OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #762526
OCCIDENTAL CHEMICALS CO
COLUMBIA, TN·
Event description
Employee dies of burns from furnace blast
Investigation abstract
Employee #1, an electrician, was one of three employees who were troubleshooting s looking like the flame of a blow torch engulfed Employee #1 for approximately 20 seconds until the furnace was shut off. Employee #1 sustained third-degree bu rns that covered 40 percent of his body and died of complications two weeks late r. Employee #1 was acting with no written rules or policies for guidance, a piece of equipment on a furnace roof. The 35 megawatt furnace, used in the sm elting of phosphate ore, had been down for a complete rebuild. It had only been brought back up to full load that morning and was running rough. Employee #1, wi thout the furnace operator's knowledge, was standing on a ladder approximately 1 3 feet away, directly in front of a 9 inch diameter rod out hole on the furnace offtake. The hole is packed with a ball of "clay." Without warning, and as the r esult of one of a number of possible causes, the furnace went "on pressure". Thi s sudden overpressurization blew out the packing ball. What witnesses describe a
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 51 Male
- Nature of injury
- Burn/Scald(Heat) (5)
- Part of body
- LEGS (16)
- Accident type
- OTHER (14)
- Source of injury
- GASES (19)
- Occupation
- Occupation not reported (999)
- Human factor
- INSUFF/LACK/ENGINEERNG CONTROLS (17)
- Environmental factor
- WORK-SURFACE/FACIL-LAYOUT COND (13)
- Hazardous substance
- 8420
- Task assigned
- Task regularly assigned (1)
Labels are OSHA's own, from the code dictionary published with the accident-investigation file. The raw code is shown beside each one so this page can be reconciled against OSHA's bulk data. OSHA notes that nature of injury, part of body, source of injury and accident type in this file are not coded to the Occupational Injury and Illness Classification System, and that the occupation titles are not standardised — so these values are not directly comparable with the OIICS-coded severe injury reports.