OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14466478
RTF INDUSTRIES, INC.
MARSHALL, TX·
Event description
Two employees injured in powder explosion
Investigation abstract
At approximately 11:00 a.m. on December 18, 1986, Employees #1 and #2 were told o his other leg, and it was surgically amputated the following day. Employee #2 suffered first-degree burns to his hands while trying to rescue Employee #1. to granulate a black powder substitute, called golden power, by a company vice-p resident. A Stokes Pharmaceutical and Chemical Equipment Company granulator was cleaned and set up with the proper screens. The first set had a coarse opening, approximately a #4 standard sieve, and approximately 100 pounds of powder was pr ocessed. The sieve was changed to the next smaller size and the process was star ted again. Employee #1 was alone in the room, operating the equipment, when the powder exploded. One of his legs was severed, and he suffered second- and third- degree burns over 60 percent of his body. He also sustained compound fractures t
Victims (2)
-
#1 Hospitalized Age 25 M
- Nature of injury
- 1
- Part of body
- 18
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 43
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 17
- Environmental factor
- 5
- Hazardous substance
- 8880
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#2 Hospitalized Age 28 M
- Nature of injury
- 5
- Part of body
- 12
- Event type
- 14
- Source
- 16
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 14
- Environmental factor
- 18
- Task assigned
- 2
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.