Incident date: 2018-07-13
NAICS industry code: 423830

The injured employee was using an oxy-acetylene torch to remove one of the legs from the outside of a centrifuge (used process equipment). After 10-15 minutes, the injured employee began having issues with the torch. He paused his work briefly and a second employee came over to assist with lighting the torch. Once the torch was relit, the injured employee resumed cutting activities on the centrifuge and an explosion/fireball occurred. The injured employee sustained severe burns to his forearms and was hospitalized. The second employee was treated and released on the same day.

Hazard classification:
code_event: title: Explosion, unspecified
code_source: title: Nonclassifiable
code_nature: title: Heat (thermal) burns, unspecified
code_body: title: Forearm(s)
severity: moderate