5 workers die: Emergency responders were an hour away
August 26, 2010 by Fred HosierPosted in: Chemical safety, Fatality, In this week's e-newsletter, Investigations, Latest News & Views, fire/explosion
Ingredients for disaster: flammable materials, confined space, no emergency responders on site.
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has completed its investigation into the Oct. 2, 2007, explosion at Xcel Energy’s Cabin Creek plant in Georgetown, CO, that killed five workers and injured three others.
The CSB identified 3 major causes of the incident:
- a lack of planning and training for hazardous work by Xcel and its contractor, RPI Coating
- Xcel’s selection of RPI despite its having the lowest possible safety rating (zero) among competing contractors, and
- allowing volatile flammable liquids to be introduced into a permit-required confined space without necessary special precautions.
Painting contractors from RPI were recoating a 1,530-foot portion of a water tunnel when a flash fire suddenly erupted. Vapor from a flammable solvent ignited, most likely from a spark near the spraying machine. The solvent was used to clean spray-painting equipment.
The fire quickly spread as more solvent ignited. There were 10 workers in the tunnel at the time. Five were unable to get to the only available exit. Five workers made it out safely, although three were injured.
The closest confined space rescue unit was about 75 minutes away. The trapped workers died about an hour before the response unit arrived.
The CSB claims Xcel and RPI impeded the investigation. The agency had to seek assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Denver. Xcel went to federal court seeking to block release of the CSB report. The court sided with CSB in favor of the report’s release.
OSHA’s confined space regulation doesn’t prohibit entry or work in confined spaces where the concentration of flammable vapor exceeds 10% of the chemical’s lower explosive limit (LEL).
The CSB recommends OSHA establish a fixed maximum percentage of the LEL for entry so that work in potentially flammable atmospheres would be prohibited.
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Tags: Cabin Creek explosion, Chemical Safety Board, five workers killed, Xcel Energy
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September 15th, 2010 at 9:13 am
I think that although the CSBs recommend that OSHA establish a fixed maximum percentage of the LEL for entry so that work in potentially flammable atmospheres would be prohibited is a good one, and maybe in some way should be amended into the existing 1910.146. But in some ways, it really falls short of what the real problem seems to be. Proper training and managerial support.
You can cram rules and regulations galore into any book, poster, pamphlet or video that you want to. But, I can’t even keep track of how many job sites that I have been on where employees and managers alike couldn’t tell me 1910.146 was,.. When dealing with PRCS’s Let alone how to properly don or maintain essential safety equipment, or what the PEL is of Co O2 H2S LEL. I could go on and on, but that is where proper SAFETY TRAINING comes into play. ((audible, visual and hands on)) to help, to the best of a companies ability to insure comprehension of information.
Second managerial support or OVER SITE. You need to have someone there whose only job it is to make sure that all safety procedures are followed. Some people might say, “Why”. Ok, well think about this. People who drive a vehicle know that speeding is illegal but they do it anyway right. We know that we are putting our lives and the lives of those around us at increased risk of sever injury but we do it anyway to shave just a few minutes of our total commute time. Well in work. It is the same way. Employees, in my experience when they have the proper training and the PPE / rules available and in place to protect them, often will cut corners fail to use a guard or piece of PPE, or fail to follow a step in the process. And the answer I get most when asked why is, “I was just trying to safe a little time.”
What I am trying to say is this, you can make a addendum to all the documents that you want, but without Support from upper management to Follow and Enforce, and employee’s involvement to follow and understand there will continue to be more needless serious and fatal injuries do to lack of knowledge and understanding of the risks involved with daily work activities i.e. permit required confine space. And that’s just the TIP of this dangerous berg.