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 #999755

BURN,FIREFIGHTER,LUNG,PPE,WORK RULES,FIRE

Event
BURN,FIREFIGHTER,LUNG,PPE,WORK RULES,FIRE
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
999755
Report ID
552700

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. #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.