21 incidents & 0 update (6/22/11)

2011 Fatality Tracker

Industrial

FATALITY BP worker dies when pinned by piece of equipment in Carson (a worker died in an accident at a refinery –  the worker, a longtime employee, was working in an area where railcars are loaded with light refinery products when he was pinned by a piece of equipment just before 8 a.m.)

AMPUTATION Worker Loses Hand At Cement Plant (a worker lost one of his hands in an accident at a Cement Plant and was airlifted from the plant to the hospital shortly after 5 a.m.- he was in stable and good condition – officials did not know if the man’s hand was severed by machinery at the plant or was amputated at the hospital because of medical necessity)

BURNS Worker burned in Cavendish Farms accident (an accident at a plant has injured a worker, 46, he suffered first- and second-degree burns while operating a valve containing hot grease – the accident happened at approximately 2 a.m. – he had burns on his neck, his shoulders, back and forearms)

FATAL FALL Oil field worker falls into sinkhole, dies (a worker, 55, was killed after apparently falling into a sinkhole – he fell 20 to 30 feet into a sinkhole that opened up on land leased by the company – it appears that a group of people were walking along and one of them fell through the sinkhole – Urban Search and Rescue team was trying to figure out the safest and best way to recover the man’s body – the sinkhole he fell into was no more than about three feet wide)

Mates reeling after Castlemaine work accident (two workers were hurt in a workplace accident after a 300-kilogram slab of granite fell on them – the men were shifting slabs of granite when the incident happened about 11am – were left with leg and arm injuries)

CONFINED SPACE – HOTWORK EXPLOSION Owner of North Dakota trucking company says worker burned in weekend explosion doing well (a worker who was burned over the weekend is doing well in a burn center – the worker suffered third-degree burns and underwent plastic surgery – the worker and another worker who touched off an explosion inside a tank while welding a crack in a pipe – the tank had some fumes from oilfield waste that ignited and blew a manhole off the tank and through the roof of a shop – the worker who touched off the explosion has been fired – no estimate on the shop damage)

CONFINED SPACE EXPLOSION  Small Explosion In Rail Car Sends Man To Hospital With Burns (a worker inside a railroad car was burned when something ignited vapors inside the car causing burns to 15 percent of his body – according to the report on the incident, the railroad car was full of “octane vapor and ignited” – he was taken to a burn center to be treated with second-degree burns of his face and neck – no info on ignition source)

HYDROGEN EXPLOSION from WASTE WATER Explosion injures worker at North Portland business, SiC Processing (a small explosion seriously injured a worker, 56 – the man suffered life-threatening injuries and was taken to a trauma unit – he was working near a 300-gallon plastic tank filled with waste water around 1 p.m. when the explosion occurred – he was the only one hurt – the company processes waste products for the solar industry – it appears hydrogen, a byproduct of the company’s work, may have ignited – officials don’t know exactly what ignited the hydrogen)

HOTWORK EXPLOSION @ OIL WELL Worker badly hurt in Azerbaijani oil well explosion (a worker suffered third-degree burns in an explosion at an onshore oil well – explosion took place during welding at oil well #642 in field #2 – the well had been out of operation for a long time – the injured man suffered burns to 70-80% of his body – the explosion was caused by gas that had accumulated in the long abandoned well)

ELECTRICAL EXPLOSION Explosion cuts power, sends worker to hospital (more than 1,000 residents had no power and one worker was sent to the hospital at 7:01 p.m. after an explosion at a Substation – the worker was injured and rushed to the hospital for minor burns – it is still unknown what caused the outage)

EXPLOSION – PROPANE Smith Creamery explosion blamed on propane leak (a fire and explosion that the State Fire Marshal believes was started by a leaking propane tank destroyed a business – the early morning explosion inside the 5,000-square-foot building scattered debris as far as a half-mile away – no one was injured, but the creamery was destroyed)

CHLORINE 3 Richmond Sanitary District workers treated after chlorine leak (three sanitary district workers were taken to a Hospital as a precaution after a small amount of liquid chlorine spilled in a building at the sanitary district’s Wastewater Treatment Plant – two men were working in the treatment facility’s chlorination building around 1:30 p.m. – one man was in the building hooking up a hose on a chlorine tank while the other man was just outside the room serving as backup – a fitting on the hose leaked chlorine onto the floor before the two men stopped the leak – a third man, an engineer working in a nearby building, came into contact with chlorine fumes – all three were taken to a Hospital where they were treated and released)

EXPLOSION Georgia Biomass plant damaged in explosion (an explosion occurred around 8am – no one was injured – it did extensive damage to the processing end – thought to be one of the world’s largest pellet manufacturing facilities, it has been online for just over a month after it opened on 12 May 2011 – the cause of the explosion has not yet been identified)

Construction

ELECTRICAL FATALITY Electrical apprentice dies at Anchorage work site; woman shocked, falls (an electrical worker, 26, died at a work site at about 11:30 p.m. – she was shocked and fell about 9 feet – she was an apprentice electrician working with two journeymen on an electrical remodel – she had worked for the company between six months and a year – PLEASE NOTE that this was not reported as an electrocution as we do not yet know if it was the fall or electricity that killed her)

TRENCH FATALITY 27 year old killed in trench collapse ( a worker, 27, was killed while working at a job site when he was buried beneath at least 10 feet of dirt that collapsed on top of him – he’d reportedly jumped down into a deep hole to reconnect water lines his crew had been installing – the hole wasn’t properly secured to prevent the dirt around him from slipping and that’s just what happened – by the time firefighters arrived, it was already too late to save him and for safety reasons, they even had to keep his co-workers from digging with their bare hands)

ROADWORK HERO operator injured while clearing debris (a Department of Transportation HERO worker who helps stranded motorists and helps to clear accident scenes was struck by a vehicle around 4 p.m. – he was struck by a vehicle while removing debris from the interstate – he was conscious, and taken to a Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries)

SCAFFOLDING Industrial Accident Sends Worker to Hospital (a man in his forties has been taken to a hospital after an industrial accident just before 11 a.m. – it is believed the man was working on scaffolding three storeys up when the wall gave way – other workers were in the building, but only one was injured – he is only slightly hurt, but he may have suffered pelvic injuries)

HOTWORK FIRE Construction worker sparks fire at United Methodist church in Hattiesburg (fire investigators say a fire that damaged a Church was accidentally caused by construction workers building an addition to the church – a worker was using a cutting torch to cut steel on top of the addition when embers blew into the attic, starting a fire in the old part of the building nearest to the addition – a secretary said she smelled smoke but they wrote it off as coming from the construction site – but they then saw and smelled smoke coming through the building’s ducts)

MIscellaneouS

CONFINED SPACE FATALITY – AUGER Farm worker killed in Fond du Lac County (a farm worker, 49, died after he fell into a silo feet-first and landed in an auger – the man and three other workers were cleaning out old feed when the victim lost his balance and landed in the unloader – a co-worker shut the machine off, but the man’s legs had already been entangled – he was airlifted to an area hospital and died a short-time later from his injuries)

FARMING FATALITY Harvester crushes worker (a man, 54, was crushed to death when he was run over by a cotton harvester – the man was driving the cotton picker when an object became stuck in the machine just after 1pm – the man got out of the harvester and tried to remove a stick from the machine – the 20-ton machine carrying three tons of cotton was parked over a drain and rolled forward on top of the victim – he was crushed under the machine’s wheels and died instantly)