OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14402416
BURN,FURNACE,FLAMMABLE VAPORS,FIRE EXTINGUISHER,WORK RULES,FIRE,CONSTRUCTION,TORCH,CUTTING AND BURNING
Event description
One killed, four injured in diesel vapor fire
Investigation abstract
On August 22, 1988, Employees #2 and #3 were using a butane oxygen torch to cut the immediate area. Employees #2 and #3 were hospitalized with burns to their fa ces, arms, and chests, back bruises, and body contusions. Employees #4 and #5 su stained eye injuries from the heat and were treated the next day at Riverside Ho spital in Corpus Christi, TX. Employee #1 started down the ladder and then went back up because of the fire. He became engulfed in the flames, and either fell o r jumped from the top. He remained at the base of the ladder and was pronounced dead at the scene by the medical examiner. Causal factors include the presence o f diesel vapors in the pipes and above the sludge when Employees #2 and #3 were using the cutting torch. No fire extinguisher or fire watch was on site. an 11-to-12-ft section of 8-in.-diameter pipe that was located atop a 50-ft-high convection oven. Employee #1 had brought Employees #2 and #3 water and all thre e were standing atop the oven on a break. Fire had apparently broken out in the pipe during the cutting, and subsequent statements indicated that fire was still burning inside these pipes before the accident. Flames erupted from the opening that had been cut, forcing Employees #1 through #3 to descend by a fixed ladder . Employees #2 and #3 jumped when halfway down because of the flames and heat. T hey were assisted by Employees #4 and #5, who had been working on the ground in
Victims (5)
-
#1 Fatality Age 28 M
- Nature of injury
- 15
- Part of body
- 19
- Event type
- 14
- Source
- 16
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 10
- Hazardous substance
- 2037
- Task assigned
- 2
-
#2 Hospitalized Age 28 M
- Nature of injury
- 5
- Part of body
- 19
- Event type
- 14
- Source
- 16
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 10
- Hazardous substance
- 2037
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#3 Hospitalized Age 31 M
- Nature of injury
- 5
- Part of body
- 19
- Event type
- 14
- Source
- 16
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 10
- Hazardous substance
- 2037
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#4 Non-hospitalized injury Age 21 M
- Nature of injury
- 5
- Part of body
- 19
- Event type
- 14
- Source
- 16
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 10
- Hazardous substance
- 2037
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#5 Non-hospitalized injury Age 22 M
- Nature of injury
- 5
- Part of body
- 19
- Event type
- 14
- Source
- 16
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 4
- Environmental factor
- 10
- Hazardous substance
- 2037
- 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.