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Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #903716

BURN,FIRE,EXPLOSION,REFINERY

Event
BURN,FIRE,EXPLOSION,REFINERY
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
903716
Report ID
551800

Event description

One employee killed, three burned in explosion and fire

Investigation abstract

At approximately 10:45 a.m. on May 24, 1989, a flashfire and explosion occurred at the Farm Bureau Refinery involving the #13, #12, and #10 holding tanks. Emplo yee #1, a laborer, was caught within the perimeter of the flashfire and died at the scene. Employee #2, the crew unit #1 operator, suffered critical internal an d external burns and was hospitalized at Humana Hospital Burn Unit, Louisville K Y. Employee #3, a maintenance worker, suffered burns to the head and upper torso , and was hospitalized at the Wishard Hospital Burn Unit, Indianapolis, IN. Empl oyee #4, a maintenance worker, suffered burns to both arms, and was treated and released to home care.

Victims (4)

  1. #1 Fatality Age 22 M

    Nature of injury
    4
    Part of body
    19
    Event type
    14
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    864
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    10
    Task assigned
    1
  2. #2 Hospitalized Age 39 M

    Nature of injury
    4
    Part of body
    19
    Event type
    14
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    864
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    10
    Task assigned
    1
  3. #3 Hospitalized Age 52 M

    Nature of injury
    4
    Part of body
    19
    Event type
    14
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    864
    Human factor
    1
    Environmental factor
    10
    Task assigned
    1
  4. #4 Non-hospitalized injury Age 44 M

    Nature of injury
    4
    Part of body
    2
    Event type
    14
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    864
    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.