OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14297352

BURN,ACETYLENE TORCH,FLAMMABLE VAPORS,WORK RULES,DRUM,FIRE,TORCH,EXPLOSION,PURGING,CUTTING AND BURNING

1986-10-20T00:00:00

Event: BURN,ACETYLENE TORCH,FLAMMABLE VAPORS,WORK RULES,DRUM,FIRE,TORCH,EXPLOSION,PURGING,CUTTING AND BURNING
Linked inspection: No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number: 14297352
Report ID: 352420

Event description

55 GALLON DRUM EXPLODED WHEN TOP BEING CUT OFF WITH TORCH

Investigation abstract

EMPLOYEE #1 WAS USING A CUTTING TORCH TO REMOVE THE TOP OF A 55 GALLON DRUM. THE DRUM HAD NOT BEEN CLEANED OR PURGED. THE DRUM EXPLODED, CAUSING A FIRE IN WHICH EMPLOYEE #1 WAS BURNED TO DEATH.

Victim

#1 Fatality Age 26 M

Nature of injury
5

Part of body
19

Event type
1

Source
40

Occupation code
863

Human factor
1

Environmental factor
5

Task assigned
2

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.