yup and you haven't lived until you have had a flooded lead cell blow up in your face,
i had a good friend have one blow with his head (face) about 3 inches above the battery,, face and eyes full of acid!
not a good thing at all, and he was lucky there were two others there that could grab him and get him to water within seconds
i had one blow up on me while under a welding helmut,, ruined my clothes, ringing in my ears for days
and thank god for the helmet, i didn't get it in my eyes either.
i have a large 3 phase UPS, with a 240volt dc battery bank where one battery failed, the result was a hole blown thru three layers of 1/8" steel
that looked like a rifle shot.
DC is ok by me,, however i don't care for high voltage large strings of series connected batteries that are not contained in an enclosure.
a good enclosure,,
anything less than that is asking for trouble in my opinion
all it takes is one gassy battery to absolutely ruin your day.
bob g