Authorities say Richard Basque was using a propane torch to thaw a frozen valve on a tanker truck when an explosion threw him 12 feet. He was killed instantly. Other employees at Tiger Tank Trucks suffered minor injuries.

The explosion was felt about two miles away. It blew sheet metal off the trucking company and shattered windows in adjacent buildings.

County Sheriff Shannon Smith told The Oklahoman it’s standard practice for truckers to use a propane torch to heat frozen truck valves.

The tanker was used to haul salt water and crude oil.

ConAgra will pay $106,440 for 26 safety violations at the plant in Garner, NC. The state had issued fines totaling almost $135,000.

As part of the settlement agreement, ConAgra said it will screen safety compliance records of contractors working at its plant and work with them in advance to address potential safety and health hazards.

Investigators say the explosion was caused by a contract worker who improperly purged a new fuel supply line for a gas-fired water heater. That allowed gas to vent into an enclosed room.

The state has also fined the contractor, Energy Systems Analysts, $58,100. Those fines are still pending.

When the roof of the plant collapsed after the explosion, some workers were stopped in their tracks from escaping, had to turn around and fled through a warehouse.

The blast at Valero’s Texas City, TX, oil refinery resulted in the death of 40-year-old Tommy Mannis. Two other employees received minor injuries, one requiring hospitalization.

Right before the blast occurred, a work crew had been attempting to restart a boiler that had tripped offline. OSHA is investigating.

The Galveston Daily News reports that the refinery is a multiple recipient of OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Program’s STAR award. With an OSHA VPP STAR designation, the facility isn’t subject to routine OSHA inspections or those conducted through special emphasis programs. STAR facilities do undergo OSHA review every 3-5 years.

A special emphasis program had recently targeted oil refineries. In June 2009, acting OSHA administrator Jordan Barab sent a letter to refineries across the nation emphasizing the need to comply with process safety management standards, as a result of conditions OSHA inspectors were finding during inspections.

So here’s a question: Do you think OSHA VPP STAR facilities should be exempt from inspections? Let us know what you think in the Comments Box below.

The blast at the Crittenden Middle School happened while construction crews were repairing a roof that was damaged in recent storms. A 20-foot by 50-foot wall collapsed.

While it’s not known exactly what caused the explosion, a local TV station reports that the workers were using propane to melt tar being used to make roof repairs.

Two workers remain hospitalized in a burn unit, their conditions not released to the public. Four others are still hospitalized, one in critical, two in serious and one in stable condition. The two other workers were treated and released.

The school was closed for one day. After inspectors determined that most of the school was still safe, students returned, but several classrooms near the collapsed wall won’t be able to be used for some time.

Before the explosion, three of the workers supervised by David Senko told him that they were considering quitting or leaving for other jobs. Senko convinced them to keep their jobs.

They died in the explosion.

Senko was not in Texas when the explosion occurred. After the incident, Senko’s supervisor asked him to return to Texas to help identify those killed.

Senko claims to have suffered mental anguish and physical injuries including anxiety, shingles, hypertension and hypercholesterolemia.

He sued BP, claiming it was liable for negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress. He wanted damages for physical injuries and mental anguish.

BP asked that the lawsuit be thrown out.

The court agreed with BP and threw out the case. It said someone can not successfully sue unless severe emotional distress was the primary risk created by the company’s reckless conduct.

The court said Senko could not prove that emotional distress was the primary risk of BP’s negligence in maintaining the refinery.

What do you think about the court’s decision? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

Cite: Senko v. BP, Court of Appeals for the First District of TX, No. 01-08-01022-CV, 11/5/09.

Capanna worked for a contractor that had been hired by an oil refinery in Paulsboro, NJ.

Oct. 5, 1979 was his last day on the job there. He’d been concerned about some other injuries that had occurred at the refinery.

The final job: Remove an old water pump. The bolts that held the pump in place were so rusted they couldn’t be moved. So Capanna got the OK to use an acetylene torch to burn the bolts off.

He was burning off the last bolt when there was an explosion and flash fire.

Turns out, the pump wasn’t for water, it was for crude oil. Capanna was covered in crude oil, and he burst into flames.

The flash blinded him, but he managed to get out of the building that housed the pump. His flesh was engulfed in flames, and he fell.

Two other workers patted the flames out.

Capanna continued to burn for hours because the hot crude oil had stuck to him.

Through all this, he never lost consciousness. He felt everything, and burns are some of the most excruciating injuries because they leave nerves damaged and exposed.

As part of his treatment, his eyes were sewn shut for three months so his eyelids would not shrink while awaiting a skin graft. A pair of glasses worn during the blast saved Capanna’s sight.

In 1979, psychological treatment for severe burn patients was different than today. There were no mirrors anywhere in his hospital room where he could see himself. Even spoons were plastic so he couldn’t see his reflection in them.

One day while he was away from his room working with a physical therapist, Capanna slipped into a public restroom to look in the mirror.

The site of his own face made him throw up. He wasn’t prepared for what he saw in the mirror: missing ears, lips and nose.

“I was devastated,” Capanna said.

Over the course of 20 years, Capanna had 75 surgeries to close his skin and reconstruct his nose, ears and lips.

But reconstructive surgery has its limitations. Children would look at him and say, “Look mommy, a monster.” Adults would turn away from him.

Today, Capanna works with the Phoenix Society, a national organization that works with people who suffer burn injuries.

He recently told his story to The Pocono Record. It’s a story that’s sure to have an impact on workers.

Workers were cleaning and dismantling old gasoline storage tanks at a Miami, FL, convenience store when the explosion occurred.

Rescue workers rushed the 38-year-old man to the hospital in hopes doctors may be able to reattach the leg, which was severed below the knee.

Two workers were cleaning and dismantling two 3,000-gallon gas tanks after they were dug up at the store.

While cutting through one tank, a spark from a saw ignited fumes. The tanks hadn’t been used for 20 years.

Part of one tank struck the one worker’s leg.

All three men were hospitalized, with one in critical and two in serious condition.

The incident occurred while employees of California Linen Services, dba Dy-Dee Diaper Service, were refueling a delivery truck that operates on compressed natural gas (CNG), according to the Pasadena Star-News.

Investigators believe the vehicle’s fuel tank exploded, destroying the truck. The tank shot about 1,000 feet into the air and landed about 200 feet away. No one was injured by the falling tank.

The explosion caused an estimated $112,000 in damage to vehicles and the linen company building’s contents.

Witnesses said the explosion felt like an earthquake.

Cal-OSHA is investigating and won’t release any information about possible causes until its investigation is complete.

Federal OSHA has regulations for the regular inspection and maintenance of CNG storage cylinders.

OSHA 1910.101 requires fueling station operators to conduct regular visual inspections to determine that compressed gas cylinders are in a safe condition.

Cylinders must be retested every five years, including a visual internal and external examination together with a test by interior hydrostatic pressure in a water jacket or other suitable apparatus.

State OSHA rules must be as strict, but can be more stringent, than the federal regulations.

Trent Sack suffered multiple arm, leg and vertebra fractures while using a propane torch to thaw ice from inside a mechanical foot at a BNI coal mine in Center, ND.

The torch went out, and gas leaked. The gas exploded after Sack moved the opening cover of the mechanical foot aside and oxygen rushed in, according to the Bismarck Tribune. No fire resulted from the explosion.

The company reported the incident to the Mine Safety and Health Administration, which conducted an investigation. No word on whether the company will be fined.

Several people were injured in a explosion at a furniture plant in Dubois County, IN.

Police in the town of Jasper say it happened at Indiana Flat Line Assembly Plant.

Reports say the explosion was caused by a part that got caught in a machine, causing the dust collection system to explode. The blast took out several doors and walls.

Six people were treated for non-life-threatening injuries at local hospitals. Police evacuated several homes around the plant as a precaution.

Cortec Spray Technologies of Spooner, WI, has agreed to pay a fine of $250,000. OSHA originally proposed $424,000 in fines for multiple safety violations. The reduced fine is contingent on Cortec’s promise to bring the plant into compliance by Dec. 31.

The Spooner Fire District Chief determined that on March 18, an accumulation of propane ignited and caused the large explosion.

Workers had been trying to purge a liquid propellant line, but ran into difficulties. That allowed the gas levels to rise and drift into another area of the plant where an employee was operating an electric-powered forklift.

The forklift caught fire and the explosion followed.

Natural gas seeping from pipes caused an explosion at a San Diego hotel construction site that injured a firefighter and 13 construction workers. Three of those injured required weeks of hospital care for critical burns, according to the Union-Tribune. The hotel’s fourth through seventh floors were destroyed in the explosion.

Cal-OSHA assigned most of the blame for the blast to Sherwood Mechanical, Inc., a plumbing and heating contractor. Sherwood faces fines of $67,500 for four serious violations:

• The company’s Code of Safe Practices didn’t address methods for testing concentrations of natural gas, procedures for purging gas line or methods to control operation of gas.
• Employees weren’t instructed on methods for testing natural gas concentrations, procedures for purging gas or methods to control access to valves and pipes.
• Piping being purged of air wasn’t vented outside from an enclosed space, and the vent wasn’t closed after air was purged.
• The company allowed natural gas to accumulate in a room to dangerous levels and failed to test the concentration of gas in the room.

A report says workers trying to flush air out of pipes feeding a hotel boiler inadvertently allowed natural gas to leak into a fifth-floor mechanical room.

After the gas built up in the room, any number of electrical installations could have been the ignition source, including light switches and lighting itself.

OSHA has fined International Paper Co.’s Vicksburg, MS, plant $77,000. The agency investigated the plant following a May explosion that killed one employee and injured 22 others.

International Paper received one willful and one serious violation.

The willful violation is for failing to start a recovery boiler with adequate steam and not developing safe procedures to start the boiler. (OSHA defines a willful violation as one committed with plain indifference to or intentional disregard for employee safety and health.)

The serious violation is for failing to have written procedures to determine that an adequate amount of odorant was being added to the natural gas supply line coming into the power plant. (A serious violation is one that could cause death or serious injury and the employer should have known about.)

A recovery boiler at the plant exploded in May during a start-up. Employees were exposed to a fire and explosion.

One employee received minor injuries and the main warehouse at Barton Solvents in Des Moines was destroyed in the October 2007 fire and explosion.

The Chemical Safety Board (CSB) report makes recommendations for handling and storing flammables:

• Ensure equipment is bonded, grounded and designed for flammable service.
• Use dip pipes when top-filling portable tanks.
• Install fire suppression systems in flammable packaging areas, and
• Separate flammable packaging areas from bulk storage areas.

For more information on the Barton explosion and advice from CSB, click here.