OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #809103
BURN,ACETYLENE TORCH,FLAMMABLE VAPORS,WORK RULES,DRUM,FIRE,EXPLOSION,CUTTING AND BURNING
Event description
EMPLOYEE INJURED WHEN 55 GALLON DRUM BEING CUT EXPLODED
Investigation abstract
EMPLOYEE #1 WAS CUTTING THE TOPS OFF METAL 55 GALLON DRUMS SO THAT THEY COULD BE USED TO HOLD SCRAP METAL. HIS FOREMAN OPENED THE TOP BUNG HOLE OF ONE OF THE BA RRELS AND SNIFFED TO DETERMINE IF THE BARRELS COULD BE CUT. THE FOREMAN THOUGHT THE BARRELS CONTAINED SOME TYPE OF ALIPHATIC HYDROCARBON. THE TOP OF ONE BARREL WAS CUT USING AN OXYGEN/ACETYLENE TORCH. THE EMPLOYEE WAS IN THE PROCESS OF CUTT ING THE TOP FROM ANOTHER BARREL WHEN THE EXPLOSION OCCURRED. THE EXPLOSION LIFTE D THE BUILDING ROOF 6 INCHES AND SET EMPLOYEE #1'S CLOTHES ON FIRE. NO OTHER EMP LOYEES WERE INJURED. EMPLOYEE #1 WAS IMMEDIATELY TRANSPORTED TO THE HOSPITAL AND THEN TO THE NORTH CAROLINA BURN CENTER IN CHAPEL HILL.
Victim
-
#1 Hospitalized Age 23 M
- Nature of injury
- 5
- Part of body
- 19
- Event type
- 14
- Source
- 16
- Occupation code
- 639
- Human factor
- 4
- 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.