105,313Records 71,083Employers 85,290Hospitalizations 27,770Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-10-31
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14252530

EYE,FIREFIGHTER,LUNG,EMERGENCY RESPONSE,WORK RULES,INHALATION,CHLORINE,SCBA,CHLORINE ROOM,OVEREXPOSURE

Event
EYE,FIREFIGHTER,LUNG,EMERGENCY RESPONSE,WORK RULES,INHALATION,CHLORINE,SCBA,CHLORINE ROOM,OVEREXPOSURE
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14252530
Report ID
453710

Event description

Employees suffer exposure to chlorine gas

Investigation abstract

At approximately 2:00 p.m. on August 29, 1988, the water treatment plant operato and treatment. The WTPO was not injured. Employee #2 was a volunteer fireman who responded to the emergency response request. He entered the water treatment pla nt without a fully-operational SCBA. He was brought to the same hospital sufferi ng eye and lung irritation, but was not admitted. r (WTPO) smelled a chlorine leak. He shut off the two chlorine cylinders in use and called Employee #1, his supervisor. After meeting with the WTPO in the water treatment plant lab/office at approximately 2:15 p.m., Employee #1 walked into the pump room. As he turned the corner heading toward the chlorine room, he was confronted by a green chlorine cloud that was coming in through the back door fr om the chlorine cylinder storage area. Employee #1 and the WTPO quickly turned a round and exited the building through the lab. Employee #1 experienced eye and l ung irritation and was admitted to Good Hope Hospital for overnight observation

Victims (2)

  1. #1 Hospitalized Age 48 M

    Nature of injury
    4
    Part of body
    28
    Event type
    8
    Source
    19
    Occupation code
    699
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    7
    Hazardous substance
    0640
    Task assigned
    2
  2. #2 Non-hospitalized injury Age 25 M

    Nature of injury
    4
    Part of body
    28
    Event type
    8
    Source
    19
    Occupation code
    417
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    7
    Hazardous substance
    0640
    Task assigned
    1

Codes shown verbatim from OSHA's accident-investigation database. A human-readable decoder is coming in a future release once the accident_lookup2 dictionary is loaded.