OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14418313
EXPLOSIVES,EXPLOSIVE MIXING,WORK RULES,CLOGGED,EXPLOSION,CHEMICAL
Event description
TWO EMPLOYEES KILLED IN CHEMICAL PLANT EXPLOSION
Investigation abstract
A PLANT WAS MAKING PENTOLITE, A CLASS OF EXPLOSIVE PRIMER. WORKERS WERE MIXING T NT AND PETN IN TWO KETTLES THAT WERE HEATED TO ABOUT 212 DEGREES BY HOT WATER AN D STEAM. THE FLOW OF HOT WATER SLOWED DUE TO A PUMP MALFUNCTION, SOLIDIFYING THE TNT-PETN MIXTURE IN A PIPE BENEATH ONE KETTLE. EMPLOYEES #1 AND #2 TRIED TO REM OVE THE BLOCKAGE WITH THE PIPE IN PLACE USING HOT WATER. THIS DID NOT WORK, SO T HE PIPE CONTAINING THE SOLID MIX WAS REMOVED AND PLACED ON THE FLOOR. ONE EMPLOY EE TRIED TO PRY THE STOPPAGE LOOSE USING A SCREW DRIVER AND A RAWHIDE MALLET. TH IS CAUSED THE SHOCK-SENSITIVE TNT-PETN MIXTURE TO EXPLODE. THE EXPLOSION KILLED TWO EMPLOYEES AND INJURED TWO OTHERS.
Victims (4)
-
#1 Fatality Age 33 M
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 14
- Source
- 43
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 18
- Hazardous substance
- 2530
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#2 Fatality Age 43 M
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 14
- Source
- 43
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 18
- Hazardous substance
- 2530
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#3 Hospitalized Age 19 M
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 43
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 18
- Environmental factor
- 5
- Hazardous substance
- 2530
- Task assigned
- 2
-
#4 Hospitalized Age 24 M
- Nature of injury
- 7
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 43
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 5
- Hazardous substance
- 2530
- 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.