Have there been any cases of people being killed or injured by an exploding EOL unprotected MH lamp in an open fixture?

Injuries happened even from MV lamps with shattered outer: The sunburns.

Otherwise I have no knowledge of any specific cases, but Ive never looked for them. The danger is pretty clear to me to take it seriously, without case examples...

Injuries happened even from MV lamps with shattered outer: The sunburns.

Otherwise I have no knowledge of any specific cases, but Ive never looked for them. The danger is pretty clear to me to take it seriously, without case examples...

I am just curious if people have actually been killed or injured by the hot glass fragments that get ejected from exploding EOL unprotected MH lamps that are used in open fixtures.

I know about many theatre fires, many of them with quite a lot causalities, ignited by scene lighting. But not clear how many were actually caused by lamps bursting, how many of these were HIDs and how many from jus flamable rags being too close in the light (and IR) beam so they catch fire just from that.
Definitely burning/exploding dust collected everywhere and getting agitated by rge unfolding disaster was a factor in how the fire spread in practically all of them.

But these injuries or causalities were mainly from the fire and related panic, not aware abou any "direct hits" from the lighting.
But information about the direct hits could well be just drown into all the rest of these events.

Maybe can cause partial or total blindness, if a person casually looks directly at an MV or MH without the protective glass, causing burns due to the UV.

Maybe can cause partial or total blindness, if a person casually looks directly at an MV or MH without the protective glass, causing burns due to the UV.

This does not go instantly, few seconds wont do any harm (it is this reason, why a streetlight damaged such way is not considered that big problem, as it is expected the time someone spend exposed there will be short).

But problem is, when the time is longer (you are sitting underneath a broken lamp,...), it starts aching (so you start to feel something isn't right) only when it becomes too late and the eye injury is there.
Then it depends how severe it is (so how long and from which angles was the exposure) and how the regeneration works with that person, if he recovers from it without long lasting effects or not.
Plus when you totally do not expect it, even aren't aware such danger even exist (= normal people sitting in an arena), you will very likely assume your eyes are just tired, so continue to sit there, so the damage continues. Then the risk of unrecoverable damage becomes severe and it is this way the severe blindness developed in these accidents.
This is, why mainly indoor installations are of a big concern, related to dangerous UV exposure accidents, as there people are expected to spend a longer time. And even intensity levels comparable to natural sun are deemed dangerous when coming from an indoor lights - as people are expecting the UV exposure from the sun (so behave accordingly - do not look onto the sun for too long,...), but not from some indoor lighting.

One time ive seen a MH lamp swrils very badly at the Sam club high bay lighting.  The lamp was unprotective type and no lense on them,  when lamp explodes it send hot glass and metals down on top packages of toilet paper setting them on fire.

Even if you are close to an MH that is about to explode it can't really kill you, but it will cause burnings. The air will slow down the piece of glass quickly, and it will cool down as a blob of glass.
Depends of how close you are to the lamp.

The Arc tube of a MH lamp runs at a temperature of up to 2,200°F !   Fragments at that temp will remain dangerously hot for a LONG time . The arc tube in my 23w SBMH flood lamp will continue to glow red for almost a minute after shut down . Even if the lamp is mounted 50 feet in the air the arc tube fragments will still be hot enough to cause injury or fire .

Well the bursting lamp may directly cause injury (cuts, burns, lost eyes,...), it wont directly kill anyone.
But the smoke from the fire started by those hot fragments will and did a way too often definitely kill.

Yes, burning fragments from an exploding lamp are dangerous without a doubt.  

The manufacturers put warnings on lamps to say that they shouldn't be used in an open fixture for this very reason, and that is so that if you should do so and the lamp explodes causing injury they can't be held liable.

Yes, burning fragments from an exploding lamp are dangerous without a doubt.  

The manufacturers put warnings on lamps to say that they shouldn't be used in an open fixture for this very reason, and that is so that if you should do so and the lamp explodes causing injury they can't be held liable.

Thats why in the U.S. we have the Ex39 and Ex26 bulb sockets that only allow an open rated lamp with a special base to be put in the socket.

I would be more concerned about busting a short arc Xenon lamp. They are really high pressure will be a hazard to unprotected human skin. The flying shards can cut into the skin and cut through blood vessels.... 
When I was a kid my XBO 1600W lamp explode in my bedroom. Leaving a big mess with silica shards everywhere. Luckily I was in the bathroom when it happened.

I would be more concerned about busting a short arc Xenon lamp. They are really high pressure will be a hazard to unprotected human skin. The flying shards can cut into the skin and cut through blood vessels.... 
When I was a kid my XBO 1600W lamp explode in my bedroom. Leaving a big mess with silica shards everywhere. Luckily I was in the bathroom when it happened.

Dont be wrong, the pressure within the arctube is comparable to mercury based lamps (that includes MH) when at operating temperature. So when running, the risk is about the same once lamp size and powe are comparable. So once it fails, it sends hot shrapnells all around. But the lamp housing normally is (must be) designed so it contains all these dangerous fragments. So the real danger comes only when the lamp is operated in an unsuitable fixture.

The difference comes only once the lamps cool down: Xe pressure drops remains dangerously high (the only difference is, the cold fragments do not set anything on fire), so you must be protected when handling it. But any Hg based lamp becomes effectively a vacuum device once it cools down, so rather safe to handle without anything special.

The two MH lamp failures I experienced were-a 250WMH lamp in an enclosed fixture-the lamp made a muffled "boom" and none of the pieces escaped out of the bulb.Another was a 100W CMH lamp and a piece came out of the bulb but didn't leave the fixture-was enclosed.Again a muffled "pop" sound when the bulb went.