THE HIDDEN HAZARD OF AN INVISIBLE FLAME

摘要

A case study is presented of a fatal incident in which a man poured denatured alcohol on the wick of analcohol stove with the intention of later lighting the wick, failed to first notice the wick had already been lit,and was engulfed in flames after the wick's flame followed the stream of fuel into the can, and caused anexplosion that spewed flaming fuel onto his torso. A survey was conducted to examine common knowledgeabout the invisible flame of burning denatured alcohol, and showed that none of the participants wereaware that denatured alcohol burned with an invisible flame before the survey, and that a small percentagerecognized it as a hazard after reading the product label. The incident is evaluated from the perspective ofthe manufacturer's failure to guard users from the hazard of the invisible flame and their failure to warnusers of the hazard.