Details

Parent Category: Safety Info Posts

Category: PSM and RMP Citations/Analysis

Published: 20 September 2015

A 41 year old male employee was exposed to a flash fire.  An employee in a mix room was exposed to a fire and explosion when an energetic material ignited.  Much of the mixing process was conducted remotely with operators separated by concrete walls from the large quantities of material.  A process step required an operator to enter the mix room and clean a small amount of residual material from mixer equipment.  While cleaning the mixing equipment the material ignited and a flash fire and explosion occurred.  The severity of the event was increased by inadequate and poorly implemented procedures.  The employee was not wearing the required personal protective clothing.  The employee did not record the shoe conductivity test on the log, suggesting the test may not have been conducted.  The quantity of material in the mix room (basis of controls incorporated into employer procedure) exceeded the amount the employer anticipated to be present when conducting the specific cleaning task.  The daily safety checklist was not initialed by the supervisor, indicating poor management oversight.  The employee later died of his injuries.  

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