostatic retest dates stamped on the cylinders. The firefighters were draining the air from the cylinders and removing the cylinder valves so that the cylinders could be sent out to be hydrostatically retested and requalified. Some of the cylinder valves were stuck shut preventing the firefighters from bleeding off the cylinders’ contents through the cylinder valve. In order to bleed off the cylinder contents from the cylinders with the stuck valves, Fire Fighter 1 was instructed to loosen the pressure-relief burst disc plugs on the cylinder valves approximately 1 ½ to 2 turns, while Fire Fighter 2 assisted the captain in removing cylinder valves from the empty cylinders. During this process, one of the pressure-relief plugs separated from the valve body which created an unrestricted orifice through which the cylinder contents vented. The unsecured cylinder began to spin, rotate and bounce off the engine bay floor until it became an airborne projectile. The airborne cylinder struck a concrete block wall, causing the cylinder valve body to shear off, resulting in a larger orifice for the cylinder contents to vent through. The cylinder was projected off the concrete block wall diagonally across the engine bay where it struck the right rear corner (officer side) of the engine, then glanced off the engine striking Fire Fighter 2 in the head. The other two firefighters immediately began to administer first aid to the fallen firefighter. Fire Fighter 1 called dispatch for an air medic helicopter and an ambulance. Within minutes, Fire Fighter 2 was transported via helicopter to a regional trauma hospital where he was pronounced dead. CLICK HERE for the full report.