24 Incidents & 0 updates (7/31/11)

2011 Fatality Tracker 

Industrial

FATAL EXPLOSION @ REFINERY Explosion at Mexican oil refinery kills two (an explosion at Mexico’s second-largest oil refinery caused a massive fire and killed two workers – the explosion occurred while the company was running a trial of a visbreaker, a unit used to reduce viscosity when distilling crude oil – the visbreaker, one of several at the refinery, recently underwent maintenance work and workers were testing it to restart the unit – one worker was taken to hospital with serious injuries caused by the blaze, which was brought under control within an hour – the number of injured could be higher and a helicopter was being used to airlift workers needing medical attention – employees were evacuated from the refinery)

MINE Worker injured at mine (a mine worker suffered a minor injury and was taken to a Hospital for treatment just after 10:30 a.m. – accident involved machinery – workers were moving a roof bolter around a scoop – the miner got caught between the two pieces of equipment – he was struck in the hip/buttocks area and complained of pain in his hips)

BULLDOZER FATALITY Elmira man dies operating bulldozer (a natural gas worker, 35, is dead after an accident at a drilling site – he was operating a bulldozer at a gas drilling site – he was reportedly standing up while operating a bulldozer, lost his balance, fell into the dozer track, and was run over)

CAUSTIC SPILL Workers Injured In Chemical Spill (six workers were burned by sodium hydroxide after midnight – during the handling of the material, six to seven employees came in contact with the chemical and attempted to resolve the issue on their own, and eventually found that they were incurring some injuries from contact with the product – the employees transported themselves to the hospital – more may workers may have gotten checked out as a precaution – none of the injuries appear to be life-threatening)

HOTWORK Blow Torch Blamed for Fairfield Fire (a large fire burned at a plastics manufacturer – a five acre parcel filled with stack of empty plastic crates – it looks like workers doing repair work at a plastic plant sparked the six-alarm fire – the work, which included some kind of blow torch, was being done in the area where the fire started)

FATAL FIRE Worker killed in fire at business in south Okla. (a worker, 35, has died after being injured in a fire at a plant – the fire was reported about 3 a.m. in a tank battery at the plant – a tank battery is a group of containers that stores oil – the cause of the fire has not been determined)

HEAT STRESS Overheated Worker Collapses on Lewisville Silo (a man passed out on top of a silo at a cement plant – he is believed to have lost consciousness due to the heat – firefighters had traveled to the plant to rescue the overheated worker, however, the man was able to climb down a ladder after the incident, avoiding the need for a high-angle rescue)

RAG FIRE Officials: Stain-soaked rags started fire at Patrick Henry (a fire at a building started when stain-soaked rags left on the roof “spontaneously combusted” and spread to an air conditioning unit around 12:47 p.m. – the fire blew smoke into hallways of the 10-story building and could be seen a mile away – no one was hurt – two apartments were damaged by water from the building sprinkler system – a worker who had been staining wood left a leather bag with stain-soaked cotton rags on the rubberized black roof – the bag was the source of the fire – a building maintenance employee spotted the rooftop fire, pulled the alarm and attacked the flames with an extinguisher, saving the building from worse damage – fire department estimated damage at $50,000 for the air conditioning unit and $10,000 for the building)

FATAL HOTWORK FIRE Blaze kills 13, injures 25 in workshop with no fire escape (thirteen people, 10 of them female, died while 25 were seriously injured in a blaze inside a shoe workshop – investigations have shown that the fire, which had been extinguished within one hour, were triggered by welding cinders – without a business licence or a fire escape, the 100 sq.m workshop had been operating for the last three to four months, employing 70 regular workers, before it burnt to the ground – police have arrested six people suspected culprits)

HOTWORK FIRE Fire At Ansonia Copper And Brass (there were no injuries reported – a worker was using a blow torch – a spark from the blow torch sat smoldering overnight in a pile of wood blocks that previously were part of the factory’s floor – there was a large amount of smoke inside the building when firefighters arrived, but they were able to quickly get water onto the wood pile)

Executives quit over blazes at Formosa Petrochemical Corp (Formosa Petrochemical Corp’s chairman and president stepped down after another blaze broke out at the oil refiner, the latest in a slew of fires that have damaged the company’s plants or halted production – a fire struck Formosa Petrochemical’s plant and was extinguished two hours later – the fire was the sixth to have struck FPG since the beginning of the year – propylene leaks could be the cause of the fire; however, they would launch an investigation to determine the cause)

FIRE Conoco contains fire at Borger, Texas, refinery (fire caused by release from hydrocarbon transfer line – no one injured in the event – the refinery emergency response team was mobilized to contain the fire and isolate the line)

BIO FUEL PLANT FIRE Crews Battle Large Chemical Fire In Coffee County (emergency crews responded to a fire at a Bio Energy plant – for more than eight hours, flames engulfed the building – the two employees inside made it out alive along with two dogs – a cat is believed to have died in the fire – nearby residents were forced to evacuate – a small spark is said to have morphed into uncontrollable flames at the bio diesel plant – firefighters feared the unknown after an initial explosion – the plant makes the fuel from used vegetable oil)

EXPLOSION Lithium battery blast at Conroe plant injures 2 men (two men were injured about 6:30 p.m. when a lithium battery exploded at a plant – both were taken to nearby hospitals, with one man in stable condition and the other suffering burns and cuts – there was no indication of what caused the explosion, but the building contained vinyl chloride, which reacts to water – the explosion cut a hole in the ceiling, which ruptured a water line)

CHLORINE DIOXIDE Weyerhaeuser mill experiences chemical leak (hundreds of gallons of a solution containing chlorine dioxide leaked on the ground from a storage tank at the pulp mill about 8 a.m. – an employee saw the chemical leak coming from a tank containing about 109,000 gallons of chlorine dioxide and water – around the same time the mill’s monitoring alarm sounded after detecting the acrid chlorine gas – the solution is contains roughly 1 percent chlorine dioxide – the hazmat team applied a fogging mist to the airborne chlorine, which helped dissipate the chemical and kept it on the mill site)

CHLORINE Gas leak in JK Paper leaves 12 ill (a chlorine gas leak in the pulp unit has left 12 employees ill – the condition of three employees is stated to be serious – the workers were trying to fix a nozzle of a chlorine gas cylinder meant for bleaching plant but it slipped and in the process 12 workers were affected – the other nine employees, who complained of suffocation and burning sensation in the eyes, were given medical treatment on the factory premises near here and released)

Construction

MANLIFT FATALITY Worker injured in Arundel Mills slots site accident still critical (the surviving worker, 26, involved in a fatal mishap Friday at a construction site was downgraded to critical but stable condition – he was taken to Shock Trauma with life-threatening injuries after a wall, which was made of 25 tons of precast concrete and measured about 30 feet tall and 40 feet wide, suddenly collapsed at the work site – the accident killed another worker, 27, ho had been standing inside a bucket lift of a mechanical arm when the wall fell, trapping him – the incident occurred just before 10 a.m.)

FALL from LADDER Worker injured in fall at Tulare pump station (a man suffered minor injuries when he fell 12 feet to the bottom of a sewer pump station under construction – he was taken to a Regional Medical Center – he was unable to get out of the station on his own and firefighters were called in for the confined-space rescue)

TRENCH FATALITY Worker buried alive at project site (a contract employee, 28, was buried alive when sand caved in on him at the site of a pipeline project – adding to the horror of the incident, the body of the deceased was dismembered when an earthmover was used to remove the sand – about 10 workers had dug a 12-feet deep pit – huge amounts of sand from the pit had been placed on top of the pit – the worker got in to remove the remaining sand when suddenly the sand caved in on him)

BOBCAT FATAILITY Worker dies at construction site (a crew member, 19, was killed while the crew was backfilling the footings of the house that was being built – he got stuck between the cement footings and the skid-steer (Bobcat) – he was taken to a Medical Center and was later pronounced dead)

MIscellaneouS

MANLIFT Stagehands Injured in Mini-Crane Accident at Jazz At Lincoln Center (two stagehands were injured when a mini-crane fell on them – during the set up for an evening performance two stagehands were involved in an accident at 2:15 p.m. – three people were injured – a Genie Lift, a small man-sized lift, tipped over while setting up a stage for Friday night’s performance)

FALL Worker tending to tree seriously injured by fall (major injuries were feared for a worker who fell from a tree – the man in his mid-50s was on a ladder tending to a dead palm tree when the trunk bent or broke – five feet above the ground, the tree gave out on him, and it took him to the ground)