OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #869263
BURN,FLAMMABLE VAPORS,HEATER,EXPLOSION,TOXIC FUMES,CARBON MONOXIDE
Event description
EMPLOYEE DIES FROM BURNS AFTER INSPECTING SPACE HEATER
Investigation abstract
At approximately 8:00 a.m. on December 22, 1989, Employee #1 was checking on the operation of a gas space heater in the base of the water tower on the Cedarvill e College campus. As he opened the door to the tower, the flue gases exploded an d blew him out into a field. Carbon monoxide and other flue gases from the heate r had been vented into the upper part of the tower. It appears that the fumes we re ignited by the gas heaters when they exceeded the Lower Explosive Limit (LEL) . Employee #1 was taken to the hospital where he died about two weeks later from burns and injuries plus complications.
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 31 M
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 14
- Source
- 16
- Occupation code
- 37
- Human factor
- 17
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Hazardous substance
- 0560
- 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.