Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025
105,991Records 71,450Employers 85,836Hospitalizations 27,959Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-11-30

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #221420409

EMPIRE ELECTRIC, INC.

Event
Alarm, Burn, Circuit Breaker, Connecting, Electric Arc Flash, Electrical Burn, Electrical Work, Electrical panel, Engulfed, Face, Fire, Hand Tool, Installing, Insulated Tool, Neck, Torso
NAICS
238210
Inspection type
Referral
Activity number
#345693212
Employer profile
EMPIRE ELECTRIC, INC.
Summary number
221420409
Report ID
0419700

Event description

Two employees are burned in arc flash during breaker replace

Investigation abstract

At 5:00 p.m. on December 14, 2021, Employees #1 and #2 worked to troubleshoot the left arm. Employee #2 received second degree burns to the face, neck, arm, and upper torso. and repair a live one hundred-ampere main breaker. Employee #1 removed the dead front panel and the old breaker and began to install the new one hundred ampere breaker. Employee #1 stood in front of the panel while working and had connected the new breaker to the A-phase side using a non-insulated flat tip screwdriver (KLEIN Tools Serial #32290) and began to line up the C-phase side when an arc flash fire ball shot out of the panel and engulfed both employees. Both employees were hospitalized to treat electrical burns. Employee #1 received second degree burns to the face, head, ears, and neck, and third degree burns to

Victims (2)

  1. #1 Hospitalized Age 48 M

    Event type
    14
    Occupation code
    575
  2. #2 Hospitalized Age 35 M

    Event type
    14
    Occupation code
    576

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.