104,543Records 70,659Employers 84,666Hospitalizations 27,563Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-09-30
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #686451

PILOT LIGHT,FIRE,HOSE,EXPLOSION,PROPANE

Event
PILOT LIGHT,FIRE,HOSE,EXPLOSION,PROPANE
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
686451
Report ID
854910

Event description

FIRE AND EXPLOSION; PROPANE GAS

Investigation abstract

ON JANUARY 21, 1985, AT APPROXIMATELY 2315 HOURS, EMPLOYEE #1 WAS PREPARING TO S TEAM CLEAN THE MEAT CUTTING ROOM, USING A PROPANE-FIRED STEAM CLEANING MACHINE. THE STEAM CLEANER AND PROPANE CYLINDER WERE OUTSIDE THE BACK DOOR, WHICH WAS OPE N. WHEN HE TURNED THE PROPANE ON, THE HOSE BLEW OFF AT THE VALVE. HE ATTEMPTED T O PUT THE HOSE ON WITHOUT SHUTTING OFF THE VALVE. THE FLOWING PROPANE APPARENTLY REACHED THE HOT WATER HEATER PILOT, CAUSING AN EXPLOSION AND SUBSEQUENT FIRE.

Victim

  1. #1 Non-hospitalized injury Age 39 M

    Nature of injury
    5
    Part of body
    12
    Event type
    14
    Source
    16
    Occupation code
    863
    Human factor
    4
    Environmental factor
    7
    Task assigned
    1

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.