OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #824862
LACQUER THINNER,HEAD,FLAMMABLE VAPORS,WORK RULES,DRUM,TORCH,EXPLOSION,STRUCK BY,STOMACH,CONTUSION
Event description
EMPLOYEE INJURED WHEN 55 GALLON DRUM EXPLODED
Investigation abstract
ON OCTOBER 26, 1987, EMPLOYEE #1 WAS USING AN EMPTY, UPSIDE DOWN 55 GALLON STEEL EN RULES OR SPECIFIED AREAS FOR BURNING. DRUM AS A WORK BENCH FOR BURNING BRACKETS FROM A 5/16 INCH STEEL PLATE. HE WAS USING AN OXYGEN-ACETYLENE BURNING TORCH. THE DRUM HAD CONTAINED PROLAC ACRYLIC L ACQUER THINNER (FLASH POINT 150 F). THE DRUM HAD NOT BEEN WASHED OUT, ALL FITTIN GS WERE IN, AND ITS ONLY LABEL WAS FACING THE GROUND. THE DRUM EXPLODED, BLOWING OFF THE END NEXT TO THE BURNING. THE DRUM AND/OR PLATE AND/OR TORCH STRUCK EMPL OYEE #1 IN THE HEAD AND STOMACH. HIS FACE SHIELD WAS SHATTERED. HE RECEIVED MULT IPLE CONTUSIONS WITH MEMORY LOSS AND POSSIBLE BRAIN DAMAGE. ACCORDING TO HIS EMP LOYER, HE WAS TRAINED IN BURNING BUT NOT IN "RIGHT TO KNOW". THERE WERE NO WRITT
Victim
-
#1 Hospitalized Age 24 M
- Nature of injury
- 3
- Part of body
- 13
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 7
- Occupation code
- 547
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 10
- Hazardous substance
- 0040
- 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.