OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14383913
NORTHWESTERN STEEL & WIRE COMPANY
STERLING, IL·
Event description
EMPLOYEE BURNED TO DEATH BY ARC FURNACE
Investigation abstract
AT ABOUT 12:05 AM ON MAY 4, 1988, EMPLOYEE #1 AND ANOTHER MILLWRIGHT WERE ASSIGN DIAGNOSED AS HAVING BURNS ON 100% OF HIS BODY; 80% OF THE BURNS WERE 3RD DEGREE . HE WAS TRANSFERRED TO A BURN UNIT AND DIED 30 HOURS LATER. ED THE JOB OF REPLACING TWO BOLTS ON THE SLAG DOOR FITTING OF A 400 TON ELECTRIC ARC FURNACE. ON THEIR ARRIVAL AT THE FURNACE, THEY NOTED THAT THE FURNACE WAS I DLE BUT NOT TAPPED. EMPLOYEE #1'S COWORKER WALKED TO THE PULPIT TO FIND OUT HOW LONG THE FURNACE WOULD BE DOWN AND TO ARRANGE FOR A CRANE. HE THOUGHT EMPLOYEE # 1 WAS FOLLOWING HIM. SHORTLY AFTER THE MILLWRIGHT ENTERED THE PULPIT, A REACTION SIMILAR TO A "CARBON BLOW" OCCURRED (THE FURNACE HAD BEEN IDLE MORE THAN 1/2 HO UR AT THIS TIME), AND A JET OF FLAME SHOT OUT THE SLAG DOOR. EMPLOYEE #1 WAS ENG ULFED IN THE FLAME. HE WAS TAKEN TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM AT THE LOCAL HOSPITAL AND
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 35 M
- Nature of injury
- 5
- Part of body
- 19
- Event type
- 14
- Source
- 16
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 14
- Environmental factor
- 9
- 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.