OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14478291
STATLER TISSUE COMPANY
AUGUSTA, ME·
Event description
Employees affected by gases in confined space
Investigation abstract
At 9:45 a.m. on August 20, 1987, Employees #1 and #2 were in an approximately 10 employees were sent to the hospital and released; one of them lost work days as a result of the accident. ft by 6 ft by 5 1/2 ft space, cleaning soot from the tubes in a boiler air preh eater. There was an induced draft fan between the air preheater and stack gas he ader duct. Three other boilers, two of which were operating, shared the header d uct. Due to the high air demand from cleaning the boiler burners and the startup of a paper machine, a positive pressure was created in the header, forcing stac k gases from the online boilers (sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxi de) into the space where the employees were working. They had been provided only with dust respirators and the gases forced them out of the confined space. Both
Victims (2)
-
#1 Non-hospitalized injury Age 22 M
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 31
- Event type
- 8
- Source
- 9
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 9
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#2 Non-hospitalized injury Age 22 M
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 31
- Event type
- 8
- Source
- 9
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 9
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Task assigned
- 2
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