OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14498612
UNITED TEXAS TRANSMISSION COMPANY
HOUSTON, TX·
Event description
EMPLOYEE BURNED TO DEATH IN NATURAL GAS EXPLOSION & FIRE
Investigation abstract
PIPELINE EMPLOYEES HAD SHUT DOWN A SECTION OF AN 18 INCH NATURAL GAS LINE IN ORD ER TO REPLACE A SECTION OF PIPE. THE LINE WAS BLOWN DOWN AND PURGED DURING THE D AY. THE OPEN ENDS WERE CAPPED AND THE LINE RETURNED TO NORMAL OPERATING PRESSURE (220-230 PSI). ALL EMPLOYEES BUT EMPLOYEE #1 LEFT TO RETURN TO THE COMPANY OFFI CE IN MISSOURI CITY, TEXAS. IT IS NOT KNOWN WHY EMPLOYEE #1 REMAINED. A DRESSOR COUPLING, LOCATED APPROXIMATELY 13 FEET WEST OF THE CAPPED PART OF THE LINE, FAI LED, RELEASING GAS INTO A PAINT WAREHOUSE LOCATED ABOUT 200 FEET EAST OF THE RUP TURE. THE GAS IGNITED, CAUSING AN EXPLOSION AND FIRE AT THE WAREHOUSE. EMPLOYEE #1 WAS BURNED TO DEATH.
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 37 M
- Nature of injury
- 5
- Part of body
- 19
- Event type
- 14
- Source
- 35
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 4
- Environmental factor
- 10
- 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.