OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14442834
BURN,FLAMMABLE VAPORS,WORK RULES,CONSTRUCTION,NATURAL GAS,EXPLOSION,SMOKING,MANHOLE
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.