OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14496541
NATIONAL BY-PRODUCTS, INC.
LITTLE ROCK, AR·
Event description
Two employees killed in storage tank explosion
Investigation abstract
Employees #1 and #2, both maintenance workers, were preparing to install a valve and pipe assembly atop a 30 ft high storage tank that contained a mixture of 1/ 3 animal tallow, 1/3 restaurant grease, and 1/3 acid oil. The employees used a c utting torch to cut into the top of the tank, igniting the gases from the mixtur e, and causing the tank to explode. The force of the explosion blew one employee approximately 75 ft across the top of the building next to the tank. The other employee was blown into the guardrail, bending the rails and then falling to the tank's concrete pad. Employees #1 and #2 were killed.
Victims (2)
-
#1 Fatality Age 41 M
- Nature of injury
- 6
- Part of body
- 13
- Event type
- 14
- Source
- 9
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 18
- Environmental factor
- 18
- Hazardous substance
- 8880
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#2 Fatality Age 42 M
- Nature of injury
- 6
- Part of body
- 13
- Event type
- 14
- Source
- 9
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 18
- Environmental factor
- 18
- Hazardous substance
- 8880
- 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.