OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14542005
S & S BARGE MAINTENANCE INC
Savannah, GA—
Event description
EMPLOYEE INJURED IN ELECTRICAL EXPLOSION ON LASH BARGE
Investigation abstract
EMPLOYEE #1 WAS PREPARING TO PATCH A 3/8 INCH HOLE ON THE AFT BULKHEAD IN THE CA RGO COMPARTMENT OF A 31 FOOT BY 61 FOOT LASH BARGE. THE AFT BULKHEAD HAD A 9 FOO T BY 12 FOOT BY 31 FOOT STRUCTURAL VOID. HE WAS USING A MILLER 250 DIALARC AC/DC WELDING MACHINE. EMPLOYEE #2 HAD JUST ENTERED THE CARGO COMPARTMENT TO RETRIEVE A WASH-DOWN HOSE HE HAD BEEN USING EARLIER. WHEN EMPLOYEE #1 STRUCK AN ARC TO B EGIN WELDING, AN EXPLOSION OCCURRED. BOTH EMPLOYEES DIED FROM MASSIVE HEAD INJUR IES. THE STRUCTURAL VOID (BULKHEAD) HAD NOT BEEN TESTED FOR THE PRESENCE OF FLAM MABLE VAPORS PRIOR TO THE EXPLOSION. THE BARGE WAS EMPTY OF CARGO, AND THE HATCH COVERS HAD BEEN REMOVED.
Victims (2)
-
#1 Fatality Age 26 M
- Nature of injury
- 12
- Part of body
- 19
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 19
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 5
- Task assigned
- 1
-
#2 Fatality Age 27 M
- Nature of injury
- 12
- Part of body
- 19
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 19
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 5
- 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.