105,313Records 71,083Employers 85,290Hospitalizations 27,770Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-10-31
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #980318

SAND,MOLTEN METAL,BURN,FURNACE,DAM,RAIL,BLAST FURNACE,UNSTABLE SOIL,HIGH TEMPERATURE

Event
SAND,MOLTEN METAL,BURN,FURNACE,DAM,RAIL,BLAST FURNACE,UNSTABLE SOIL,HIGH TEMPERATURE
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
980318
Report ID
551800

Event description

Employee dies after burned by molten metal

Investigation abstract

At approximately 3:20 a.m. on March 5, 1989, Employee #1 was repairing rails on the B track underneath the south B spout of blast furnace #7 due to a previous s pill. As Employee #1 was repairing the tracks, the blast furnace began to cast h ot metal into a ladle on the A track. A dam made of sand, which had been built i n the trough for the south B spout, had erupted, allowing hot metal to run down into the area where Employee #1 was working. Employee #1 sustained burns over 80 percent of his body. He was taken by ambulance to Mercy Hospital and then by he licopter to the University of Chicago Hospital Burn Center. Employee #1 was in s table but critical condition, but died March 25, 1989.

Victims (2)

  1. #1 Fatality Age 53 M

    Nature of injury
    5
    Part of body
    19
    Event type
    1
    Source
    28
    Occupation code
    864
    Human factor
    4
    Environmental factor
    6
    Hazardous substance
    8880
    Task assigned
    2
  2. #981 Degree 0 Age 0

    Nature of injury
    0
    Part of body
    0
    Event type
    0
    Source
    0
    Occupation code
    0
    Human factor
    0
    Environmental factor
    0
    Task assigned
    0

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.