OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14562664
B.A. TOFTE CO. INC.
CENTER MORICHES, NY·
Event description
Employee dies of burns from exploding drum
Investigation abstract
At approximately 3:00 p.m. on November 7, 1988, Employee #1 was using an acetyle ne torch to cut open the top of a 55 gallon drum in the yard adjacent to the pla nt. The sealed drum was apparently empty but could have contained the residue of either an industrial lubricant or a solvent. The drum exploded. With its bottom blown out, the drum was propelled about 40 feet straight up into the air. Emplo yee #1 was engulfed in fire. He sustained 3rd-degree burns to 70 to 80 percent o f his body. He was taken by helicopter to a hospital burn unit, where he died tw o days later.
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 25 M
- Nature of injury
- 5
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 14
- Source
- 9
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 6
- 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.