I read a lot of OSHA case files and sometimes I find the narrative very interesting. This one, I found to be darn near impossible to have occurred as written…
At approximately 2:30 p.m. Employee #1’s coworker, a refrigeration technician, was troubleshooting a compressor shutdown and opened a valve which vented anhydrous ammonia into Engine Room #3. A small fire started after the released liquid ammonia froze and shorted the wiring inside the conduit. The fire flashed in the concentrated ammonia and flared rapidly within the southwest corner of the engine room. The flash fire apparently traveled conduit lines and destroyed almost all electrical wiring in the room. The facility was shut down and evacuated within less than two minutes. Employee #1 was taken to the hospital for observation/treatment but left the hospital on his own cognizance without treatment after waiting over an hour in triage.