OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #915124
BURN,FURNACE,VENTILATION,FLAMMABLE LIQUID,FLAMMABLE VAPORS,WORK RULES,FIRE,PAINT,EXPLOSION
Event description
Three employees killed in explosion and fire
Investigation abstract
On February 10, 1989, Employees #1, #2, and #3, were working in the 40 ft by 25 Wood Products facility along with the bakery goods manufacturing facility next door. ft paint room of MBC Wood Products in Edwardsburg, MI. At least twenty 55-gallon drums of flammable lacquer, wood stains, etc., were stored in the room. Wood fi xtures were being sprayed pneumatically and parts were being dried. Mechanical v entilation was provided by a 36 in. diameter wall-mounted propeller fan which di stributed the air poorly because there was no inlet for fresh air supply. A fire ignited at the natural gas furnace adjacent to the mill room and flashed back a long a flammable vapor trail to the paint room. Employees #1, #2, and #3 were bu rned to death in the intense fire that resulted, which totally destroyed the MBC
Victims (3)
-
#1 Fatality Age 51 M
- Nature of injury
- 5
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 14
- Source
- 43
- Occupation code
- 759
- Human factor
- 3
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#2 Fatality Age 23 M
- Nature of injury
- 5
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 14
- Source
- 43
- Occupation code
- 759
- Human factor
- 6
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#3 Fatality Age 24 M
- Nature of injury
- 5
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 14
- Source
- 43
- Occupation code
- 759
- Human factor
- 3
- 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.