At 11:30 p.m. on March 19, 2009, Solus Industrial Innovations LLC employees from the third shift had just come to work. Their employer is a manufacturer of plastic conveyor parts.
One employee (Employee #1) pointed out to the on-shift supervisor that there was a pool of water near an 80-gallon water heater that was being used to supply heating water to the production process.
Minutes after this exchange, the water heater tank exploded. Employee #1 and Employee #2, the second-shift supervisor, suffered blunt force injuries in the explosion and were instantly killed.
The hot water tank broke through the roof, about 30 feet above the floor, and returned through the roof and fell into the workplace about 25 feet from its original location. A third employee was injured by flying shrapnel and was treated and released at a local hospital.
Lessons Learned
- Treat any reports of malfunction in a high pressure system seriously. What may seem like a small issue could easily become a catastrophic failure.
Source: “The 2014 National Board Incident Report-Based on 2009 OSHA Data”. National Board Bulletin. www.nationalboard.org