OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14542385
CHEMWELD, INC.
ATLANTA, GA·
Event description
Employee burned by flammable vapor explosion
Investigation abstract
Employee #1 worked for a company that cleans paints, and replaces valves in LP a nd MAPP gas cylinders. Before removing an old valve, Employee #1 would open the valve to let the residual gas leak out on the loading dock. When there was a lar ge quantity of cylinders, Employee #1 would invert the cylinder so the residual gas could vent faster. Employee #1 had an accumulation of a gas and air mixture around his work area. The vapors were ignited either by a spark from the metal s crewdriver he was using to open a damaged valve or by an open flame burner appro ximately 40 ft away. There was a fire and explosion. Employee #1 sustained 2nd- and 3rd-degree burns on the lower half of his body.
Victim
-
#1 Hospitalized Age 23 M
- Nature of injury
- 5
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 14
- Source
- 16
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- 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.