OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #731026

HEAD,ACETYLENE TORCH,FLAMMABLE VAPORS,WORK RULES,DRUM,EXPLOSION,STRUCK BY,DECAPITATED,CUTTING AND BURNING

1988-02-24T08:41:00

Event: HEAD,ACETYLENE TORCH,FLAMMABLE VAPORS,WORK RULES,DRUM,EXPLOSION,STRUCK BY,DECAPITATED,CUTTING AND BURNING
Linked inspection: No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number: 731026
Report ID: 551800

Event description

EMPLOYEE KILLED WHEN 55 GALLON DRUM EXPLODED

Investigation abstract

AT APPROXIMATELY 8:41 AM ON FEBRUARY 24, 1988, EMPLOYEE #1 WAS IN THE SERVICE AR EA OF THE SOUTHWEST TRANSMISSION SERVICE USING AN OXYGEN/ACETYLENE CUTTING TORCH TO REMOVE THE BOTTOM OF A METAL 55 GALLON DRUM. THE DRUM HAD PREVIOUSLY CONTAIN ED A CLASS 1A FLAMMABLE LIQUID. THE FLAME FROM THE TORCH BURNED THROUGH THE DRUM , IGNITING THE FLAMMABLE VAPORS INSIDE. THE ENSUING EXPLOSION BLEW OFF THE BOTTO M OF THE DRUM. THE DRUM BOTTOM STRUCK EMPLOYEE #1 IN THE HEAD, KILLING HIM INSTA NTLY. (HE WAS PARTIALLY DECAPITATED.)

Victim

#1 Fatality Age 47 M

Nature of injury
21

Part of body
13

Event type
1

Source
28

Occupation code
505

Human factor
1

Environmental factor
5

Hazardous substance
8880

Task assigned
2

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.