31 Incidents & 3 Updates (6/15/11)

2011 Fatality Tracker 

Story of interest

Alabama Supreme Court: Fall at work isn’t necessarily work injury

Industrial

UPDATE on FATAL EXPLOSION OSHA cites W.Va. plant for 18 violations in blast (OSHA investigated a December explosion that killed three men cited the chemical plant for 18 violations, 16 of them considered serious and one labeled “willful” – proposed fines total $154,000 – in January, the chief investigator for the U.S. Chemical Safety Board said his team believes either metal shavings or dust were the fuel for the explosion, but they were trying to determine which form ignited and how – it was the third fatal explosion at the plant in 15 years – OSHA’s serious violations included failure to provide a proper hydrogen gas detection system, over-pressure protection, emergency egress, personal protective equipment and hazard communication training, failing to safely store flammable materials and ensure the safe use of forklifts – plant is now in OSHA’s Severe Violators Enforcement Program)

LOTO/GUARDING FATALITY Worker dies after NY bedding factory accident (a worker, 47, has died after getting trapped between two rollers of a mattress-bagging machine at a bedding factory – he was flown to a Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead – his chest was compressed by the machine and he had to be removed by co-workers – OSHA is investigating)

FATAL FLASH FIRE Mechel reports accident at Southern Urals nickel plant (a flash at the workshop’s electric furnace #2 destroyed the furnace’s roof and fatally injured one worker – repairs at the furnace #2 will take about 10 days to complete and are estimated to cost approximately RUB 700,000)

Allied Waste Worker Struck By Vehicle, Hospitalized (a worker was hospitalized after being struck by a vehicle – the victim was on the job at the time of the accident, which occurred just before 7 a.m. – the worker crossed in front of his garbage truck that he had parked on the side of the road – as he did this, a car passed and struck him – he was transported from the scene to a hospital by Life Flight – initial investigation determined that the driver of the car was not speeding at the time of impact – no charges are expected)

MINE FATALITIES Five workers die in Colombian gold mine collapse (five miners died in a collapse inside a gold mine – the accident killed four men and one woman who were working in the mine at the time)

Two workers pinned to wall by truck at Underwood (one of two workers seriously injured during an accident at an industrial site is undergoing surgery – two men, 50 and 53, were seriously injured when they became pinned between a truck and a wall at an industrial site at 4.50am. – the accident occurred when the men were trying to tow a bogged vehicle – the men slipped and then became trapped by the truck and were pinned against a wall at the waist – they were freed and taken to a Hospital for urgent medical treatment – one of the men was undergoing emergency surgery while the other remained in the emergency unit – both are in a serious but stable condition)

LOTO/GUARDING FATALITY Man dies in compactor at St. Louis County firm (a worker, 43, at a recycling company has died after getting caught in a compactor machine about 2:50 a.m. – a co-worker heard him call for help and found him inside a baler compactor machine used for recycling paper – workers were able to free him but he died about an hour later at a hospital)

UPDATE Japan says eight nuclear workers over-exposed to radiation (at least eight workers trying to bring Japan’s crippled nuclear power plant under control have been exposed to more radiation than allowed under new safety standards – the operator of the plant had previously said two workers had been exposed to more radiation than allowed – the exposure of the additional six workers was discovered after almost 2,400 workers underwent testing)

STEAM Worker injured at Exxon Baytown refinery (a technician was injured while working on a coking unit at the 560,640 barrel per day refinery – he was operating a steam vent valve on the refinery’s flexicoker, when he was burned on the neck, shoulder and back – he was flown by helicopter to a hospital and is expected to recover)

HOTWORK FLASH FIRE w/ GRINDER Worker suffers burns in explosion (a worker, 52, suffered burns in an explosion in a engineering workshop – no fire was found and the man was being treated by ambulance staff when firefighters arrived – there had been an explosion in the man’s workshop caused when sparks from a grinder ignited a container of solvent used for cleaning engine parts – he was taken by ambulance to a Hospital with superficial facial burns and burns to his hands and arm)

ELECTROCUTION Maintenance worker electrocuted (worker, 35, was electrocuted while working on the roof of a building – he working on an air-conditioning unit when he was electrocuted around 12:30 p.m. – he died at the scene – he was killed while navigating the air conditioning ductwork at a building there)

POTENTIAL ELECTROCUTION Man Dies While Working on Building’s Rooftop (a man, 54, working on top of a downtown building died – two men were working on an air conditioner at the courthouse election building when the worker was killed – the victim was working on recommissioning a large industrial cooler on the roof – while testing out the components, the worker collapsed – a medical examiner will determine the official cause and manner of death – police are refraining from calling this an electrocution, but the man did have a burn on his hand believed to have been caused by a heating coil)

FIRE Chemical fire surprises Albany Fire Department, forces hundreds from homes (a surprise for firefighters after a chemical fire flared up while crews tried to put it out, forcing hundreds of residents out of their homes for hours – the fire started around 10:30 p.m. at a Welding Supply business – crews say several barrels of the welding chemical “calcium carbide” burned in the fire – when firefighters first arrived on scene though, they didn’t know what it was – when they sprayed water on the burning material, the fire flared up – crews stopped the water flow immediately, getting in contact with the business, learning exactly what was burning – fire investigators are now looking for a cause – the chemical is typically stored in air-tight containers with inert gas to prevent it from reacting with moisture – before the fire, workers had placed several containers of the chemical outdoors under a tarp)

FIRE Workers put out small fire at Port Arthur Total refinery (a small grass fire started at a refinery – the fire started in a tank farm, but crews were able to put out the fire shortly after it started – nothing was damaged by the fire and operations weren’t affected – the refinery is still trying to figure out what started the fire, but drought conditions seem to have played a role)

EXPLOSION Explosion leads to evacuations (State police say nobody was hurt as explosions rocked the plant – the explosion led to a five-mile evacuation – the evacuation was later reduced to a one-mile area, and although there weren’t any fatalities or confirmed injuries, the plant was engulfed in flames)

FIRE Workers evacuated after explosion at BMW plant (an explosion and fire forced staff to be evacuated from the plant – the fire started in the basement of the steel pressing unit at the plant – eight fire crews attended the blaze which was quickly confined and extinguished but one member of staff was taken to hospital with minor burns – the fire involved an LPG powered industrial cleaning machine in the basement of the steel pressing plant)

FIRE 5 workers sent to hospitals after chemical plant fire, all expected to recover (a fire at a chemical plant sent five workers to a hospital, but all are expected to recover – investigators are still trying to find what started the blaze in an area of the plant were powdered calcium hydrochlorite was stored – the fire was extinguished by a company emergency response crew and County Fire Department firefighters – an employee and four contract workers were sent to the hospital for smoke inhalation, heat exhaustion and minor burns – plant produces water sanitizers – sensors detected no chlorine at the plant parameters)

FIRE Flowood FD Investigates Cause of Nucor Steel Fire (fire officials say it could be days before the know what sparked a fire at the plant – the fire broke out around 9:30 a.m. – no one was hurt – a scrap pile was on fire – the pile included pieces of shredded tires and metal)

ELECTRICAL FIRE @ NUCLEAR PLANT Electrical Fire Knocks Out Spent Fuel Cooling at Nebraska Nuclear Plant (a fire in an electrical switch room briefly knocked out cooling for a pool holding spent nuclear fuel at a nuclear plant – officials said the situation at their plant came nowhere near to Fukushima’s – they said it would have taken 88 hours for the heat produced by the fuel to boil away the cooling water – workers restored cooling in about 90 minutes, and plant officials said the temperature in the pool only increased by two degrees – the fire, reported at 9:30 a.m., led to the loss of electrical power for the system that circulates cooling water through the spent fuel pool – a chemical fire suppression system discharged, and the plant’s fire brigade cleared smoke from the room and reported that the fire was out at 10:20 a.m. – the plant has a backup pump to provide water to the spent fuel in case the main system is lost – that pump, which runs on a separate power supply from the rest of the plant, was inspected and standing by on Tuesday, but plant operators restored main power to the pool before the emergency pump was needed)

CHLORINE Chlorine leak at Banks sewer plant deemed minor (colder-than-normal temperatures were to blame for a minor chemical leak at a sewer treatment plant – as the temperatures dipped into the 40s, a regulator that controls the release of chlorine froze at the plant – the incident made the regulator unable to close and caused a small vapor cloud of chlorine to be released, which triggered a smoke alarm to sound and summoned fire departments to the area around 5:30 a.m. – the ice eventually melted once the sun hit it – no one was in the plant when the incident happened)

AMMONIA Ammonia Leak At Dairy Forces Neighbors Inside, Reverse 911 Calls Sent To Nearby Homes (an ammonia leak at a Dairy prompted firefighters to ask anyone within a half-mile to stay inside – the leak was reported at about noon and the all-clear was given two hours later when Fire and Rescue crews found the problematic valve – the leak also caused temporary road closures and dairy workers were evacuated – the dairy uses ammonia for refrigeration)

Construction

TRENCH FATALITY Man Killed in Construction Accident in Parma Heights (a laborer, 53, with a private contractor, hired by the County for a repaving and infrastructure project was killed in an accident – he was in a hole which had been dug by another worker using a track hoe – it appears an excavating claw attached to the end of the track hoe hit and killed him – he was the only one in the hole at the time of the accident – the general contractor on the project is now being investigated by OSHA – this is not the first time the agency has been called to inspect a project overseen by the company – records indicated the agency conducted 12 inspections over the last five years of which half resulted in citations being issued – several were for problems involving trench safety)

FALL Worker falls from Chesteremere construction site (a 52-year-old man was transported to a hospital in critical condition after falling 30 feet from a home he was working on – he was on the second floor of the home when he fell into the basement)

TRACKHOE LifeFlight called for injured road worker (a worker, in his mid-30’s, in a DOT road crew sustained injuries to his leg and foot in an accident with an excavator – he was digging a trench and the excavator was backing up when the worker’s foot got caught under the steel track)

WORKZONE FATALITY Worker Dies From Injuries In Monday Accident (a Department of Transportation worker died on Tuesday night after an accident earlier in the week along Interstate 40 – a truck filled with asphalt rolled onto him, pinning him for half an hour)

WORKZONE FATALITY Valrico Highway Construction Worker Killed in I-75 Crash (a construction worker was killed around 4:30 a.m. when he was hit and killed by a pickup truck on I-75 – the pickup struck a construction trailer before hitting the worker who died on the scene – workers were in the area moving traffic control devices and message boards along the shoulder of the highway)

TRENCH FATALITIES Five Workers Killed in Ditch Cave-in in NE China (five workers were killed and another severely injured after a ditch caved in at about 4 p.m. – workers were in a three-meter-deep ditch trying to install drainage pipelines – six workers were buried in the ditch – five of them were found dead on the spot – the last one was severely injured and rushed to the hospital)

HOTWORK FIRE Blow torch use caused Marysville fire (firefighters believe something hot fell on a foam membrane used to separate interior and exterior concrete walls, sparking a blaze at the Water Filtration Plant construction site – a construction worker was using a blow torch to cut rebar when the fire started – when firefighters arrived, flames were leaping from a concrete wall and heavy black smoke was covering a City Park – no one was injured)

CRANE Crane Accident At Navy Base Damages Refurbished Vintage Jet (a crane accident seriously damaged a newly restored jet that has been on display for over 40 years when the crane lifting the aircraft toppled over – the A-4 Skyhawk jet greeted visitors to the Naval Station from 1969 until it was removed from its display stand for the recent restoration work – the 42-ton crane was lifting the 5,500-pound aircraft back onto its pylon when suddenly the crane tilted and crashed, dropping the plane to the ground – soggy ground wet by the sprinkler system might have been the problem, softening the earth underneath the crane and destabilizing it, causing it to sink on one side before toppling over)

CRANE Crane lifts very heavy pool (home renovation took a turn for the worse when the crane lifting it into the yard crashed through the roof – the fibreglass pool/hot tub combination was apparently too heavy for the crane – it popped into the air at a 45-degree angle, and the crane’s arm fell over onto the garage – no one was injured, and the homeowner — who has declined to comment to the media — was at the house when the accident happened – the Truck Crane Service is reportedly covering all damage costs – as for the pool, it was slightly cracked – click here to see the actual accident caught on tape)

MIscellaneous

UPDATE now an ELECTRICAL FATALITY Worker Knocked Off Ladder by Shock Dies of Injuries (the sign worker, 63, who was knocked from his ladder by an electric shock on June 5 has died of the injuries he sustained from the current and the 30-foot fall – he never left the hospital after the shock, which it was later discovered burned not only his hands but also his colon – wife was confused, because police told her the circuit breakers were turned on and she knew he always turned him off in his 49 years on the job – “He’s been doing this since he was 14 years old,” she said. “The family business has been in business for almost 90 years, and he always, always turns off the juice on the job.”)

CHEMICAL FATALITY – PROPANE Deming man overcome by propane fumes (a worker, 22, died in an accident on his family’s ranch – he apparently was trying to remove an obstacle that was blocking the water supply to ranch animals – he was overcome by propane fumes – the force of release of the propane from the tank was used to try to remove the blockage – it’s believed he had died shortly after overcome by he propane fumes – he was scheduled to graduate this fall from NMSU, with a degree in engineering)