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 #677245

THE BREWER COMPANY

Event
FLAMMABLE VAPORS, LOW FLASH POINT, WORK RULES, FIRE, EXPLOSION, TANK, ARC WELDING
NAICS
000000
Inspection type
Accident-driven
Activity number
#101323871
Employer profile
THE BREWER COMPANY
Summary number
677245
Report ID
522000

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. #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
  2. #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.