Permit Required Confined Spaces

OR-OSHA has fined a Portland environmental and emergency services company $118,800 for violating job safety standards designed to protect workers from the potentially deadly hazards of confined spaces. The division cited the employer following an inspection of an incident reported by Portland Fire & Rescue. Oregon OSHA’s July 14, 2023 incident inspection found that two…...

At 8:00 a.m. on June 26, 2022, two (2) employees emptied and cleaned an open-topped frack tank (Tank #4) at an oil and gas services site. There were no eyewitnesses, and the employees were working at a remote site alone, so few details are known about what occurred. At the time of the investigation, hydrogen…...

The men were helping to build a new sewage pumping facility. They were in a concrete foundation, a trench-like part of the structure about 40 feet deep. Sources said giant intakes five feet in diameter are inside the structure. Inflatable plugs secured with chains are used to keep the water out. Some sort of catastrophic…...

At 5:15 p.m. on October 27, 2013, three (3) employees and a supervisor were working on the deck of three (3) barges to ready them for delivery. The supervisor and one of the employees entered the #1 cargo tank of barges #1 and #2 to check the deep well blind on the deep well inspection…...

At approximately 4:00 a.m. on March 29, 2020, an employee, 30, was installing a full face blind on a flange on a reactor. Then, the probe stem fell inside of the reactor, and the employee tried to fish it out. Using a Jacobs ladder, the employee entered the unprepared reactor that was not cleared for…...

There is NO exception in either 1910.146 or 1926.1201-.1213 for NOT having a rescue plan for “permitted entries” into a PRCS. There is an exception for the “Non-Entry rescue method,” BUT there is NOT one for having a rescue service readily available when the space being entered is a PRCS and the entry method is…...

On October 9, 2023, at about 11:30 a.m., three (3) technicians tasked with performing maintenance work in an underground fuel reservoir died after they entered the underground tank.  All three died from suffocation.  This tragic incident is like the many before!  A single entrant entered the space and became incapacitated, leading his/her co-workers to go…...

Someone pinch me!  It is 2023, and I’m still teaching HAZMAT, Hot Work, and PRCS courses, where most students use direct-reading instruments daily.  And yet, none of them have ever been trained on the LIMITATIONS of the brand/model of direct-reading instruments they use.  There are dozens of reasons why this is what it is, but…...

Scenario: The client invites the manufacturer of a piece of equipment that we evaluated and determined the space to be a PRCS.  The client used the popular argument of “no one else treats these as a PRCS.”  And the manufacturer rep explains how this latest model is made specifically for entry. So, therefore, in their…...

At 6:45 a.m. on February 18, 2023, an employee, 31, was removing trays from a hydrogen reactor. The employee was on SUPPLIED BREATHING AIR. The employee attempted to exit the confined space at the end of the shift when he reported to the attendant that he could not breathe. The attendant told the employee to turn…...

At 11:45 a.m. on February 23, 2023, an employee, 20, working for a city water department, was repairing a leaking 12-inch PVC waterline main valve. The valve was located in a utility vault approximately 5 feet deep. The employee turned off the water to the WEST of the valve by opening multiple fire hydrants. He…...