OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #517052
PACIFIC BORING, INCORPORATED
FAIRFIELD, CA·
Event description
Employee burned to death by oxyacetylene torch
Investigation abstract
Employee #1, the job foreman, entered a 24 inch diameter, horizontally-drilled p ipe located about 10 feet below ground. Approximately 75 feet from the entrance of the pipe, he began to heat the metal using an oxyacetylene torch. After he us ed the torch for five minutes, his clothes caught on fire and he was engulfed in flames. He could not be rescued immediately from the confined space due to the lack of a safety line, and he was not wearing an air line respirator. After the fire department arrived, the foreman went into the pipeline with a scba and pull ed out Employee #1. He was killed.
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 36 Male
- Nature of injury
- Burn/Scald(Heat) (5)
- Part of body
- MULTIPLE (19)
- Accident type
- OTHER (14)
- Source of injury
- GASES (19)
- Occupation
- Occupation not reported (999)
- Human factor
- INSUF/LACK/PROTCV WRK CLTHG/EQUIP (20)
- Environmental factor
- GAS/VAPOR/MIST/FUME/SMOKE/DUST (7)
- Task assigned
- Task regularly assigned (1)
Labels are OSHA's own, from the code dictionary published with the accident-investigation file. The raw code is shown beside each one so this page can be reconciled against OSHA's bulk data. OSHA notes that nature of injury, part of body, source of injury and accident type in this file are not coded to the Occupational Injury and Illness Classification System, and that the occupation titles are not standardised — so these values are not directly comparable with the OIICS-coded severe injury reports.