Abstract: At approximately 2:00 a.m. on February 17, 2003, Employee #1, a coker operator in an oil refinery, was cutting coke in the Number 7 coke drum. The employee was wearing rubber gloves. He finished drilling the pilot hole that ran from the top to the bottom of the drum. The pilot hole allowed cut coke to exit the bottom of the drum during cutting. The employee then brought the cutting assembly up to the top of the 100 foot drum and began cutting. The cutting assembly consisted of an air wench, wire rope, drill stem, and cutting tool. He noticed that he had lost draft, indicating the pilot hole had become plugged. He began unplugging the hole by pushing the plug down to the bottom of the drum with the drill stem and cutting tool. After clearing the plug, the drill stem cable became slack. While attempting to realign the cable on the spool, the employee used his left gloved hand to take up slack. The drill suddenly fell, putting tension (approximately 1 ton) on the cable and catching his hand and drawing it into the pinch point. The employee suffered a partial amputation of his left hand and was hospitalized.