21 incidents & 1 update (11/20/11)

2011 Fatality Tracker

Industrial

CRANE Industrial accident leads to stop work order (an oil sands services company has received a stop work order after a gruesome work place incident – the worker, late 40’s, was maneuvering a component of an oil field pump jack, into the ground, with the use of an overhead crane – the component wasn’t secured and it fell on to him, resulting in lower extremity crush injuries)

MINE FATALITY Worker dies after accident in Idaho silver mine (the fatality is the second one to happen at the mine this year – the worker died Saturday of injuries suffered in an accident earlier in the week – company officials withheld the cause of death – he was working deep underground when lose material began giving way beneath him and another miner – mining officials believe he was wearing the appropriate safety equipment including a fall-arrest device that activates somewhat like a seatbelt in a car – however, the sinking beneath him might have been too slow to activate the device, which can also be triggered by the operator – the second miner was treated at an area medical facility and released)

FRONT-END LOADER FATALITY @ QUARRY

MINE Miner airlifted to hospital with broken leg (a miner was airlifted to a Hospital with a suspected broken leg after an accident – the worker was setting a roof support and was involved in an incident underground whereby he was struck by some scaling – no other employees were injured)

SHEETROCK WALL COLLAPSE Diboll worker taken to Tyler hospital after industrial accident (employee, 44, was taken to a hospital by medical helicopter following an industrial accident around 10 a.m. – a wall fell on a man while working at the facility – company did not release any details immediately after the accident – a sheetrock wall fell on top of the man and he had some significant bleeding from the ear area)

WELDING BURNS Welding accident (a man, 70, was seriously injured in a welding accident – he was working with welding equipment at a business when his clothing caught fire shortly after noon – others in the area were able to help put the fire out, but the man was burned on over 18 percent of his body – he was airlifted by state police helicopter to a Burn Center with serious, but nonlife-threatening injuries)

FALL from LADDER Fall from ladder (a man, 40, was seriously injured in a fall from a ladder around 10 a.m. – the man sustained serious, but nonlife-threatening injuries from the fall)

REFINERY FIRE Fire sparks inside Philadelphia refinery Saturday morning (a fire sparked early in the morning inside the refinery – the fire was under control around 1:20 a.m., less than half an hour after the first call was made – firefighters managed to contain the fire to a boiler room that apparently overheated inside the refinery – there were no injuries reported)

FATAL EXPLOSION 14 killed in chemical plant explosion (fourteen workers were killed and five more injured in a chemical plant explosion at about 2 pm at a melamine production facility – workers were maintaining and repairing a condenser – four workers were killed and another 15 injured at the scene – 10 of the injured died later at hospital after emergency medical treatment failed, raising the death toll to 14 – the remaining five injured were in stable conditions)

AMMONIA Ammonia leak forces evacuation (workers at a cold storage facility have been evacuated after a leak of toxic ammonia at the premises shortly after 8pm (AEDT) – ammonia flooded the ceiling space at the business, requiring firefighters to don fully encapsulated suits to gain access into the area – a site engineer managed to close off one valve but could not get to the primary shut-off valve located within the ceiling space – a community warning was issued to alert local residents to the ammonia leak and to stay indoors and keep windows closed  – the leak was closed off shortly after 11pm, with venting of the gas taking a further hour – 30 firefighters were involved in the operation)

PRCS RESCUE Confined Space Rescue Frees Two Workers (two workers performing routine maintenance in a large underground tank, were rescued today after one fell and was injured, and the other followed him down trying to try to help – at 12:06 pm the Fire Department responded to a “Confined Space Rescue” – a large response was dispatched and even more resources were called to the scene, when it was confirmed that two male employees were approximately 27 feet below ground and in need of help – the incident would require a very technical rescue to be performed by the LAFD’s Urban Search & Rescue Team – once all technical aspects of this emergency operation were addressed and assembled by the nearly 80 personnel on-scene, two Firefighter/Specialists “made entry” and descended into the 50,000 barrel, fuel-storage tank – a 21 year-old male employee was found conscious at the bottom of the tank with an injury to one of his lower extremities – he had apparently lost his balance attempting to install a piece of equipment in the tank, resulting in the fall – a male co-worker, of approximately the same age, was not injured as he attempted to assist in his colleague’s misfortune – once rescued, both were evaluated, treated and then transported to a local hospital for further observation – while the entire incident took much longer, the “Confined Space Rescue” was accomplished in just over one hour – there were no other injuries reported)

CONFINED SPACE FATALITIES – TOXIC ATM ONE ENTRANT and TWO WOULD-BE-RESCUERS Three die in Anand Vihar railway sewer (three people lost their lives while cleaning up a sewer drain adjoining the railway terminal – the incident took place when the trio had climbed down to a 12-foot drain – after sometime, one of the workers fainted and the other two lost their lives trying to save the first labourer – the fire brigade and police said the workers may have been killed due to emission of some poisonous gas – none of the deceased were carrying any safety equipment while climbing down the drain)

Construction

SCISSOR LIFT Contractor in GM accident improving says family (a contractor was in stable condition after a serious accident – the man, identified as an electrician, was still at the Hospital after being trapped between a scissor lift and another surface – from what we can piece together, his lift kind of got caught on the bottom of a pipe – that may have pushed it upward, pinning him against a 15-inch pipe – the injury occurred while the man was working on construction for a transmission assembly line set to begin production in 2012 – fire Chief said the man was without vital signs when he was taken into the ambulance, but the Ministry of Labour listed him in critical condition)

CRANE and POWERLINE Power line gets caught in wind, burns worker on crane in Antioch (a worker in a crane basket several stories above the ground was burned when a strong gust of wind blew him into a power line – the man atop the crane was working on the demolition of an old glass manufacturing building when at about 11:20 a.m. he made contact with the cable – several co-workers at the industrial site pointed out a charred metal side rail of the blue cherry picker the man was standing in – the man was conscious afterward, but sustained significant burns on his face, chest and arms – a medical helicopter took the man to a Medical Center)

FATAL SCAFFOLDING COLLAPSE 2 dead after scaffold collapses in East China (two people are dead and three others remain trapped after a scaffold collapsed at a construction site – the accident occurred at 6:20 pm, trapping nine construction workers – four workers, as well as the bodies of the two deceased, have been freed from the collapse – the four freed workers are being treated at a local hospital – rescuers are still searching for the three remaining workers – cause of the accident is under investigation)

CRANE LOOSES LOAD Construction worker hit by falling insulation (a construction worker escaped serious injury when he was showered by some building materials that were being loaded from a crane onto the top of a University Medical School building – officials thought he might have suffered a concussion – hew was held overnight for observation and released the next morning – a bundle of rigid foam insulation was being hoisted to the top of the nine-story buulding when it shifted, came loose and fell – the man was working on the roof of the fourth level of the center when he was hit by some of the falling debris)

MIscellaneouS

WOOD CHIPPER FATALITY OSHA investigates after worker dies in wood chipper accident (a worker, 54, feeding branches into a wood chipper was killed when he became entangled in the machine – he was pronounced dead at 10:15 a.m. by a County deputy coroner -he died of “massive injuries from the wood chipper – his wife was on the scene working with him when he became entangled in the wood chipper and went in head first)

UPDATE on CRANE FATALITY Crushed worker had no safety training (a teen was killed while working on a fishing boat was crushed by a deck-mounted crane onboard – an investigation into the death has found he’d not had safety training – he had worked for the business for two years when he was crushed to death in March 2009 – he died of severe internal bleeding when crushed by the deck-mounted crane onboard the fishing boat – coroner found no employee that had received any formal safety training to use the crane – coroner Chandler also found none of the crew members working with the deceased had read the crane’s manual)

WELDING ACCIDENT Firefighters Respond To Fire At Madison College Auto Class (some students in an automotive class at an area Technical College  got a scare, but thankfully nobody was hurt and damage was minimal – a student using an acetylene torch did not have the handle tight enough, causing fire to come out of the connector and shooting half way up the torch handle – the instructor was working with other students at the time of the incident – the students called 911 and told instructor of the incident – the instructor turned the gas off and stopped the fire – when crews arrived, there was no smoke or fire remaining – damage was limited to the torch handle which had some burn marks)