OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14562508
LEAK,FLAMMABLE VAPORS,WORK RULES,DRUM,TOLUENE,EXPLOSION,CHEMICAL BURN,CHEMICAL VAPOR,PUMP,CHEMICAL
Event description
Two employees burned when toluene drum explodes
Investigation abstract
Employees #1 and #2 eating lunch in a cubbyhole next to a 55 gal drum of toluene when they apparently used a hot air blower gun to heat their food. The drum exp loded and both employees sustained burns over 60 percent of their bodies. As of February 3, 1988, Employees #1 and #2 remained hospitalized in critical conditio n. The drum had an unapproved siphon pump that most likely had a leak, and it wa s within 20 feet of an area where flammable contact adhesive #7 was normally spr ayed. The drum was neither grounded nor bonded. It is also possible that drinkin g and smoking occurred in this area.
Victims (2)
-
#1 Hospitalized Age 21 M
- Nature of injury
- 4
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 14
- Source
- 9
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Task assigned
- 2
-
#2 Hospitalized Age 27 M
- Nature of injury
- 4
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 14
- Source
- 9
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Task assigned
- 2
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.