OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14442834

C & V UTILITIES, INC.

PORTMOUTH, VA· 1987-10-20T00:00:00

Event: BURN, FLAMMABLE VAPORS, WORK RULES, CONSTRUCTION, NATURAL GAS, EXPLOSION, SMOKING, MANHOLE
NAICS: 000000
Inspection type: Referral
Activity number: #3330644
Employer profile: C & V UTILITIES, INC.
Summary number: 14442834
Report ID: 355124

Event description

EXPLOSION IN UTILITY TUNNEL INJURES EMPLOYEE

Investigation abstract

CONSTRUCTION WORK IN A UTILITY TUNNEL HAD BEEN UNDERWAY FOR SEVEN DAYS. NO PROBL EMS HAD BEEN ENCOUNTERED. NO EXPLOSION METER WAS USED TO DETECT FLAMMABLE GASES. ON THE LAST DAY OF THE JOB EMPLOYEE #1 OPENED THE MANHOLE COVER AS USUAL, AND W AS PREPARING TO ENTER THE TUNNEL. AS HE WAS SITTING ON THE SIDE OF THE MANHOLE H E DECIDED TO TAKE A SMOKE BREAK. WHEN HE LIT THE CIGARETTE AN EXPLOSION OCCURRED . HE RECEIVED SECOND DEGREE BURNS OVER 25% OF HIS BODY, FOR WHICH HE WAS HOSPITA LIZED FOR TEN DAYS. SUSEQUENT INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE TUNNEL CONTAINED N ATURAL GAS (2%), APPARENTLY LEAKING FROM AN ADJACENT TUNNEL.

Victim

#1 Hospitalized Age 22 M

Nature of injury
5

Part of body
2

Event type
14

Source
16

Occupation code
869

Human factor
16

Environmental factor
7

Hazardous substance
1640

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.