OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #690784
FLAMMABLE VAPORS,EXPLOSION,TANK,ASPHALT
Event description
ASPHALT TANK EXPLODED; EMPLOYEE KNOCKED DOWN BY CONCUSSION
Investigation abstract
EMPLOYEE #1, WHO WAS OPERATING AN ASPHALT PLANT, DRAINED ABOUT 9,000 GALLONS FRO M A 25,000 GALLON STORAGE TANK TO MAKE SOME ROOFING ASPHALT. THE ASPHALT TANK US ES FIRE HEATED TUBES, LOCATED AT THE BOTTOM OF THE TANK, TO HEAT THE ASPHALT. WH EN THE ASPHALT LEVEL REACHED 14,000 GALLONS, THE HEATING TUBES WERE SHUT DOWN. T HE TOP SUCTION TUBES AT THE THREE FOOT LEVEL WERE TURNED OFF AND THE BOTTOM SUCT ION TUBE OPENED. AN HOUR AND A HALF AFTER THE HEATING TUBES WERE SHUT OFF, THE T ANK EXPLODED. EMPLOYEE #1 WAS KNOCKED DOWN BY THE CONCUSSION, BUT DID NOT SUFFER ANY APPARENT INJURY.
Victim
-
#1 Non-hospitalized injury Age 30 M
- Nature of injury
- 6
- Part of body
- 13
- Event type
- 4
- Source
- 23
- Occupation code
- 779
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 18
- 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.