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 #692053

FLAMMABLE VAPORS,WORK RULES,CLEANING,CONSTRUCTION,NATURAL GAS,TORSO,EXPLOSION,SMOKING,MANHOLE

Event
FLAMMABLE VAPORS,WORK RULES,CLEANING,CONSTRUCTION,NATURAL GAS,TORSO,EXPLOSION,SMOKING,MANHOLE
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
692053
Report ID
355112

Event description

Employee burned when he ignites gas explosion with cigarette

Investigation abstract

At approximately 8:44 a.m. on October 8, 1987, Employee #1 was preparing to clea n around a C & P manhole in preparation for asphalt paving. As the foreman left the job site to get the asphalt, Employee #1 sat at the mouth of the manhole and flicked a cigarette lighter to light a cigarette. The natural gas fumes coming from the manhole were ignited and caused an explosion, burning the upper part of his body, arms, chest, and head. Employee #1 was hospitalized.

Victim

  1. #1 Hospitalized Age 22 M

    Nature of injury
    5
    Part of body
    19
    Event type
    14
    Source
    16
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    1
    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.