OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #677245
FLAMMABLE VAPORS,LOW FLASH POINT,WORK RULES,FIRE,EXPLOSION,TANK,ARC WELDING
Event description
Employee killed by explosion while arc welding
Investigation abstract
On May 26, 1988, Employee #1 was assigned to attach a metal ladder to a Grade B rs to have ignited flammable and/or combustible vapors inside the tank above the surface of the liquid. asphalt tank, which was 30 feet tall by 12 feet in diameter and made of 3/8 inch steel. This approximately 25,000 gallon capacity tank was approximately half fi lled with Grade B asphalt paint which had a flash point of 100 degrees F. Employ ee #1 began to arc weld the steel ladder to the steel tank. While Employee #1 wa s welding at a height of approximately 20 feet above the ground, an explosion la unched the tank approximately 100 to 200 feet up into the air. It landed over 40 feet away. A major fire resulted, destroying numerous vehicles and a building. Apparently, Employee #1 was killed instantly by the explosion. His welding appea
Victims (2)
-
#1 Fatality Age 30 M
- Nature of injury
- 5
- Part of body
- 31
- Event type
- 14
- Source
- 16
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 18
- Environmental factor
- 10
- Hazardous substance
- 0290
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#981 Degree 0 Age 0
- Nature of injury
- 0
- Part of body
- 0
- Event type
- 0
- Source
- 0
- Occupation code
- 0
- Human factor
- 0
- Environmental factor
- 0
- Task assigned
- 0
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.