105,313Records 71,083Employers 85,290Hospitalizations 27,770Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-10-31
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #687004

WORK RULES,EXPLOSION,VALVE,PROPANE,SPARK,BURN,INSTALLING,FIRE,NATURAL GAS,GAS LEAK

Event
WORK RULES,EXPLOSION,VALVE,PROPANE,SPARK,BURN,INSTALLING,FIRE,NATURAL GAS,GAS LEAK
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
687004
Report ID
855610

Event description

Employees injured in natural gas explosion

Investigation abstract

Employees #1 through #4 were employed at a natural gas processing plant. The fou ndation for a compressor was about to be poured and two valves were being reinst alled. The piping for the two valves had been opened to the atmosphere to reliev e pressure. Apparently, during the valve installation, natural gas, mostly propa ne, entered the building, and when Employee #4 turned on a nonexplosion-proof va cuum cleaner, the gas ignited. Employees #1, #3, and #4 received burns directly or during rescue. Employee #2 bruised his shoulder.

Victims (4)

  1. #1 Hospitalized Age 41 M

    Nature of injury
    5
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    14
    Source
    16
    Occupation code
    799
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    7
    Hazardous substance
    2150
    Task assigned
    1
  2. #2 Non-hospitalized injury Age 40 M

    Nature of injury
    3
    Part of body
    21
    Event type
    6
    Source
    5
    Occupation code
    799
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    7
    Hazardous substance
    2150
    Task assigned
    1
  3. #3 Non-hospitalized injury Age 62 M

    Nature of injury
    5
    Part of body
    10
    Event type
    14
    Source
    16
    Occupation code
    518
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    7
    Hazardous substance
    2150
    Task assigned
    1
  4. #4 Hospitalized Age 22 M

    Nature of injury
    5
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    14
    Source
    16
    Occupation code
    599
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    7
    Hazardous substance
    2150
    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.