Accident Report Detail
Accident Summary Nr: 116172.015 - Employees are injured by arc flash in electrical panel box
Inspection Nr | Date Opened | SIC | NAICS | Establishment Name |
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1400166.015 | 05/14/2019 | 332812 | Rti Advanced Forming Inc. |
Abstract: At 2:30 p.m. on May 8, 2019, two employees were working for a firm that provided metal coating, engraving, and allied services to manufacturers. One employee worked as a maintenance electrician. He was checking an electrical panel for burned out fuses. Earlier in the day, he was performing maintenance on the facility's brake oven 8. It was located on the upper level of the facility's fabrication area. The brake oven heated metal parts before they were formed by other fabricating machinery. There was a sudden loss of electrical power to this piece of equipment. The employee went to the "panel bucket" that provided power to brake oven 8 to test the fuses and determine if the power cutoff occurred there. Brake oven 8 ordinarily drew 200 amperes of current at 480 volts. The employee was wearing his arc flash suit over a Level 2 arc flash rated uniform, EH rated boots, safety glasses, ear plugs, a hard hat with a tinted face shield, and suitably rated electrical gloves with leather covers over them. He was not wearing a balaclava. He opened the panel, and drew out his meter from a pocket to test the fuses. One of the meter leads got entangled with a pair of locking pliers, such as Vise-Grips, or channel-lock pliers. The pliers fell into the open bucket, causing an arc flash. The employee suffered first- and second-degree burns over 20 percent of his body. He received severe burns to his chin, throat, and chest. The other employee was processing titanium sheets for the firm's pickle line. This other employee was exposed to nitric oxide and hydrofluoric acid. Both employees were hospitalized. The failure to require a balaclava resulted from a misreading of the NFPA 70E.
Employee # | Inspection Nr | Age | Sex | Degree of Injury | Nature of Injury | Occupation |
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1 | 1400166.015 | 49 | M | Hospitalized injury | Electricians |