OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14519615
LAKE CHARLES ELECTRIC CO. INC.
LAKE CHARLES, LA·
Event description
EXPLOSION - POSSIBLE ELECTRICAL FAULT IN MANHOLE
Investigation abstract
TWO EMPLOYEES WERE WORKING IN A UTILITY MANHOLE SPLICING AN UNDERGROUND POWER CA BLE. THE EMPLOYEES HAD NOT BEEN TRAINED IN CONFINED SPACE WORK, AND THE ENTRY PE RMITS FOR THE WORK WERE FILLED OUT INCORRECTLY. THE EMPLOYEES WERE NOT USING PER SONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT, NOR HAD THEY CLEARED THE CONFINED SPACE OF COMBUSTIB LE MATERIAL. ADDITIONALLY, THE SPACE WAS NOT VENTILATED, NOR WERE THE POWER LINE S IN THE SPACE DEENERGIZED. A SECOND CABLE IN THE MANHOLE CAUSED AN EXPLOSION IN THE CONFINED SPACE, KILLING BOTH EMPLOYEES.
Victims (2)
-
#1 Fatality Age 57 M
- Nature of injury
- 5
- Part of body
- 19
- Event type
- 12
- Source
- 15
- Occupation code
- 577
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 13
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#2 Fatality Age 34 M
- Nature of injury
- 5
- Part of body
- 19
- Event type
- 12
- Source
- 15
- Occupation code
- 577
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 13
- 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.