At approximately 9:50 a.m. Employees #1 and #2 worked as mechanical engineering technicians at a food cold storage facility. The two workers were troubleshooting an Auto-Purger. The Auto-Purger removed non-condensable material from the refrigeration system. It was mounted on a wall inside the facility’s anhydrous ammonia compressor room. At the time of the accident, the unit was actively running and leaking liquid onto the floor. The liquid, which contained anhydrous ammonia, was corrosive. Both employees were standing near the unit.
Employee #2 was refitting a cap back onto a bubbler to stop a leak. He was using a wrench to tap the cap onto the pipe section. Within minutes, the bottom pipe section of the cylinder separated from the upper section, resulting in a liquid spray contacting both employees’ eyes, faces, and bodies.
Employees #1 and #2 sustained corneal burns. Employee #1 needed surgery as a result of this injury.
Causal factors to this accident were the failure to maintain the Auto-Purger to the manufacturer’s design specifications and a clogged drainage pipe leading to a pressure build-up in the system.