OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #221445091
WELLSPAN YORK HOSPITAL
YORK, PA·
Event description
Employee is burned by 160 degree Fahrenheit water
Investigation abstract
While doing other work in the mechanical room that housed domestic water heaters 1 in order to drain the water from this tank. In the meantime, Employee #2 (not involved in this project on the initial day of work), started yanking on the section of water piping attached to the side of domestic water heater 1. A valve on the water pipe broke, splashing hot water (160 degrees Fahrenheit) onto Employee #2, as well as onto Employee #1 standing behind Employee #2. Employee #2 experienced first and second degree burns to the chest, abdomen, left lower extremities, and right upper extremities, resulting in hospitalization. 1 and 2, Employee #1 and Coworker #1 discovered a leak in domestic water heater 2. Instead of only repairing the leak in domestic water heater 2, a decision was made to also replace with new copper piping the old galvanized water piping, which supplied both water heaters. On the initial day of work, Coworker #1 shut off the steam and water to the two water heaters, drained the water from domestic water heater 2, and removed insulation on the water piping, as well as removed some of the water piping. On the second day of the work, at 7:50 a.m. on February 21, 2022, Coworker #1 went around the back of domestic water heater
Victim
-
#1 Hospitalized Age 58 M
- Event type
- 1
- Occupation code
- 585
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.