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 #14379150

CYLINDER,ACETYLENE,WORK RULES,WELDER,CONSTRUCTION,WELDING,EXPLOSION,VALVE,GAS LEAK

Event
CYLINDER,ACETYLENE,WORK RULES,WELDER,CONSTRUCTION,WELDING,EXPLOSION,VALVE,GAS LEAK
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14379150
Report ID
524500

Event description

ACETYLENE TANK LEAKED AT VALVE; EXPLODED

Investigation abstract

WELDERS WERE GETTING READY TO CUT SOME I-BEAMS, USING OXY-ACETYLENE TORCHES. A W ELDER LIT HIS TORCH AND WENT TO ADJUST THE GAS REGULATOR. THE ACETYLENE TANK HAD DEVELOPED A LEAK AT THE VALVE. THE LEAKING ACETYLENE WAS SOMEHOW IGNITED. THE W ELDERS WERE UNABLE TO EXTINGUISH THE FIRE OR SHUT OFF THE GAS, SO THEY FLED THE AREA. AFTER THE WELDERS LEFT THE BUILDING AN EXPLOSION OCCURRED. THE WELDERS HAD NOT CHECKED FOR LEAKS AT THE TANK CONNECTIONS BEFORE BEGINNING WELDING.

Victims (2)

  1. #981 Degree 0 Age 0

    Nature of injury
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    Source
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    Occupation code
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    Environmental factor
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    Task assigned
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  2. #982 Degree 0 Age 0

    Nature of injury
    0
    Part of body
    0
    Event type
    0
    Source
    0
    Occupation code
    0
    Human factor
    0
    Environmental factor
    0
    Task assigned
    0

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.