Confined Space Accidents #3
This page was last updated on 05/06/2010
Audrain County Man Dies in Grain Bin Accident
Boone County, 1/30/2003
An Audrain County man died yesterday in a farm accident. Boone County deputies say 22-year old Marcus Orth became trapped in a grain bin, and suffocated. Orth had been able to call one of his co-workers, saying he was trapped in the bin. Co-workers on the Boone county farm called 911, but they and rescue crews could not free him in time. Doctors pronounced Orth dead at a Columbia hospital.
Five workers killed in coal bunker collapse
Nagpur, Jan 28 (UNI) At least five workers were killed and several others seriously injured when a coal bunker at the surface of Murpar underground mines of Western Coalfields Ltd (WCL) in Chandrapur district collapsed this morning. While the exact figure of those killed and injured was still not available, WCL officials in Nagpur said that at least five deaths had been confirmed. The bunker, which houses machinery, collapsed around 0915 hrs trapping a large number of workers who had entered the underground mines in the morning, sources said. Details of the mishap were still awaited, they added. The Murpar mines are around 90 km from WCL’s Umrer regional office and four kms from Chimur in Chandrapur district. WCL Chief General Manager (Umrer Region) Arun Narain and other senior officials had rushed to the site of the accident, company sources here said.
Worker rescued from concrete-mixing silo
January 24, 2003, 8:11 PM EST
UPPER FREEHOLD, N.J. — A worker fell into a large mixing silo Friday, and another became trapped while trying to rescue the first. Both employees had been rescued by mid-afternoon at the Clayton Companies plant on Route 526, said Trooper Stephen Jones, a spokesman for the New Jersey State Police. Steven White, 22, of Toms River, was feeding sand into a silo to make concrete when the mixture stopped flowing, Jones said. When he stamped his foot on the clogged sand, he fell into the silo. Glen Adams, also of Toms River, climbed into the silo to keep the sand from covering White’s head. A Mercer County rescue squad pulled both workers from the silo. White was taken to Capital Health System’s Fuld campus, where he was treated for cuts and bruises and released, according to a nursing supervisor. Adams, whose age was not immediately known, was not injured, Jones said.
Workers overcome by toxic fumes ‘would have died’
23.01.2003 3.45pm – By ALAN PERROTT
Three maintenance workers found unconscious in a concrete silo in south Auckland this morning, would have died if they had been left there much longer, safety inspectors said today. The contractors were overcome by toxic tricoethylene fumes as they applied a rubber coating to the inside of the silo at Atlas Concrete in Wiri. All three were in a life-threatening situation and would have died if they had been left undetected for much longer, a spokesman for Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) said. The men were discovered unconscious about 10am by an Atlas Concrete employee who had come to the silo to deliver rags dropped off by one of the workman’s wives. Emergency services were called and one of the workmen was taken to Middlemore Hospital for observation. The other two were treated for respiratory problems. The OSH spokesman said none of the men were wearing breathing apparatus and the workspace was not ventilated. Atlas Concrete branch manager Craig Nisbet said the workmen had earlier declined their offer of a gas watch. The inspectors closed the workplace down at 10am and began an investigation. OSH is also investigating the contractual connection between the injured workers who are understood to include Atlas Concrete employees. If the company is found to have neglected its responsibilities, the spokesman said, charges would be likely.
UPDATE, Fourth worker dies of fumes in barge near Vancouver
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. — A fourth person has died after being overcome by fumes in the hold of a barge on the Fraser River, police in this Vancouver suburb said. The man died at a hospital Friday morning, a week after losing consciousness with four others who entered the hold, Staff Sgt. Mike Kelly said Sunday. The man’s name was being withheld. Three barge workers died Jan. 10 after losing consciousness in the hold of the rusty 30-year-old SeaLink-Rigger. Two others were taken to a hospital. One was released, but the other remained in serious condition until his death. Firefighter Dave Phillips, 42, who was injured in a rescue attempt, was released from a hospital Saturday following treatment for broken ribs and a head injury, assistant fire chief Al Mynott said. An investigation is being made by police and provincial Workers’ Compensation Board, but criminal charges are rare in industrial accidents “unless WCB uncovers something, and that’s not something that we necessarily anticipate,” Kelly said. Last week the owner of the barge said the accident was a “travesty of errors” that could have been avoided had safety procedures been followed. None of the five workers who went into the hold of the barge used a device which gauges oxygen levels in the air, said Peter Brown, owner of the barge and of Westminster Marine Services Ltd., the company that was doing maintenance on the barge. Such a device was sitting fully charged in an office only a few minutes away from the barge, he said.
UPDATE Firm fixing death barge had safety violations before
Keith Fraser The Province
The firm repairing the barge where three workers were killed — and another three hurt — has a raft of safety violations dating back more than 10 years. The trio died Friday after entering the damp, rusty hold of the Sea-Link Rigger. Initial reports indicate they likely suffocated in the confined, oxygen-poor space. Shortly after the accident, the owners of the barge and the repair company branded the accident a tragic sequence of events in which workers who were not assigned to do any work in the hold entered it anyway, failing to first use a sniffer device to detect the oxygen content of the hold. Owners Peter Brown and Edgar Jackson both told reporters the firm was a “good operation” where safety was a priority and the dangers of “dead air” and confined spaces were common knowledge. In fact, Workers Compensation Board officials have released documents showing Westminster Marine Services Ltd. has been cited more than a dozen times: – In 1991, the WCB found that the firm had no written work procedures to direct workers in the safe performance of their jobs in confined spaces, and it had no air testing. – In 1995, a WCB inspection report found that an industrial health and safety program had not been initiated or maintained. – In 1996, a report noted deficiencies in the company’s program to provide respirators for workers. – Also in ’96, it was found that no proper record of all injuries and manifestations of disease was being maintained. – In 1998, the company was cited 16 times, including in a report that said a satisfactory written confined-space program had not been developed and implemented. – That year, the WCB also found that once again the company failed to offer an occupational health and safety program. Notices of compliance by the company for the 16 violations in 1998 were issued by the WCB several months later. “We haven’t seen the WCB report, so we can’t comment on it,” said an unidentified woman who answered the phone at Westminster Marine. Of the two workers who were hurt Friday, one remains in a coma in hospital. A sixth man, a firefighter, is in hospital with injuries suffered when he fell during a rescue attempt. A service is being held for one of the victims, David Rowley, in Port Coquitlam today. The coroner’s office has not yet determined cause of death and says it needs to do further tests.
UPDATE, Barge accident similar to another in 2001
The provincial government has yet to act on the coroner’s recommendations from the earlier case in the Interior
David Reevely
A man was suffocated in the container of a barge in the north central Interior more than a year ago, but the province has not yet acted on recommendations that industrial workers be better warned of the danger of bad air in confined spaces. In a situation similar to the accident that killed three men in New Westminster Friday and left a fourth clinging to life, five workers descended one by one into a compartment of the Apex No. 1 in East Ootsa Lake, west of Prince George, on Oct. 4, 2001, and each passed out at the bottom of the ladder. A coroner’s investigation showed that rust depleted the oxygen inside the compartment and left the air unfit to breathe. One theory is that the same thing happened in the New Westminster accident, but that has not been proven. Daniel McNolty, 45, the last worker pulled from the Apex No. 1’s hold, died at the scene. Four other workers who went down, one by one, to rescue those who had gone before, also passed out but survived. McNolty was one of a crew of six who were refurbishing the 23-year-old barge, said Fraser Lake RCMP Sergeant Rod Holland, who worked on the case. The vessel, which had been in storage since 1991, was being leased by the ministry of forests to transport logging trucks to clear beetle-infested timber, according to a B.C. coroner’s report. “He was welding on some rails along the edge so the trucks would stay on the barge,” Holland said. “He decided to go down and check out what was going on below the deck.” To that end, according to the report by coroner Ronda Kingsley, McNolty opened three of the barge’s hatches and climbed down to look for “cracks in the hull integrity.” He was gone at least 15 minutes before anyone noticed he was missing, the report says. The compartment into which McNolty had descended had been sealed for about three years, since a 1998 inspection, according to Kingsley’s report, and it was the only one of nine hull compartments whose hatch had no ventilation holes. The interior of the compartment was rusty, Kingsley noted, and there was standing water inside. “The chemical process of oxidation or rusting uses up oxygen, thereby creating an oxygen-poor atmosphere,” she wrote. According to Workers’ Compensation Board findings included in the report, the air in the Apex No. 1’s other eight compartments contained 20.9-per-cent oxygen, which is in the normal range for the Earth’s atmosphere. The sealed compartment’s air was between 15.7 and 16.4 per cent oxygen — low enough that it can’t support human life for long. “[McNolty’s] son was working nearby and I guess he went to look for his dad,” Holland said. “And then another guy went down, and another went down . . . . You can’t see anything wrong, you can’t smell anything wrong.” Each of them, he said, made it only to the bottom of a two-metre ladder before collapsing. “The last guy on the crew, he realized that everyone was down and out and called for help,” Holland said. “It’s a good thing he did.” Holland said as far as he can remember, none of the workers used safety equipment — air tanks or ropes, for instance — when descending the ladder. “I think they had it back at the camp, not on the site,” Holland said, and speculated that might have been because nobody was supposed to be clambering around inside the Apex No. 1 that day. Kingsley’s report doesn’t mention any safety equipment at all. The coroner said the report she wrote is intended to be the final statement on the matter, so she couldn’t add much to it. “It’s not our job to find fault,” she said. “Maybe you can read between the lines.” The Workers’ Compensation Board, however, found that the workers should have been better educated about the danger lurking in the Apex No. 1’s hold, and that there should have been rescue equipment available and pre-arranged procedures for getting injured people out. George MacPherson, who is with the Marine Workers and Boilermakers Industrial Union, said training is mandatory for marine workers in larger, unionized shops, but is often treated as optional in non-union operations. (Westminster Marine, where the three workers were killed last Friday, is a non-union shop.)
UPDATE, Barge survivors on the mend
Jan 13 2003
VANCOUVER – The three survivors from Friday’s deadly industrial accident on a barge on the New Westminster waterfront are recovering. Fraser Health Authority spokesperson Helen Carkner says all of the three injured men are improving, and one has already been released from Royal Columbian Hospital. “One of the workers, Sean Ironside, remains in intensive care at the Columbian,” she says. “His condition has been upgraded from critical to serious. The third patient is a firefighter from New Westminster, Dave Phillips, and his condition has been upgraded to good. He’s doing quite well.” Four workers were doing maintenance work in a small confined area below the barge’s deck on Friday morning, but failed to come back up. A fifth worker went down after them, and then phoned 911 on his cell phone from below deck. When emergency crews arrived, a firefighter fell while going down through a narrow entrance into the hull, and ended up being trapped as well. One of the barge’s owners, Edgar Jackson, told reporters over the weekend that the workers were only supposed to be working on the hatches leading down to the barge’s hold. But some some unexplained reason, Jackson says one of the workers who died, Dave Rowley, went down, and the other men when down to find him when he was discovered missing. The Workers’ Compensation Board is not taking that explanation of events at face value however. Spokesperson Scott McCloy says the board will do its own interviews and investigations over the next few months. The hull of a barge is often deprived of oxygen, and workers routinely have an extra oxygen supply before going down. Autopsies are being carried out on Monday on the three men who died in the accident.
Toxic fumes kill three workers servicing barge
By CP
NEW WESTMINSTER — Three people died and three more were hurt yesterday after workers servicing a barge on the Fraser River waterfront were apparently overcome by toxic fumes. “Six individuals have been brought from inside the barge,” said Staff Sgt. Casey Dehaas of the New Westminster police. The dead and injured had to be pulled one at a time through a small access hole. It’s not yet known what caused the accident. “Was it lack of oxygen, was it dead air space, was it noxious fumes? I have no idea,” Dehaas said. “There were different chemicals, fumes, that eat up oxygen . . . (and) fermentation that caused them to be overcome. The investigation will determine that.” Dehaas said the police probe will ascertain if criminal activity or negligence was involved. The bodies of the three deceased men, covered by plastic sheets, were removed from the barge yesterday afternoon with a crane normally used to load barges. One of the injured men was in serious condition and another in critical condition, said David Plug, spokesperson for Fraser Health Authority. He would not comment on the state of the third man or provide details on the men’s injuries. The incident apparently began in mid-morning when workers performing maintenance inside the barge failed to emerge for their break. Another worker went down to look for them. When the first worker didn’t return, another followed. That worker managed to call 911 from inside the barge.
Two workers rescued from sand bin
By CP
PRINCETON — Two men spent three hours yesterday half-buried in a massive bin of cold, wet sand at an industrial site in this community east of Woodstock before being rescued by emergency crews. The men, employees of Syri-Con Corp., were treated for hypothermia in hospital. At about 9 a.m., maintenance worker James Armstrong stepped into the bin to shovel sand toward a conveyor belt when he fell and sank in up to his neck. Co-worker Ed Szypniewski found him minutes later and jumped in to pull him out. He was buried to the waist. Other employees rushed to the bin and called emergency workers, fearing the sand would collapse and completely bury the pair. “It was scary,” said employee Gary Duncan, who used a forklift to help get the men out of the bin. “It went slow because we didn’t want the sand to cave in,” said Princeton fire Capt. Tony Janssen. “At the start, it could have been dangerous. We couldn’t walk on it because we’d pack it in deeper.” After emergency workers realized shovelling by hand was taking too long, a city of Woodstock truck was called in and vacuumed the sand from around the two men until they could be pulled out without injury.
UPDATE, Deaths of 3 immigrant workers dog state’s dairy industry
Lee Romney, Los Angeles Times Saturday, December 28, 2002
Gustine, Merced County — The brothers shared the bond of their immigrant journey. Over the course of two decades, Sergio and Jose Ortiz together inched toward the stable lives they had dreamed of in the rural Mexican town of their youth. In his pocket, the burly Sergio carried two Social Security cards: one fake, from his years as an illegal immigrant, the other real, tucked proudly next to his green card. Today, those belongings bear the marks of his journey’s end, a death so horrific that Jose hides the truth from their frail mother back home. Sergio Ortiz died in a stew of liquefied manure on the job in Gustine (Merced County), a modest dairy town on a narrow highway that slices through cow country like a razor. His death came just 18 months after a similar incident claimed two workers at another Gustine dairy farm. All were overcome by toxic wastewater gases, then drowned, after climbing inside concrete structures where manure slurry is pumped from vast waste lagoons. The spate of deaths has prompted an unusual self-examination by the California dairy industry and representatives of companies such as the one where Sergio worked. Most acknowledge that not enough has been done to comply with state laws requiring better training for workers and deployment of safety devices to combat deadly fumes in confined spaces. The state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, meanwhile, has launched unprecedented inspection sweeps of the dairy industry, which had largely fallen below the agency’s radar. Since the first two men, Jose Alatorre and Enrique Araiza, passed out and drowned inside a manure pond pump pit in February 2001, Cal/OSHA has carried out 166 inspections, 50 percent more than in the entire preceding decade. The agency has levied nearly $500, 000 in fines for a wide range of safety problems, records show. The deaths, and the sudden scrutiny by regulators, have shaken the state’s 2,000 dairy farms, many of them struggling financially because of low milk prices. “Unfortunately, it takes a bad event for us to wake up,” said Xavier Avila, president of the California Dairy Campaign, an association of family-run dairies. Most of all, the tragedies have left a streak of grief, from the fog- shrouded towns where the workers lived to the Mexican pueblos in Guanajuato and Jalisco, where they lie buried. A trend toward bigger operations, with more cows, often means more maintenance is required to prevent corroded floodgates from jamming and pumps from clogging with field detritus, said Bill Krycia, Cal/OSHA’s agricultural enforcement coordinator. Farmers must be warned against complacency because workers can enter one of the concrete structures dozens of times without incident before tragedy strikes, Krycia said. The recent deaths in Gustine were not the first to prove the dangers of animal waste to farm workers. Dozens have died in similar circumstances in regions where cold weather dictates that the manure pits be enclosed. In 1989, five family members from three generations all died in one Midwestern manure pit. After those deaths, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health issued an alert, and renewed the warning in 1993. In California, manure and water are gathered in open air lagoons and often rerouted by irrigation systems to fertilize crops of alfalfa, corn and winter forage. It is the system that delivers the witch’s brew to the fields that has claimed lives. The three deaths in Gustine bore remarkable similarities: In the 2001 incident, the 29-year-old Araiza climbed into a pump pit and fainted from the fumes. When Alatorre, 22, went to his co-worker’s rescue, he passed out too and landed in the waste. Both drowned in the stinking liquid . It was Alatorre’s first wedding anniversary, said his wife, Angelica Hernandez, 25. Those deaths — while much less common than deaths from farm equipment, falls and livestock accidents — prompted the worker safety agency to refocus its 3-year-old agricultural health and safety project. “California is now the No. 1 dairy state. We’re all very proud of them. They have happy cows,” Krycia said, referring to a dairy marketing campaign. “Now we want safe and healthy workers.”
Two brothers die trying to save co-worker; In their attempt to rescue a colleague who had passed out, both faint and fall in oil cargo tank; police conducting probe
By Selina Lum
TWO brothers working on board an oil tanker died on Friday, hours after they fainted and fell in a cargo tank while trying to help a co-worker who had passed out from the fumes. Covered in oil, Mr Ong Chiou Long, 30, and Mr Ong Chiou Haur, 26, were already unconscious when they were pulled out within half an hour, at about 5 pm. They were taken by helicopter to the Singapore General Hospital, where they died at about 9 pm, within 10 minutes of each other. The brothers were part of a group of workers that had been checking cargo tanks on the Singapore-registered Hua San tanker, which was in Malaysian waters. When they rushed in to rescue their co-worker, they passed out from the fumes and fell into the oil. The colleague is unhurt and is believed to be resting at home. The tanker is now berthed off Johor. The ship’s operator, Ocean Tankers, could not be reached for comment. The Singapore police are investigating the case as ”unnatural death’. Yesterday afternoon, surrounded by about 30 relatives and friends, the brothers’ bodies lay side by side, covered with white cloth, at a void deck in Bukit Batok East Avenue 4. Their brother Chiou Hui, 27, had gone with a Taoist priest to conduct rites on the ship to guide their souls back. His younger brother had been checking cargo tanks for about half a year, while the eldest had been on the job for less than two months. Before, all three sons had helped out at their father’s dry goods store a few blocks away from their home, selling fruit, dried foodstuff and roasted meat. Chiou Haur, who is single, lived with Chiou Long’s family. Their father, who would not give his first name, said: ”Last night, I nearly went mad. For two healthy people to go just like that…” The only one who seemed oblivious to the grief was Chiou Long’s two-year-old daughter Alicia, ”Lei Lei” to her relatives. Her mother, Madam Nina Melani, 24, who comes from Pontianak, West Kalimantan, broke down and cried: ”I’m so worried for my daughter. What are we going to do now?” When her husband decided to take up cargo tank inspection recently after leaving the family business, she was against the idea. ”And now, he’s gone without even saying goodbye.”
UPDATE, Man who died in bid to save friend honored as hero; Victor Mills jumped to aid man who had passed out in manhole
2002-12-26 by Nora Doyle Journal Reporter
There was no other option for Victor Mills on an August day last year. When he saw his friend suffocating in a manhole at the construction site where they were working, Mills had to do something. Mills died trying to save him. “He was the type of kid that knows right is right, and wrong is wrong,” said his father, Mel Mills. “When that situation came up, he just did it. He knew he had to try and save his friend. That’s the kind of kid he was.” His friend, Jason Moore, survived. Mills, 34 at the time of his death, was recently named by the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission as a recipient of the Carnegie Medal. The medal is given to people who risked their lives to an extraordinary degree while saving or attempting to save the lives of others. Mills was one of three of this year’s recipients who died in the performance of an heroic act. “I was very proud. He very well deserved it for what he did,” said Mills’ mother, Sharon Brehmer. Victor Mills was one of four people working on an excavation project at a construction site in Newcastle on Aug. 29. Moore had begun to act strangely after climbing into a manhole on the site, probably from a lack of oxygen inside, said a Bellevue Fire Department spokesman right after the accident. Mills jumped in to help Moore, but fell 20 feet headfirst. After a few minutes, Moore regained consciousness and climbed out, but Mills was declared dead at the scene. Mills was raised in Auburn and attended Auburn High School, where he was a good student and played soccer, his parents said. Later living in Enumclaw, Mills and Moore became friends. It was Moore who encouraged Mills to take a job with Robinson Construction Inc. “They were a team,” Mills’ mother said. They worked together about seven weeks before Mills’ death. Mills was one of four children, the last and the smallest of the group. But, at 6 feet 2 inches tall and 212 pounds, he grew up to be the biggest, his mother said with a smile. Mills was fun and well-liked, and he followed his parents’ advice to become indispensable to his employer, working nights and weekends, and learning to operate every piece of machinery, said Mel Mills. “I’m honored that he’s getting this award,” he said. One hundred and eight people were awarded the Carnegie Medal in 2002. Each winner or their survivors receive a $3,500 grant.
Four die after inhaling poisonous gas
Tuesday, December 24, 2002 By Peter Tindwa
Four people have died yesterday and a colleague injured allegedly after inhaling poisonous gas inside a septic tank at TanPak Industry in Mikocheni, Dar es Salaam. All affected people are employees of the industry.Sources at TanPack said that the injured employee has been admitted to Mwananyamala hospital where his condition was reported to be improving.Some TanPack employees also told this newspaper yesterday that the five workers entered the tank in to clean it after they were assigned by the management. However, they allegedly inhaled poisonous gas from chemical waste kept in the tank.The deceased have been identified as Michael Joseph (25) from Kijitonyama, Kassim Mkinga (24) a Kigogo resident, Laurian Warioba (25) of Kijitonyama and Mustafa Salum (25) from Tandika. The hospitalised worker has been named as Abdallah Omari (24).It has also been learnt that in the past, the tanks used to be cleaned by special trucks, “but nowadays, garbage workers are usually asked to go in and clean them after they have ben emptied.”Narrating the event, the Dar es Salaam Regional Police Commander, Alfred Tibaigana, confirmed that the tragedy occurred at around 5.30 pm last Sunday. He said the deceased were casual labourers recruited by the industry and that they entered the tank after they were asked by their seniors to do so.He said two people, who were foremen of the deceased were being held and questioned by the police in connection with the incident.
UPDATE, Concrete Company Fined for Silo Suffocation Accident
By The Associated Press
A concrete company has been fined $16,800 for an accident in which a maintenance worker fell into a silo filled with cement powder and suffocated. A Department of Labor spokesman says the Thomas Concrete plant in Raleigh had four serious safety violations. The department says Lathan Earl Williams had climbed into the silo October 23rd to knock chunks of powder loose from the structure’s side. He was hanging from an internal ladder, but lost his grip and fell through several tons of the fine cement powder to the bottom of the silo. The department says Thomas Concrete failed to mark the silo as a dangerous confined space and failed to produce a written safety program for entering such a space. Human resources and safety manager Bob Schultz says the plant says no one was supposed to enter the silo.
Death ruled accidental
BY DARCY HENDRICKS STAFF WRITER
The death of a 31-year-old man has been ruled accidental, two weeks after his body was found in a water reservoir at a Niles industrial building. The man, an Oak Lawn resident, was reported to have died from closed- space asphyxia while working at a plant on North Lehigh Avenue, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office. Police said officers, along with the Niles Fire Department, responded to the incident after being notified by another employee. The employee told police the dead man had last been seen around noon on Dec. 5. Employees leave work about 3:30 p.m., and according to the police report, it was not uncommon for the victim to stay to clean up his tools before he left. According to the police report, the witness noticed the victim’s tools in the building, and his car parked in the lot, on the morning of Dec. 6. He later discovered the body in the reservoir.
Drainage worker In Kerala killed due to suffocation
8-December-2002
Kerala:Thiruvananthapuram – A worker was killed due to suffocation when he was engaged in clearing a drainage manhole at Mudavanmughal in Thiruvananthapuram. Police identified the victim as Vijayakumaran Nair (44) of Muttathara. Vijayakumaran and Sukumaran were clearing the manhole when the former swooned. He was taken out of the manhole by the fire force personnel and rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
1 killed, 7 injured in a blast at Sewri
By: UNI December 7,2002
One person was killed and seven others were injured in a blast in the tank of a barge under repair at the Bombay Port Trust (BPT) High Bunder at Sewree this evening, police said. The incident took place around 1645 hrs, police said. Fire brigade and police officials have reached the spot and said preliminary investigations pointed to an accidental blast. While four of the injured have been rushed to the government-run J J Hospital at Byculla here, one of the workers is still trapped inside the tank, police said adding that efforts were on to rescue him. The statements of two of the workers who sustained minor injuries are being recorded, police said. “Initial reports say the blast appears to be a an accident but we are checking out other possibilities too” says Javed Ahmed, Joint Commission of Police – Law & Order. ”This morning the tank was repaired, painted and then a coat of ethanol was applied. While some welding was going on in the adjacent chamber, gas spread out from the chamber resulting in a fire and the blast”, a senior police officer told said at the accident site. The blast is close on the heels of the explosion at the mumbai central railway station here yesterday in which 25 people were injured.
UPDATE, Autopsy indicates drowning in Keystone death
By The Associated Press
KEYSTONE – A Keystone resort worker drowned after becoming entangled in a flooded, below-ground vault used in the resort’s snowmaking system, the Summit County coroner said today. The body of Benjamin Isaiah Bornstein, 28, of Dillon was found Monday, partially submerged with his clothing snared in the pipes, valves and other controls, said Dave Parmley, chief of the Snake River Fire Protection District. Firefighters and paramedics rode snowmobiles to the accident site after being called at 4:50 a.m., Parmley said. Bornstein was pronounced dead at 7:27 a.m. at Summit Medical Center after efforts to revive him failed, said Jill Berman, spokeswoman for the Summit County Sheriff’s Department. Coroner Dave Joslin said Tuesday that Bornstein died of asphyxiation due to drowning. No other significant injuries were found, Joslin said. Bornstein was inside a cylindrical structure five feet in diameter and four to five feet deep. It contains the pipes for compressed air and water required to make and blast out snow, said Chuck Tolton, Keystone’s director of mountain operations. After snowmaking was finished, the hatch over the vault would be closed and snow raked over it, so skiers would be unaware they were skiing over buried pipes and machinery. Two other workers called for help when they saw water flowing out of the vault. “This kind of death in ski area operations is extremely rare, and it has hit the community, starting with the young man’s friends, very, very hard,” Tolton said. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Summit County Sheriff’s Department and other agencies were investigating.
Keystone worker is killed, Water traps man in snow-machine well
By Ryan Morgan
Tuesday, November 26, 2002 – KEYSTONE – A Keystone Resort employee died early Monday morning when the snowmaking machine he was repairing flooded, submerging him in gallons of frigid, rushing water. Benjamin Bornstein, 28, was working in a shallow snowmaking well, a metal tube 5 feet in diameter and 5 feet tall that holds the pipes feeding compressed air and water into the snow machine, when something went wrong about 5 a.m. Rescue workers who rushed up the mountain on snowmobiles found Bornstein trapped in more than 5 feet of rushing water, unable to pull himself out, said Snake River Fire Rescue Chief Dave Parmley. Fire Department Lt. Damon Exum, Bornstein’s roommate, was one of the first on the scene. He worked feverishly to rescue his friend from the water and eventually succeeded at pulling him out, but it was too late, Parmley said. Bornstein was whisked down the mountain and taken by ambulance to Summit County Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 7:27 a.m. Authorities don’t know whether he drowned or was killed after being slammed around by the water. Chuck Tolton, Keystone’s mountain manager, said he’d never heard of such a death. “This is the first incident that I can remember,” he said. Parmley said the loss was especially devastating for Exum and many of the other firefighters who also knew Bornstein as a friend. “There was a very personal tragedy in this,” Parmley said. “It was a difficult day for a number of our personnel. It’s a great loss for them.” But Parmley praised his firefighters and Keystone’s emergency workers for their efforts to save their friend and co-worker. “Everything was done that could be done, considering the situation was so far removed from normal,” Parmley said. Summit County Coroner Dave Joslin scheduled an autopsy for this morning and declined to speculate on the cause of death. “It could be drowning. It could be asphyxiation. It could be trauma,” Joslin said. Although the gravel-lined vault should be dry, water pressure inside the pipes ran at 600 to 800 pounds per square inch. Somehow, a pipe ruptured. Bornstein had worked as a snowmaker for about two years, and his death left Keystone’s 36 other snowmaking crew members stunned, resort spokeswoman Dawn Doty said. While skiers and snowboarders frolicked in fresh powder amid sunny weather on Monday, most crew members either went home or spent the day with counselors, she said. “It’s a tight group. Someone described it like they’re a band of brothers,” she said. “They take care of each other. They know what’s going on in each other’s lives. They work behind the scenes. They do the unsung work so that everybody can have a great day on the mountain.” Despite heavy snowfall, Keystone’s snowmaking crews were working hard, trying to put as much snow as they could on the slopes in advance of the holidays, Doty said.
Police, OSHA investigate industrial death
Rescue workers said the worker was already dead by the time they arrived.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police and OSHA are investigating an accident that left one worker at a towing company dead. The accident happened just after 9 a.m. Friday at Coy Towing Service on North Hoskins Road in Northwest Charlotte. Workers called 911 after they found the worker unconscious in a confined area. They said they believe he was trapped inside a tanker and may have been overcome by the fumes. Rescue workers said the worker was already dead by the time they arrived. Currently, police and OSHA are saying they are not sure what caused the victim’s death.
Three welders burned in silo explosion
Associated Press
NEW LONDON, N.C. – Three men were severely burned in a freak explosion just as they were finishing a welding job in a silo Monday, officials said. Tony Eddins, 22, of Albemarle; Robert Poplin, 58, and Bob Pickler, 50, both of Mount Gilead, were in critical condition at the N.C. Jaycee Burn Center in Chapel Hill, a hospital spokeswoman said. The three had been welding a metal chute for about an hour and a half inside one of eight silos at Fiber Composite Corp., which makes wood composite for decks and rails. As they welded the last 6 inches of the chute into place, an explosion occurred about 9:30 a.m. “They triggered the dust and there was an explosion,” said Stanly County Fire Marshal Bill Rogers. The silo, though empty, had contained wood and polyethylene chips, said Fiber Composite President Douglas Mancosh. Dust particles mixed with oxygen in the right proportions can explode when sparked by static electricity or a welder’s flame, officials said.
UPDATE, Tyson deaths examined
Kentucky hearing witnesses in tragedy at waste-rendering plant where two workers perished in vat of chicken parts
By CHUCK STINNETT Henderson Gleaner
HENDERSON, Ky. – Witnesses began testifying Monday concerning two gruesome deaths three years ago at a Tyson Foods Inc. chicken waste-rendering plant in Robards, Ky. Tyson is appealing charges filed by the Kentucky Labor Cabinet’s Occupational Safety and Health Program that the company committed willful violations of worker safety regulations and should be penalized $139,500. Tyson and the state agree that the company had safety precaution guidelines in place and that the guidelines weren’t followed the night of the double fatality. But the company maintains that the victims were at fault, while the Labor Cabinet said Tyson failed to properly enforce its own safety program. The matter concerns the events of July 22, 1999, at the Tyson protein plant, where chicken feathers, blood, dead chickens, hatchery wastes and other poultry byproducts are cooked and processed to be used in dog food and other animal feed. Witnesses at the hearing in the Henderson County Public Library testified that James Dame Jr., 40, an hourly production worker from Slaughters, Ky., was emptying a “tote” or container full of chicken waste into an underground bin at the “raw dock” of the protein plant. Dame lifted the tote with a forktruck, but when he lowered the forks to empty the container, the tote slid off and fell into the 10-foot-deep bin. He contacted the maintenance crew, and leadman/maintenance mechanic Scotty Richmond arrived with a crane. A seat called a boatswain chair was attached to the crane, and Dame was lowered into the bin to attach a chain to the tote so it could be hauled up. Richmond and his brother, maintenance welder Eugene Richmond, testified that this method was commonly used for retrieving totes that periodically fell into the waste bins. Scotty Richmond said a co-worker gave him the signal to raise Dame. But, Richmond said, “When he (Dame) got up to where I could see him, he fell over backwards” back into the bin. Another co-worker, truck driver Larry Boling of Henderson, said he ran over, but Dame had disappeared beneath the pool of chicken waste. “The only thing I could see was his white hard hat” floating on top. The night-shift production supervisor, Michael Hallum, 24, of Madisonville, Ky., was immediately summoned by radio and arrived within a minute or so, witnesses said. “He paced back and forth saying, ‘Oh my God, oh my God,’ ” Boling said. “Then he told Scotty, ‘Lower me down, now.’ ” The boatswain’s chair had disappeared in the bin, so Hallum climbed onto the metal “headache ball” at the end of the crane’s cable and was lowered into the pit. “He was down for about 10 seconds, maximum. Then he said, ‘Get me up, now,’ ” Boling said. “He got close to the top, holding on to the cable with both hands, then he just let go and fell back down, feet first.” In his subsequent investigation, Henderson County Coroner Don Cantley concluded that the two men had been overcome by fumes inside the vat and suffocated. “This is a very sad occasion, a very tragic accident,” David Sarvadi, a Tyson attorney, told state hearing officer Thomas J. Hellman in his opening remarks. But, Sarvadi continued, “The employees did not follow rules that had been established. They did not follow their training.” Tyson hopes to prove that it had taken precautions against such accidents. It had ordered chains welded to the totes; the chains were supposed to be secured to the boom of the forktruck to prevent it from sliding off into the waste bins. But the Richmond brothers acknowledged that workers didn’t always follow the procedure. The company also contends that workers were instructed not to dump the chicken waste directly into the bins, but rather to dump it onto the floor and scoop it into the bin using a piece of equipment called a Bobcat. Tyson also insists that it provided training on confined-space entry, such as going into a poorly ventilated area where chemical fumes might accumulate, and provided equipment such as safety harnesses, breathing apparatus and an oxygen sensor. “Had they followed the rules – even if they
didn’t follow all, if they followed some – the accident would not have happened as it did,” attorney Sarvadi said. The Labor Cabinet, meanwhile, presented witnesses who said that hourly employees and supervisors alike routinely retrieved dropped totes just as Dame attempted to do. While acknowledging that he had signed documents indicating he had received training in confined-space entry and other areas, Scotty Richmond (who, like his brother, no longer works at Tyson) insisted that it was only classroom training, “not hands-on training.” “Tyson did have a confined-space program, but did not follow it,” John Parsons, a Labor Cabinet attorney, told hearing officer Hellmann. “It did not take the precautions to prevent the fatalities.” Testimony in the hearing is expected to last up to three weeks. Then the two sides will have several months to present written briefs and responses. Ultimately, Hellmann will make a recommendation on the matter to the Kentucky Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission for a final decision. The review commission will consider the facts in the case in determining whether the Labor Cabinet was proper in finding that Tyson had committed “willful” violations, meaning it knew it was violating safety regulations but proceeded with what one attorney described as “plain indifference or intentional disregard.” Tyson’s Sarvadi insisted that the law “does not make an employer a guarantor of safety. It requires that an employer make all reasonable steps” to comply with the regulations. In separate matters, the families of Dame and Hallum have filed civil lawsuits against Tyson.
Oil Tank Fire in White Oak
Tense moments in Gregg county today, as an oil storage tank catches fire with a work crew inside. Just after 10:30 Saturday morning fire and rescue units converged on the plains oil storage facility on Highway 42 near White Oak. Six workers had been cleaning an empty tank when something went wrong. Something sparked and the tank caught fire with the workers trapped. The workers were quickly evacuated, and treated at the scene. One was hospitalized for smoke inhalation. Fire crews think either vapors or oil residue sparked. The tank began to buckle from the intensity of the flames inside. Fortunately there were no serious injuries. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Farm accident almost proves deadly
by Trudy Bosch, Grenfell Sun & Broadview Express (News)
But for the grace of God and a well placed hose, Leland Johnson may not be alive today. Early Wednesday evening, Johnson and fellow workers were on site at the Double Bar D farm to combine the remaining crop. The group began at 3 am, continuing their work throughout the day. At approximately 5 pm they were unloading their last load of canola off of a semi trailer. The cold weather combined with ice and snow had cause the canola to bridge up when it was being taken off the truck. If it doesn’t come out smoothly it will fall down in chunks,” explained Mark Dimler, one of the owners of the farm who was on site that day. When grain is dry it almost flows like water.” The group consisted of Johnson, Dimler, Raymond Zorn and Dwayne Oshowy. They had just started to unload when they noticed a problem. They opened the shoot on the bottom of the trailer and nothing came out so Dwayne was going to get a crowbar to poke underneath to get it flowing,” Dimler stated. Dimler was in the tractor running the auger and spotted Johnson climbing on the back of the trailer. He saw that the guys were having trouble moving the canola so he left the tractor to offer a hand. By the time he got to the truck the canola had begun to move through the shaft. Dimler climbed the trailer to see how well the canola was moving. Johnson was no where in sight. I climbed to the top and then looked over and I didn’t see him anywhere and then I heard him scream – kind of a death-defying scream. That’s when I knew something was wrong.” With a quick yell to the men on the ground the shoot was closed to prevent more of the canola from moving. Dimler crawled along the edge of the trailer and spotted Johnson – in the middle of the trailer surrounded in canola up to his chin. Johnson was submerged in a cave of grain measuring 4 feet across in diameter and rising approximately 2 feet over his head. While the wall of grain threaten to crush him, Johnson was using his one free hand to try and keep the grain away from his mouth. It appeared that he had stepped through a cavity that caused him to sink into the canola. Johnson grabbed a hold of the bars of the top of the trailer to keep from falling while calling for help at the top of his lungs. The combined noise of the tractor and the auger muffled his pleas and he eventually let go and became surrounded in the grain. Dimler quickly took in the situation and yelled down for someone to find a hose. Zorn quickly jumped into a half ton truck and sped to the shop situated a few hundred yards away. Dimler said, I guess you could say it was almost a miracle that there just happened to be a heater hose, perfect length and diameter sitting right by the door to the shop.” Zorn returned in a few minutes with the hose in toe. The hose was given to Johnson who in turn used it for breathing. Meanwhile back at the trailer while Zorn went to find a hose Dimler and Oshowy waited helplessly. They dared not go into the trailer fearing the cave of canola would fall and cover Johnson’s head. While the men were waiting for Zorn’s return, Oshowy’s brother Lowell appeared on the scene in a truck. Dwayne switched places with Dimler on top of the trailer while Dimler jumped into the truck to head back to the yard for a tractor and front end loader. I went back to get it to have over top of the trailer in case they were successful in getting a rope tied around Leland then we would have something to lift him out,” Dimler explained. Back at the accident, once the hose was in place, Oshowy jumped in the grain, keeping himself in a safe area and requested small sheets of plywood to form a box around Johnson which would protect him from the wall of canola if and when it fell. Once the safety device was in place the men took turns shoveling as much of the canola from around Johnson as they could. It was reported that on at least six occasions he was completely covered in the seed using only the hose to breath. During this time Dimler also called his parents. When his mother answered the phone he immediately requested that his dad come out and aid the men who were struggling to save Johnson’s life. He also asked his mother to phone the ambulance. Johnson had already been in the canola half an hour by the time the ambulance arrived. The men had already boxed him in and were hard at work shoveling. As they made progress putting a dent in the grain pile they pushed the walls of the box farther down, uncovering Johnson inch by inch. The EMTs handed him an oxygen mask making it easier to take in oxygen. Once both of his arms were free they fashioned a harness from a nylon strap and secured it under his shoulders and tied it to a rope which in turn was secured to the front end loader. The Grenfell Fire Department arrived on scene 20-30 minutes later. They provided light for the men to continue their work. Shoveling continued for over an hour when finally Johnson was uncovered to the bottom of the rib cage. The harness was attached to the front end loader with a cable and wench and the men slowly freed him by hand. After over an hour and a half in the trailer Johnson was free. He appeared shocked but mostly unhurt, even climbing down the trailer himself. For precautionary reason he was taken to the Broadview Hospital to be checked out. The following day his was fine, his only complaint being a sore chest. As for the rest of the men, Dimler, the Oshowy brothers and Zorn? Well they had to finish unloading the trailer. We were shaking a bit later on that night and even right then unloading the rest of the tractors we had to be careful because that grain was still sticking,” Dimler commented. This was the first farm accident to happen on the Dimler’s land but the quick thinking and actions of Raymond Zorn, Mark Dimler, Dwayne and Lowell Oshowy prevented a serious accident and saved a man’s life.
UPDATE, B.C. wine-country residents shocked by deaths
By CAMILLE BAINS
VANCOUVER (CP) – British Columbia’s winemaking industry is at a loss to explain how two winemakers died in a freak accident no one has ever heard of happening before. Victor Manola, owner of the Silver Sage Winery in the Okanagan town of Oliver, B.C., died Sunday after falling into a fermentation tank. Winemaking consultant Frank Supernak, died when he fell in, too, attempting to rescue Manola. It’s believed the men suffocated because of the carbon dioxide generated in the enclosed tank by the fermenting wine. The lack of oxygen meant they couldn’t breathe. The incident has shocked residents in the Okanagan Valley agricultural community where “wine is the world,” said Bob Tennant, a winery owner in the area. “Everyone’s just sick about it,” Tennant said as winery owners throughout the Okanagan planned to help Manola’s wife Anna get wines from the family business to store shelves. The accident came as a blow to the British Columbia’s flourishing wine industry, which last week took 152 out of 268 medals at the Canadian Wine Awards. Harry McWatters, founding chairman of the B.C. Wine Institute, said everyone is deeply saddened by the tragic deaths. “Our industry, although we may be very competitive in the marketplace, we all share a passion for what we do,” he said. “There’s little doubt in my mind that the industry will come to a position where these families can reach out and find some assistance to get them through this vintage.” The accident is so bizarre that nobody in the industry can even begin to figure out how someone could fall into a fermentation tank. “This is my 35th vintage in the business and nothing like this has ever happened,” McWatters said. “This is very much a freak accident.” Manola, 41, was on a ladder while reaching into the tank to get a wine sample for testing around noon Sunday when he fell into a hole measuring about 38 centimetres across, said Sgt. Bob Reuter of Oliver’s RCMP detachment. Supernak, 47, went to help and also fell into the tank, which was about two-thirds full, Reuter said. “Whether he got dragged in or fell in himself, they both ended up in the tank,” Reuter said. Rescue workers sawed off the top of the tank and drained it before rescuing the men, he said. “It’s just a totally tragic accident,” said Reuter. The wine industry is considering ways to eliminate such incidents from happening again, McWatters said. “We’re all going to have to do some self-analysis here about what could be done,” he said. “I think it really comes down to making sure that people don’t work alone in cellars in this kind of situation and that they recognize the potential danger of the lack of oxygen. You don’t see the danger.” Winemaker Steve Wyse, who works at the Burrowing Owl Vineyards in Oliver, said Manola, who had two adult children living in the Vancouver area, was the pillar of his family. “He was a unique guy,” Wyse said. “He was making the only pinot blanc ice wine with a chili pepper in it.” Manola and his wife were also adding a bed-and-breakfast in to their property, where they would have celebrated their third vintage. Supernak, who had a wife and two children, was a microbiologist who was involved in every aspect of winemaking – from vineyard work, to the crush and final analysis, said Wyse. “Frank taught me a lot about winemaking,” Wyse said. “That’s who he was. He was willing to give everybody every little bit of knowledge that he had. He was the best. He could turn grapes into magic.” The coroner’s office and the Workers’ Compensation Board were investigating the deaths.
Winery mishap kills two men
By CP
OLIVER, B.C. — A bizarre winery accident has claimed two lives after one man tumbled into a wine tank and another tried to save him. Victor Manola, owner of the Silver Sage Winery in Oliver, B.C., about 260 km east of Vancouver, was bending over the top of a large plastic tank when he slipped in, said his wife, Anna Manola, yesterday. “The winemaker … jumped in to take him out and he couldn’t come out,” she said. CHBC-TV in Kelowna reported the 2,270-litre tank was three-quarters full at the time and that rescuers resorted to draining the tank and cutting off its top in order to retrieve the men’s bodies. “I let the wine out of the tank,” Manola said softly. “It was too late.” The coroner’s office and Workers’ Compensation Board are investigating, CHBC said.
UPDATE, Chemical Scare Kills Wyoming Man
November 9, 2002
WALKER — Investigators are trying to piece together what happened in the final moments of a worker’s life. A 35-year-old man died while working at the H.B. Fuller plant just before 9pm Friday. Now the company on Kinney Avenue in Walker searches for answers as they grieve a loss. Company officials confirmed Saturday that Jeffrey Laroway of Wyoming died in their building, overcome as he worked with chemicals. Officials from the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) were on the scene, trying to figure out why It happened. Late last night, fire officials determined he was either cleaning out the container that mixed the chemicals or he was in fact mixing them. Another employee found Laroway inside a vat. “An employee found him slumped over,” Fire Chief Bill Schmidt said. “They pulled him back and tried CPR.” Crews worked much of the night to decontaminate firefighters and other workers: 18 people in all were hosed down and transported to hospitals as a safety precaution. They were all released by today. The company says this is an isolated incident and tell us conditions within the facility have been declared normal and safe today. H.B. Fuller is a Fortune 500 company that provides adhesives, sealants, and coatings for the manufacture of other, more familiar, brand-name products. A company spokesman says grief counselors will help employees through the tough time. “We care deeply for our employees well-being and safety, and our thoughts go to those who have been affected.” Walker Police tell us they won’t have an official cause of Laroway’s death until results of an autopsy and OSHA investigation are released Monday.
Worker dies at Walker plant
(Walker, November 9, 2002, 6:36 p.m. updated )
Today investigators are looking for what killed one worker and sent more than a dozen others to the hospital. Late Friday night the H. B. Fuller plant, located in the 2700 block of Kinney in Walker, had to be evacuated after it appears one worker was overcome by fumes while cleaning a vat. Workers found a man slumped over and unconscious. On Saturday the Walker Police Department identified the man as 35-year-old Jeffery Laroway from Wyoming. According to police the cause of his death is believed to be from the inhalation of oxygen depleted gases. Two other workers who were also in the area had to be decontaminated after they complained of symptoms. In all, ten firefighters and about eight workers were put on a bus and driven to Spectrum Butterworth Hospital for decontamination. Spectrum representatives tell 24 Hour News 8 decontamination went successfully, and all have been released at this time. Hazmat teams say the fumes did not pose a threat to any area around the plant. 24 Hour News 8 discovered this morning Grand Rapids Fire officials believe two of the chemicals that were involved were Propylene Carbonate, a liquid that can be an irritating if inhaled or ingested, and Triethyl Glyconal.
Manitoba: Rules were ignored at site of workers’ death, judge says
WINNIPEG – Two men who asphyxiated in a railway tanker at CanAmera’s canola-crushing plant in Manitoba would still be alive had company policies been followed, an inquest judge has found. David Schroeder and James Friesen died in 1996. The judge called for a safer working environment, improved supervision and better equipment for the 70 employees.
UPDATE, Fines totaling $161,000 proposed against farm
BUSHNELL, Fla. – The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has proposed that Hillandale Farms pay $161,000 in fines linked to the death of a worker earlier this year. The fines, announced Wednesday, include $125,000 in proposed penalties for allowing employees to work without proper safety equipment and failing to remove grain dust accumulations. Hillandale was also fined $36,000 for seven other citations. Michael M. Collins died May 1 after sinking into a silo holding 30 tons of corn kernels. OSHA area director Les Grove said Collins was not wearing a body harness or any other protective equipment. Collins died of asphyxiation four hours later, after the pressure of the corn crushed his chest. “This was a tragic accident that should have been avoided,” said John Henshaw, OSHA’s assistant secretary of labor. Hillandale Farms has 15 business days to contest the fines and citations before an independent OSHA commission. Bushnell is about 45 miles northwest of Orlando.
Two die of asphyxiation
KANPUR, OCT 29 (PTI)
Two persons died of asphyxiation while cleaning a choked sewage line in Jaroli area here today, police said. Two sweepers had gone in a main hole at Jaroli area to clean a choked sewage line and failed to come out for a long time, police said adding their colleagues then went inside and found them in an unconscious state. Both of them were rushed to a hospital where they died later, police added.
UPDATE, CFMEU demands probe into water tower collapse
The building workers union is calling for a full inquiry into working conditions at the site of the collapsed water tower at Lake Cargelligo in central western NSW. The tower collapsed last Tuesday, killing two construction workers. The site was being managed by a sub-contractor employed by the Department of Public Works and Services. An occupational health and safety officer for the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), Steve Keenan, inspected the site late last week. He says the ladders that were being used were home-made and the scaffolding workers were standing on had been tampered with. “We demand a full inquiry into this project, we demand that no further work take place, rectification work of any kind to take place there until all parties sit down [and] put the appropriate measures in place, so that these incidents and accidents don’t happen again,” he said. The union has also expressed concern staff who were working to construct the water tower were not adequately covered by workers’ compensation. Mr Keenan says the policy, which had been purchased to cover the six employees working at the site, was worth far less than it should have been. “I’ve got to say, this is the worst site I’ve ever seen,” he said. “I was involved in the Newcastle accident, investigating that and it didn’t come close to this one, this one was really appalling and it makes you sick that the Department of Public Works have allowed this project to move on the way it has.” It is understood a meeting is to be held in Griffith later this week to discuss the possibility of legal action. Representatives from the CFMEU, WorkCoverNew South Wales, the Labor Council of NSW, and the Department of Public Works and Services are expected to attend. The CFMEU has also written to the Minister for Public Works and Services, Morris Yemma, requesting an urgent conference.
UPDATE, Two bodies taken from tower
23oct02
THE bodies of two South Australian men crushed when the roof of a water tower collapsed in the NSW Riverina have been recovered by rescue workers. Anthony Beytell, 37, from Adelaide and Craig McLeod, 34, from Port Pirie, were killed when the roof of the partially constructed tower at Lake Cargelligo gave way yesterday. A police spokeswoman said the first body was recovered at 10.05am (AEST) today and the second at 11.30am. “They were taken to Lake Cargelligo Hospital for formal identification,” a police spokeswoman said. Two other men injured in the collapse were recovering in hospital today, while a third has been released. A 20-year-old Griffith man was flown to Orange Base Hospital with serious injuries while a 42-year-old local was airlifted to Wagga Wagga Hospital, also in a serious condition. Both men were believed to be in a stable condition, the spokeswoman said. A 26-year-old local, Scott Woods, was released from Lake Cargelligo Hospital after treatment for minor injuries. The group had been pouring concrete when the roof collapsed, sparking a huge search and rescue effort with considerable resources deployed from Sydney. A sixth worker escaped by clinging to outside scaffolding. A post-mortem examination will be carried out at Dubbo Hospital in the next few days to determine the exact cause of death of the two men, the spokeswoman said. “This information will be included in a report for the coroner being prepared by detectives from Parkes police station,” she said. “WorkCover will also be carrying out inquiries into the incident.”
UPDATE, Bulk carrier blast highlights faults in safety regulation
The World Today – Tuesday, October 22, 2002 12:22
ELEANOR HALL: When eight seamen were sent in to paint the ballast tank of the bulk carrier, Nego Kim, in November last year their routine task turned into a tragedy. All eight crew members were killed when fumes from their painting accumulated to dangerous levels causing an explosion. Well, today a report into the disaster points to serious flaws in the regulation of safety in international shipping. Releasing the results of its investigation, the Australian Safety Transport Bureau has reported that the crew were not given adequate instructions or equipment for their task, and were unaware of the dangers of what they were doing. Matt Brown reports from Canberra. MATT BROWN: On the afternoon of the 18th of November last year, just off the port of Dampier in Western Australia, the Hong Kong registered bulk carrier, Nego Kim, was waiting to load cargo of scrap metal. Its 170 metres of deck stretched out into the distance from the ship’s bridge. Despite the breeze, it was a warm afternoon on deck and eight crew members had just spent the last two hours spray painting inside one of the huge carrier’s ballast tanks. Kit Filor from the Transport Safety Bureau says the crew were almost certainly unaware of the danger creeping up on them. KIT FILOR: It’s really a bit like filling your car in perhaps in your sitting room. The fumes from the paint which are, were, are hydrocarbon, just like petrol if you like, toxic fumes. They were in themselves toxic. They would have affected the brain. And the lower explosion limit where a spark could cause an explosion would have been reached fairly quickly, in about 40 minutes. But it would’ve been that slow build up. Probably impinging on the senses very slowly to the degree where probably the increase would not have been detected. MATT BROWN: There were just two relatively small hatches in the ballast tank that were being used both for ventilation and the avenue for all of the crew’s gear. And a spark maybe from a dropped light or another source triggered a tragedy that wiped out the ship’s entire deck crew. KIT FILOR: Inside the tank it would have been oppressive. Temperatures probably around about 40 degrees. And at about 4:30, just after 4:30, the, there was a loud explosion. The solid steel deck was ripped up into a big arch. Three men standing just aft, or just backward of this tank were blown down the deck and they were killed. There was a man in the tank. He suffered severe burns to about 90 per cent of his body. There were three men standing on top of the tank and they were blown over, four men actually, and they were blown overboard. One body was recovered some time later. The man in the tank actually survived 16 days but eventually died of his, of his, injuries. MATT BROWN: The Transport Safety Bureau’s recommending a change to the international shipping manuals so they reflect the dangers and recommend precautions for working in confined spaces. It sounds almost too mundane to be pointed out. But Kit Filor says that’s the nature of the factors at the heart of many deadly accidents. KIT FILOR: Painting is such a routine mundane task on ship. It’s done every day almost on all ships, that people just, and this is the nature of accidents. They don’t recognise the dangers because they’re so used to them. And change the location, change the circumstances slightly, and you actually induce a real hazard and people don’t recognise it. MATT BROWN: The bureau also found that the rescue plan at the Dampier Port had not been updated to take the closure of the port’s control tower into account. But that while it’s ultimately for the coroner to decide, the death was so rapid that ambiguities in the plan probably had no effect on the loss of life.
Two dead in tower collapse
By Michael Owen-Brown and Kara Lawrence 23oct02
THE bodies of two construction workers, believed to be from South Australia, were thought to be under tonnes of rubble in a water tower in western NSW last night. One man was confirmed dead and there had been no contact with the other. They were among a crew of five men who plunged about 16m into the tank when its roof collapsed about 11.30am yesterday. Two men were quickly rescued from the debris and taken to hospital, while a third was trapped by the leg and not freed until early evening. The accident occurred near Lake Cargelligo, 450km west of Sydney, as the men poured concrete to form the roof. Four of the workmen were believed to be contractors for SA firm BGA Projects, which won the tender to build the tower, and some were believed to be from Adelaide. One was a 26-year-old from Lake Cargelligo, who was one of the first rescued. The three injured men were taken to Lake Cargelligo Hospital, two with minor cuts. The man who was trapped for several hours had head wounds and a severe injury after his leg was pierced by a steel bar. Concreter Ralph Storr was working near the men when a large section cracked off and sent them sprawling under a shower of concrete, steel and scaffolding. “I heard a really big noise and the side of the concrete that was already on top collapsed, the whole lot (fell) down,” he said. He estimated about 100 tonnes of rubble fell into the tank. WorkCover investigators were among 50 officials and rescuers at the scene. A coronial investigation will be conducted. The reservoir is 16.25m high and 18.6m in diameter, and is nearing completion. It was to be the first stage in a major project to establish a new water supply for the area. Lockie Beuzeville, 79, who lives near the construction site, said ambulances, police, fire and emergency services crews were on the scene in minutes of the accident. However, he said initial rescue attempts were hampered by the fact the operator of a crane next to the tank was one of those trapped. Eventually another crane operator was found and a second cran dispatched to the scene to lift rescuers into the tank.
UPDATE, Company cited in deaths of 2 workers, Spectrum Organic Products to appeal $137,895 fine levied by Cal-OSHA
October 19, 2002 By JEREMY HAY THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
A Petaluma health products company where two workers died while cleaning a steel tank was cited Friday for multiple safety violations and faces perhaps the heaviest fines ever levied against a North Coast business. The state workplace safety agency said Spectrum Organic Products Inc. failed to provide proper training and safety equipment to employees who clean tanks used to process flaxseed oil for use in a variety of nationally retailed organic food and health products. Spectrum has 15 days to appeal $137,895 in fines proposed by the state Occupational Safety and Health Administration. After Javier Del Rio, 42, and Francisco Estrella, 24, died inside the 12-foot high tank, company executives said both men performed the cleaning regularly and they had been properly and recently trained. Police investigators concluded that Estrella died trying to rescue Del Rio from the tank, a death trap because it was full of argon gas, which is used to displace oxygen as part of a cleaning process to kill bacteria. “If pro er procedures would have been followed, there would not have been these fatalities,” said Dean Fryer, a Cal-OSHA spokesman. “The employer bears the sole responsibility.” Spectrum officials didn’t return calls seeking comment. Jethren Phillips, the company founder and chairman of the board, issued a statement via e-mail saying: “The company does not believe that we knowingly engaged in any wrongful conduct.” He said the fines will be appealed and the company will “present facts that may not have been presented in the post-accident investigation.” Eight of the nine citations Cal-OSHA issued to Spectrum were ranked serious, one of the most severe categories. They included that the company did not post danger signs, had no training program and didn’t inform employees about the dangers of working in confined industrial spaces such as the oil processing tank. The agency also found that Spectrum didn’t provide respirators, communications gear or emergency rescue equipment for workers performing the kind of work Estr ella and Del Rio were doing when they died. All of the violations have since been corrected, according to Fryer. The citations were consistent with testimony given to police by Spectrum’s plant floor employees, and contradicted testimony of executives and managers who said training and safety guidelines were in place. Co-workers of the dead men at Spectrum’s Copeland Street manufacturing and bottling plant told investigators that they never received training and had “to figure out by themselves how to clean the tanks.” Workplace safety consultants have estimated that as many as 200 people die a year in confined space industrial accidents, and state law mandates that companies maintain a rigorous and ongoing training program as well as provide appropriate equipment. Del Rio, a Santa Rosa resident, and Estrella, who lived in Rohnert Park, earned $12.25 an hour and had worked at the plant for five and six years respectively. Fryer said he wasn’t aware of a larger fine levied against a North Coast employer for workplace safety violations. The largest fine ever levied by Cal-OSHA was $810,000, imposed against the Tosco oil refinery plant in Martinez after an explosion that killed four workers in 1999. In 2001, the Williams Selyem Winery near Forestville paid $6,000 in fines stemming from the death of a 20-year-old winery worker who was asphyxiated in a wine production tank. Spectrum also may face separate criminal charges if the Sonoma County district attorney decides that criminal negligence on the company’s part led to the April 25 deaths.
UPDATE, Gas exposure claims 2 in Ankleshwer
TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2002 11:39:53 PM ]
AHMEDABAD: Two persons died in an accident on Wednesday in the Ankleshwer Industrial Estate in south Gujarat. Both the workers apparently died while cleaning an ammonia reactor in Chemo Pharma, engaged in manufacturing dyes and intermediates. According to Bharuch police, the accident took place at 9-30 am on Wednesday when four workers of the company went inside a vessel in the auramine plant of the company for maintenance work. According to a complaint lodged with the GIDC police station of Ankleshwer area, one of the two died almost immediately because of leftover ammonia gas in the vessel. Another employee of the company, who was rushed to rescue the first one also died due to the gas exposure. The victims have been identified as Narendra Basu and Ramjagir Prasad. The two other workers, Vijayshankar Yadav and Raisinh Parsinh, who also accompanied Prasad and Basu are said to be in critical condition and have been admitted in the Jayaben hospital in Bharuch. A case has been filed under section 176 of the CrPC. When contacted by ET, K Srivatsan, co-ordinator, Disaster Management Committee of Ankleshwer Industries Association said that there was no leakage of gas in the company. He said the situation is under control.
Two workers die, two affected after inhaling ammonia gas
SURAT, OCT 16 (PTI)
Two labourers died on the spot and two others were seriously affected after they inhaled amonia gas while cleaning a tank in a chemical unit in GIDC area at Ankleshwar town in Bharuch district today, police said. The deceased were identified as Ramjani Prasad (44) and Narendra Basu (40), they said. The affected labourers were immediately admitted to a private hospital at Total taluka town where their condition was reportedly improving, police said. A case has been registered against the chemical unit K A Patel and CO., they added.
UPDATE, OSHA Investigating Thursday’s Deaths
After mysterious fumes killed two utility workers in a manhole, the subcontractor for those men is being investigated. NBC 6 has learned, through our coverage partners at The Herald, that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited the subcontractor, Electrical Technology Corp., for safety violations three times since 1999. One of those violations included an electrocution. OSHA is investigating Thursday’s deaths. fficials in Miami Beach said that they two utility workers were apparently overcome by sewer gas and killed in a manhole. Authorities said that the two men were installing tubing in a manhole Thursday under contract from Florida Power and Light. The first worker reportedly climbed into the manhole to begin installing the tubing for an underground power connector. The second went into the manhole after the first failed to resurface. Police first thought the men were electrocuted, so they briefly shut power off before discovering the gas fumes.
Worker Burned in Industrial Accident Near Victory Field
An industrial accident near Victory Field has left one person seriously injured. Police say it happened Thursday at 5:31pm in the area of 300 South West Street. Two subjects were working in a manhole at that location. Investigators say as one worker exited, there was a steam explosion inside the manhole, throwing the second worker, Marty Williams of Indianapolis, from the manhole. Williams suffered second and three degree burns over 90-percent of his body. He’s in stable condition at Wishard Hospital. Authorities say the workers were apparently addressing a valve problem at the location. Both of the men work for Distance Thermal Energy.
2 workers die as sewer gas floods hole; OSHA is investigating deaths
BY RICHARD BRAND AND NICOLE WHITE
A pair of utility workers were killed Thursday in Miami Beach when the underground hole they were working in became flooded with lethal sewer gas, fire-rescue workers said. One worker was overcome while working in the 10-foot-deep utility access hole and fell into a two-foot-deep pool of water. His supervisor, checking on why the worker wasn’t answering, climbed down a ladder and also was felled by fumes. He suffered an apparent seizure, fell into the water and also died, fire-rescue workers said. Fire department officials said they did not see required safety equipment, including gas detection meters and ventilation systems, at the scene. Killed were Osvaldo Martinez, 41, who recently lived at 1921 W. 63rd St., Hialeah, and Orlando Mendoza, 32, of 880 W. 74th St., Hialeah. It was unclear Thursday night who was the supervisor. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating. The men worked for Electrical Technologies Corp., which has offices in Medley and is a subcontractor for Florida Power & Light. They were working at 18th Street and Bay Road, installing underground PVC pipes that will carry electrical cables. They were not working in a sewer. The men succumbed to the gas shortly before 2 p.m. A co-worker watched the supervisor go down, suffer what looked like a seizure and fall off the ladder, fire department spokesman Javier Otero said. ”He was putting himself in peril by going in,” Assistant Fire Chief Russell White said. “His intentions certainly were heroic.” Off-duty police officer Romilio Perez, who was directing traffic at the construction site, called for help at 1:56 p.m., Otero said. ”It was a recovery operation from when we got there. These guys had no chance,” Otero said. Rescue workers found Martinez and Mendoza bobbing in the water next to each other. The rescuers donned gas masks and protective suits and descended into the utility chamber, where they put a harness around each man. The victims were hoisted out and taken for autopsies. The causes of death were unclear Thursday night. The smell was still present at street level an hour later. Power was cut to about 4,400 customers for 90 minutes because of fears the gas could ignite from a spark. Workers who go underground are required by OSHA standards to first test the air by sending down a gas testing meter. If any toxins are detected, workers must ventilate the chamber before entering it. White said that when rescue workers arrived, they did not find some of the standard safety equipment required for underground work. ”We did not see gas detection meters or ventilation systems upon arrival,” he said. Fred Beckman, head of the city’s public works department, said city workers test the air before going through manholes and also wear an alarm that alerts them to any gases while they are underground. ”My guess is as soon as he hit whatever it was he couldn’t breathe,” Beckman said. “You could pass out almost instantaneously.” An Electrical Technologies employee who answered the company’s main phone line refused to comment. According to OSHA inspection records, the company was cited for a safety violation for trench work on Miami Beach in 1999, but the problem was corrected within two weeks. Details of the violation weren’t available Thursday. So-called ”sewer gas,” which consists largely of hydrogen sulfide, isn’t necessarily from a sewer. It can be a naturally-occurring product of decaying plants and other biological products. The ground under Miami Beach is full of sewer-gas pockets, White said. The area where the accident occurred was once a mangrove swamp — and would have been a likely place to find pockets of sewer gas, White said. ”We’re basically a floating sewer,” he said. “[The supervisor] should have had better knowledge of what he was dealing with.” Herald staff writers Tere Figueras and Julienne Gage contributed to this report.
UPDATE, State fines city $9,000 in sewer workers’ deaths
By BERT DALMER
State investigators have concluded the city of Des Moines shares blame for the deaths last summer of two Missouri workers in an aging city sewer line. The Iowa Occupational Safety and Health Administration reported Wednesday that it issued two violations and recommended $9,000 in fines against the city last month. The violations contend that city engineers failed to ensure that contractors had a rescue plan or were apprised of city rescue procedures before they began underground repairs near 1901 Dewolf St. last April. One city official called the citations “absurd” and promised to challenge the decision. The $2.7 million repair job by Insituform Technologies was a few days from completion July 9 when Daniel Grasshoff, 25, and Brian Burford, 19, were overcome by hydrogen sulfide gas, an unpredictably dangerous byproduct of sewage. The men collapsed face-down and drowned in more than a foot of watery sewage. Witnesses said the Chesterfield, Mo., company had gas monitors, fresh-air pumps and respirators at the scene, but none apparently were in use while Grasshoff and Burford worked inside the 5-foot-high pipe. State investigators cited Insituform last month with 20 willful and serious safety violations, proposing a fine of $808,250 – one of the largest in state history. City officials have said they rely on qualified contractors to assume safety precautions because they aren’t trained to do so. The city’s only role on the sewer job, said Public Works Director Bill Stowe, was to make sure that repairs were performed to specifications. “The idea that we would have responsibility for understanding the intricacies of this job turns logic on its head,” Stowe said. “Insituform are worldwide experts in permit-required confined spaces. That’s like telling an airplane pilot how to fly when we aren’t pilots.” Officials at Insituform, which has acknowledged safety lapses at the Des Moines job site, also were surprised Wednesday to learn that the city was blamed in the accident. “I thought we would take the full brunt,” said company spokeswoman Michele Lucas. The city can contest the violations and fines. Insituform met last month with state officials to discuss a settlement of its violations, but details of the negotiations were not available. Polk County Attorney John Sarcone said his office continues to review the case to determine whether workers were criminally negligent. Potential charges could be as serious as felony manslaughter, he said.
UPDATE, OSHA fines local company for death of man in pipeline
By GREG RUSSELL
A July death has brought a fine for a local construction company from the Occupational Safety Hazard Administration (OSHA). A $3,000 fine is reportedly in order for B.J. Co. Contractors, employer of the late Israel Martinez. Martinez, 20, died July 10 after collapsing in a manhole on E. Highway 82, roughly a mile east of Brammer Supply. Suffocation was the reported cause of death at the time, explained OSHA Acting Area Director Mike Talmont of the Fort Worth office, citing autopsy reports. B.J. Co. Contractors, owned by Jess Cason, has been fined that $3,000 amount for certain reasons — a lack-of-training violation and for a violation of general safety clauses, with a cost of $1,500 each. Cason was unavailable for comment Wednesday and Thursday morning. Wayne Clark, who was with Martinez at the site on July 10, declined comment Thursday morning. Talmont pointed out Wednesday morning that these penalities were based entirely on classification and violation. “And things are considered, such as the size of the company and their history,” he said. After the investigation and ruled cause of death, he pointed out, reduction factors and proposed penalties come into consideration. OSHA Citation 1, Item 1, filed through the U.S. Department of Labor, noted that Martinez and co-worker Gustava Barcones, who passed out trying to aid Martinez, were not sufficiently alerted to the possible hazards involved. That may explain why they didn’t think to wear safety equipment. Barcones, contacted this morning, was not fluent enough in English to make a comment on the fine. OSHA Citation 1, Item 2 insisted that the men weren’t furnished employment free of those recognized hazards. But since this company has committed no serious violation in the last 3 years, Talmont added — and the company is small, the possible fine for Martinez’s death was reduced by 70 percent. “I haven’t heard anything from the company,” Talmont said, saying that the fines can be appealed. “I think they’re going to come in and talk about it — they’re scheduled to come in and talk about it in a couple weeks.” Rosa Mendez of Mendez Bakery said that at the time of his death, her business began collecting money for Martinez’s funeral expenses. “The people responded,” she said. “I gave the money to his brother-in-law.” And as for the OSHA fines, Mendez admitted, “That’s good for the family,” adding that she wanted to send appreciation out to the people who offered money in July to Martinez’s cause.