OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #999755
HOLLANDALE FIRE DEPARTMENT
HOLLANDALE, MN·
Event description
FIREFIGHTER DIED FROM SEVERE LUNG BURNS
Investigation abstract
AT APPROXIMATELY 7:45 PM ON OCTOBER 20, 1987, EMPLOYEE #1, A FIRE FIGHTER, WAS T RYING TO START A FIRE TO DESTROY AN ABANDONED BUILDING WHICH HAD BEEN USED AS A FIRE FIGHTING PRACTICE FACILITY. A FIRE WOULD NOT START IN THE FIRST AREA TRIED DUE TO WET CONDITIONS. A SECOND ATTEMPT, IN A AREA COVERED BY FOAM CARPET BACKIN G, STARTED INSTANTANEOUSLY. TWO FIREMAN WERE ABLE TO WALK OUT OF THE AREA, A THI RD HAD TO CRAWL. EMPLOYEE #1 BECAME DISORIENTED AND, AFTER LEAVING THE FIRE AREA , REMOVED HIS FACE MASK. HE THEN RETURNED TO THE FIRE AREA WHERE HE ENCOUNTERED SUPERHEATED AIR WHICH SEVERELY BURNED HIS LUNGS. HE WAS KILLED.
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 32 M
- Nature of injury
- 5
- Part of body
- 28
- Event type
- 8
- Source
- 16
- Occupation code
- 417
- Human factor
- 9
- 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.