Abstract: At 3:30 p.m. on January 19, 2019, an employee was setting up a Wemco wire reel machine in preparation for spooling on the machine. The procedure involved pulling wire from a larger spool and feeding it into the machine to get the desired length of wire for an order. The employee used a foot pedal to pull the wire into the counter and around the spool while using his left hand to guide the moving wire into the counter. While pulling the wire, a loop in the wire travelled up and wrapped around the employee's left thumb and pulled tight around it, amputating the thumb. The employee was treated at a local hospital and released.