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 #14353015

BURN,SEWER,FLAMMABLE VAPORS,FIRE,CONSTRUCTION,SPARK,MANHOLE

Event
BURN,SEWER,FLAMMABLE VAPORS,FIRE,CONSTRUCTION,SPARK,MANHOLE
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14353015
Report ID
418600

Event description

Employee burned by flash fire in manhole

Investigation abstract

The employer was installing PVC underground sewer lines. Employee #1 and two cow orkers were on this job with a superintendent, who divided his time between this site and a similar project 30 miles away. One afternoon, Employee #1, who was p erforming mortar work inside a manhole, requested a cigarette lighter from his h elper above ground. Almost immediately, flames erupted from the manhole. After t he flash fire subsided, Employee #1 emerged from the manhole with some assistanc e. He complained of pain and requested immediate transportation to a hospital. A fter a brief stop at a medical treatment clinic, he was airlifted to a hospital and admitted for burn treatment..

Victim

  1. #1 Hospitalized Age 33 M

    Nature of injury
    5
    Part of body
    19
    Event type
    14
    Source
    16
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    7
    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.