OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #689059
FERCHE MILLWORK INC
RICE, MN—
Event description
Employee killed when welding torch ignites fumes in drum
Investigation abstract
Employee #1 was using an oxyacetylene torch to cut the top of a 55 gallon drum t hat had contained lacquer. The fumes exploded and the drum hit the employee in t he head, fracturing his skull and causing brain damage, of which the employee di ed immediately. The employer stated that Employee #1 had been told to use a hamm er and chisel. He had already used the torch to cut the tops off four other drum s.
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 21 M
- Nature of injury
- 12
- Part of body
- 13
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 7
- Occupation code
- 889
- Human factor
- 1
- Environmental factor
- 5
- Task assigned
- 2
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.