OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #827394
BURN,DIESEL FUEL TANK,WORK RULES,FIRE,EAR,WELDING,BACK,EXPLOSION,FACE,HAND
Event description
Employee killed, two injured in tank explosion and fire
Investigation abstract
Employee #1 was welding on a 100 gallon diesel fuel tank. He had purged the tank with a non-combustible gas, either argon or nitrogen, prior to welding. The emp loyee tested the tank after welding and found a small pinhole. He struck an arc on the tank and the fuel tank caught fire and exploded. He had not purged the ta nk a second time. Employees #2 and #3 were burned trying to put out the fire tha t engulfed Employee #1. He was fatally injured and the other two employees were seriously injured. Employee #2 received burns on her hands and arms. Employee #3 received burns on his hands, face, ears, and back. The burning ceiling fell on Employee #3 before he was completely out of the fire area.
Victims (3)
-
#1 Fatality Age 29 M
- Nature of injury
- 5
- Part of body
- 19
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 16
- Occupation code
- 37
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 10
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#2 Hospitalized Age 29 F
- Nature of injury
- 5
- Part of body
- 2
- Event type
- 2
- Source
- 16
- Occupation code
- 549
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 10
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#3 Hospitalized Age 24 M
- Nature of injury
- 5
- Part of body
- 19
- Event type
- 2
- Source
- 16
- Occupation code
- 549
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 10
- 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.