OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14295026
BURN,STEAM LINE,WORK RULES,STEAM,HIGH PRESSURE,FACE,ACCIDENTAL DISCHARGE,HIGH TEMPERATURE
Event description
Employee suffers second-degree steam burns when line breaks
Investigation abstract
Employee #1 was assigned to put nitrogen gas into high and low shock trap tanks on the #1 hot water system. The high tank contained 375 degree F steam at 400 ps i and the low contained 330 degree F steam. The employees had been stepping on a 36-inch-diameter high steam line and onto a 28-inch-long 0.5-inch-diameter bypa ss line covered with insulation that was approximately 4 inches in diameter. Thi s stressed the bypass line, which had a 9-inch connecting elbow. When Employee # 1 stepped on the line it apparently broke at the joints, releasing the high temp erature steam. He sustained second-degree burns to his body and to the right sid e of his face. He was hospitalized for his injuries.
Victim
-
#1 Hospitalized Age 40 M
- Nature of injury
- 5
- Part of body
- 1
- Event type
- 14
- Source
- 6
- Occupation code
- 539
- Human factor
- 18
- Environmental factor
- 13
- 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.