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 #686899

BURN,GRINDER,FLAMMABLE LIQUID,WORK RULES,FIRE,EXPLOSION,SPARK,ARM,FACE,GASOLINE

Event
BURN,GRINDER,FLAMMABLE LIQUID,WORK RULES,FIRE,EXPLOSION,SPARK,ARM,FACE,GASOLINE
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
686899
Report ID
854910

Event description

EMPLOYEE BURNED WHEN PLASTIC GASOLINE CONTAINER EXPLODED

Investigation abstract

EMPLOYEE #1 WAS GRINDING A STEEL PLATE ON THE TAILGATE OF A PICKUP TRUCK WHICH W EMPLOYEE #1 WAS TRANSPORTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH BURN CENTER WHERE HE WAS C ONFINED WITH SECOND AND THIRD DEGREE BURNS TO HIS FACE, ARMS AND UPPER BODY. AS USED FOR WELDING. DURING THIS PROCEDURE, SPARKS FROM THE GRINDER APPARENTLY M ELTED THROUGH A PLASTIC CONTAINER OF GASOLINE IN THE BACK OF THE TRUCK. THE CONT AINER IGNITED, CAUSING A SMALL FIRE IN THE TRUCK BED. EMPLOYEE #1 ATTEMPTED TO E XTINGUISH THE FIRE BY THROWING GRAVEL ONTO IT. BEFORE THIS COULD BE DONE, THE PL ASTIC MILK CONTAINER EXPLODED, SETTING EMPLOYEE #1'S UPPER BODY ON FIRE. TWO OTH ER PLASTIC CONTAINERS, ONE CONTAINING OIL AND THE OTHER HYDRAULIC OIL, CONTRIBUT ED TO THE FIRE. ANOTHER EMPLOYEE HEARD EMPLOYEE #1 YELL, AND SMOTHERED THE FLAME S ON EMPLOYEE #1'S BODY. HE THEN CALLED THE FIRE DEPARTMENT AND MEDICAL SQUADS.

Victim

  1. #1 Hospitalized Age 20 M

    Nature of injury
    5
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    14
    Source
    16
    Occupation code
    783
    Human factor
    6
    Environmental factor
    10
    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.