Abstract: At approximately 11:00 a.m. on May 9, 2008, Employee #1 and two coworkers were working at well 617R 17S prior to starting well pulling operations. They had injected water down the wells tubing and casing to eliminate the well pressure and reduce its temperature. After the well had set and no pressure was detected, they installed a blowout preventer and continued to pump water down the wells casing. They then started to remove the wells rods and tubing. All of the wells rods and 36 joints of tubing had been removed without incident. They were pulling the 37th joint of tubing and without warning, the well pressured up with steam and a blowout occurred. The coworkers escaped without injury and shut down the rig engine and deployed the blowout preventer, which stopped the flow of steam. Employee #1 was standing on the blowout preventer's platform. As he turned to escape, steam emitting from the blowout preventer's outlet struck him on the left leg and buttock. He was hospitalized with second and third degree burns.