OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14428619
ASPHYXIATED,WORK RULES,PROPANE,CARBOXYHEMOGLOBIN,OVEREXPOSURE,CARBON MONOXIDE,FELL ASLEEP,VENTILATION,HEATER,CONSTRUCTION
Event description
Employee dies of asphyxia caused by propane-powered heater
Investigation abstract
On the evening of January 4, 1988, during an asbestos removal operation, Employe -powered Pelsue heater blower 1500 S. At approximately 5:00 a.m., the contractor 's employee found Employee #1 dead in the small clean room enclosure. Employee # 1 was asphyxiated by carbon monoxide from the propane heater, which he had run a ll night in the unventilated enclosure. His blood carboxyhemoglobin level was me asured at 75.6 percent. e #1 was phoned at home and asked by his supervisor to come to the work site to perform night duty. When he arrived, he was instructed to stand watch for a seco nd abatement contractor and turn on the water valve inside the company's asbesto s removal enclosure for the contractor's employees. The water access valve for b oth companies was inside the employer's enclosure. At approximately 11:00 p.m., Employee #1 told the contractor's employee to come and get him when they needed water, then proceeded to the company's enclosure to sleep. He closed off the cle an area, which was 5 ft wide by 15 ft long by 7 ft high, and turned on a propane
Victims (4)
-
#1 Fatality Age 26 M
- Nature of injury
- 2
- Part of body
- 25
- Event type
- 8
- Source
- 19
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Hazardous substance
- 0560
- Task assigned
- 2
-
#981 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
-
#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
-
#983 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.