OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14560106

FLAMMABLE VAPORS,VENTING,WORK RULES,OIL TANK,EXPLOSION,STRUCK BY,TANK,CUTTING AND BURNING

1985-01-05T00:00:00

Event: FLAMMABLE VAPORS,VENTING,WORK RULES,OIL TANK,EXPLOSION,STRUCK BY,TANK,CUTTING AND BURNING
Linked inspection: No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number: 14560106
Report ID: 112600

Event description

EMPTY TANK BEING CUT UP EXPLODED, KILLING EMPLOYEE

Investigation abstract

EMPLOYEE #1 WAS USING OXYFUEL GAS CUTTING EQUIPMENT TO CUT UP OLD STEEL OIL TANK S WHICH WERE TO BE SALVAGED. AS HE BEGAN CUTTING ON ONE 12 FOOT LONG TANK, THE V APORS INSIDE IGNITED AND BLEW OUT ONE OF THE FIVE FOOT DIAMETER END CAPS. THE CA P STRUCK AND KILLED EMPLOYEE #1. THE TANK HAD BEEN EMPTIED AND DUG UP AT LEAST 8 YEARS AGO. HOWEVER, IT HAD NEVER BEEN CLEANED, AND HAD BEEN ONLY SUPERFICIALLY VENTED JUST BEFORE BEING WORKED ON.

Victim

#1 Fatality Age 29 M

Nature of injury
12

Part of body
19

Event type
1

Source
35

Occupation code
999

Human factor
1

Environmental factor
10

Hazardous substance
8420

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.