OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #779694
WORK RULES,COMPRESSED AIR,CONSTRUCTION,EXPLOSION,HIGH PRESSURE,TANK,MECH MALFUNCTION
Event description
Employee killed, inmate injured during tank explosion
Investigation abstract
Employee #1 had obtained an old cast-iron tank from a unknown source and planned s before the explosion, the pressure gauge registered 110 lb, where it froze aft er the explosion. Evidently, the pressure gauge had malfunctioned, misleading Em ployees #1 and #2. Pieces of the cast-iron tank were rusted on the broken edge, confirming that the tank had hairline fractures and that compressed air should n ot have been applied to the tank. to use it to collect condensed steam, which would not have required that it be under pressure. He and four prison inmates, including Employee #2, decided to ch eck the tank for leaks by closing and sealing all its openings, applying compres sed air to the tank, and administering a soap test. When the compressed air was applied, a gauge on the tank read between 25 and 30 lb. According to witnesses, the compressed air was then shut off to see if the tank would hold the static pr essure. Employee #1 then proceeded with the soap test. The tank exploded, injuri ng Employee #1 and Employee #2, who was standing behind Employee #1. Nine minute
Victims (2)
-
#1 Hospitalized Age 43 M
- Nature of injury
- 12
- Part of body
- 9
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 2
- Occupation code
- 643
- Human factor
- 6
- Environmental factor
- 5
- Hazardous substance
- 8420
- Task assigned
- 2
-
#2 Hospitalized Age 35 M
- Nature of injury
- 12
- Part of body
- 23
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 2
- Occupation code
- 864
- Human factor
- 6
- Environmental factor
- 5
- Hazardous substance
- 8420
- 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.