OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14480263
ARKAY RESEARCH CENTER
RANDOLPH, NJ—
Event description
One killed, one injured in flash fire
Investigation abstract
At approximately 2:45 p.m. on May 17, 1984, Employees #1 and #2 were using an ai 2, backed off from the rapidly spreading fire. He became trapped in a corner, wh ere he died of burns and asphyxia. Employee #2 suffered second- and third-degree burns on three of this left-hand fingers. Subsequent investigation revealed tha t the bonding connection between the drums was poor and the receiving drum was i mproperly grounded. r diaphragm pump to transfer methyl ethyl ketone (mek) from a 55 gallon drum to an identical drum that contained toluene and was sitting on a weigh scale. Emplo yee #2, the supervisor, was providing on-the-job training to Employee #1, who ha d been hired on April 30, 1984, and was undertaking this work for the first time . During the solvent transfer, a flash fire occurred at the receiving drum and f lames initially shot out through the bung openings. Employee #2 had his left han d on top of the hose at the drum opening and, seeing the flames, immediately ran toward the outside of the building. Employee #1, who had been facing Employee #
Victims (2)
-
#1 Fatality Age 24 M
- Nature of injury
- 5
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 12
- Source
- 16
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Hazardous substance
- 0430
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#2 Hospitalized Age 24 M
- Nature of injury
- 5
- Part of body
- 10
- Event type
- 14
- Source
- 16
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Hazardous substance
- 0430
- 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.