OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #977181
AQUA GLASS CORPORATION
ADAMSVILLE, TN·
Event description
EXPLOSION - ACETONE IGNITED BY CIRCUIT BREAKER
Investigation abstract
TWO EMPLOYEES WERE OPERATING A DISTILLER FOR REFINING USED ACETONE. THE DISTILLA TION APPARATUS WAS LOCATED IN A BUILDING SEPARATE FROM THE MAIN MANUFACTURING FA CILITY. FUMES FROM THE DISTILLATION PROCESS THAT HAD ACCUMULATED 6 TO 8 INCHES A BOVE THE SLUDGE BUCKET OF THE APPARATUS HAD SETTLED NEAR THE FLOOR. THESE FUMES WERE IGNITED BY AN ELECTRIC ARC FROM A CIRCUIT BREAKER. ONE OF THE EMPLOYEES, WH O WAS STANDING IN A DOORWAY, WAS KNOCKED OUTSIDE. THE OTHER EMPLOYEE WAS STANDIN G BEHIND THE CONTROL BOX FOR THE DISTILLER. BOTH EMPLOYEES RECEIVED BURNS ON THE IR HANDS AS A RESULT OF THE EXPLOSION AND WERE HOSPITALIZED FOR THEIR INJURIES.
Victims (2)
-
#1 Hospitalized Age 35 M
- Nature of injury
- 4
- Part of body
- 19
- Event type
- 14
- Source
- 9
- Occupation code
- 779
- Human factor
- 14
- Environmental factor
- 18
- Hazardous substance
- 0040
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#2 Hospitalized Age 30 M
- Nature of injury
- 4
- Part of body
- 19
- Event type
- 14
- Source
- 9
- Occupation code
- 779
- Human factor
- 14
- Environmental factor
- 18
- 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.