OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14485015

NICHTER CONSTRUCTION CO. INC.

AMHERST, NY· 1987-02-20T13:15:00

Event: BURN, CONFINED SPACE, PROPANE TORCH, TORCH, EXPLOSION, GAS LEAK, PROPANE, FACE, HAND
NAICS: 000000
Inspection type: Referral
Activity number: #100663509
Employer profile: NICHTER CONSTRUCTION CO. INC.
Summary number: 14485015
Report ID: 213600

Event description

EMPLOYEE BURNED IN CONFINED SPACE PROPANE EXPLOSION

Investigation abstract

ON FEBRUARY 20, 1987, AT APPROXIMATELY 1:15 PM, EMPLOYEE #1 SMELLED PROPANE EMAN ATING FROM THE VALVE CHAMBER, A CONFINED SPACE. EMPLOYEE #1 ENTERED THE VALVE CH AMBER TO DETERMINE WHY THE PROPANE TORCH HE WAS USING HAD EXTINGUISHED. JUST AFT ER EMPLOYEE #1 ENTERED THE VALVE CHAMBER THROUGH A 16-INCH PIPE SLEEVE, AN EXPLO SION OCCURRED IN THE CHAMBER. EMPLOYEE #1 WAS HOSPITALIZED FOR BURNS TO HIS FACE AND HANDS.

Victim

#1 Hospitalized Age 36 M

Nature of injury
5

Part of body
12

Event type
14

Source
16

Occupation code
999

Human factor
9

Environmental factor
10

Hazardous substance
2150

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.