OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14559116
FOSTER WHEELER ENERGY CORP.
GLENROCK, WY—
Event description
COAL DUST EXPLOSION AT ELECTRIC UTILITY PLANT
Investigation abstract
A primary air fan, a motor, and a coal pulverizer at an electric power generatio n plant were running at maximum capacity. The system overloaded and shut down. T he air pressure in the pulverizer overcame the decaying primary air fan pressure , causing the coal dust to back flow into the primary air fan shroud, which had been running at 260 degrees Celsius. Upon contacting the hot metal, the coal dus t gasified and ignited. The inboard side of the fan shroud separated and the bla st from the explosion burned three employees who were working nearby. Two of the m were hospitalized for their injuries.
Victims (4)
-
#1 Hospitalized Age 28 M
- Nature of injury
- 5
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 14
- Source
- 16
- Occupation code
- 57
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Hazardous substance
- 9040
- Task assigned
- 2
-
#2 Hospitalized Age 39 M
- Nature of injury
- 5
- Part of body
- 4
- Event type
- 14
- Source
- 16
- Occupation code
- 593
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Hazardous substance
- 9040
- Task assigned
- 2
-
#3 Non-hospitalized injury Age 40 M
- Nature of injury
- 5
- Part of body
- 2
- Event type
- 14
- Source
- 16
- Occupation code
- 579
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 7
- Hazardous substance
- 9040
- Task assigned
- 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.