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 #14423909

BURN,CLOTHING,ELECTRIC ARC,ELECTRICAL,ELECTRIC SWITCH,POWER LINE WORKER,E PTD,ELEC UTILITY WORK,ELECTRICAL FAULT,TRANSFORMER

Event
BURN,CLOTHING,ELECTRIC ARC,ELECTRICAL,ELECTRIC SWITCH,POWER LINE WORKER,E PTD,ELEC UTILITY WORK,ELECTRICAL FAULT,TRANSFORMER
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14423909
Report ID
729300

Event description

BURN - ELECTRICAL FAULT IN LOAD BREAK DISCONNECT

Investigation abstract

AN ELECTRIC UTILITY EMPLOYEE WAS PLACING A 4-KILOVOLT TRANSFORMER BACK INTO SERV ICE FOLLOWING A MAINTENANCE CHECK. AN ELECTRIC ARC FORMED AT THE LOAD BREAK DISC ONNECT, RELEASING A FIRE BALL THAT BLEW OUT THE VIEWING GLASS PANEL. THE EMPLOYE E, WHO WAS STANDING IN FRONT OF THE PANEL, RECEIVED THE FULL FORCE OF THE FIREBA LL. HE DIED AFTER RECEIVING BURNS OVER 90 PERCENT OF HIS BODY.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 36 M

    Nature of injury
    5
    Part of body
    19
    Event type
    12
    Source
    16
    Occupation code
    577
    Human factor
    10
    Environmental factor
    10
    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.