OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14495725
MAINTENANCE,WORK RULES,STORAGE TANK,TORCH,EXPLOSION,STRUCK BY,CHEMICAL VAPOR,FLYING OBJECT,SULFURIC ACID,SLUDGE
Event description
Two employees killed when sulfuric acid tank explodes
Investigation abstract
At the direction of the maintenance supervisor, Employees #1 and #2 were replaci ng a collar on top of an 8,800 gallon acid storage tank. The tank had been drain ed of sulfuric acid but had not been cleaned, and 9 inches of acid sludge remain ed in the bottom of the tank. Employee #1 used an oxygen-propane torch to begin cutting the collar out of the tank. As he applied the torch, the tank exploded a nd he was thrown 50 feet to a rooftop southeast of the tank. He died as a result of his injuries. Employee #2, acting as a fire guard, was standing on a catwalk on the east side of the tank. He was killed when he was struck by the tank lid.
Victims (2)
-
#1 Fatality Age 54 M
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 9
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 17
- Environmental factor
- 5
- Hazardous substance
- 2310
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#2 Fatality Age 49 M
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 9
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 17
- Environmental factor
- 5
- Hazardous substance
- 2310
- 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.