Accident Report Detail

Accident Summary Nr: 202477055 - Employee Is Injuried When Burned in Underground Fire

Accident Summary Nr: 202477055 -- Report ID: 0950636 -- Event Date: 12/14/2010
Inspection Nr	Date Opened	SIC	NAICS	Establishment Name
312665425	12/14/2010	1623	237110	Tl Pavlich Construction Inc

Abstract: At 8:00 a.m. on December 14, 2010, Employee #1, a welder, set up welding equipment on a construction worksite located on a public residential road in Montebello, California. Employee #1 set up the welding equipment inside a 30 in. concrete line steel pipe located 12 ft below grade. An overnight accumulation of methane was probably present in the soils of Montebello due to abandoned oil and gas wells in the area. Preentry purging of the air and air monitoring within the confined space was not conducted. The shield metal arc welding equipment sparked. The spark ignited flammable gases and caused a flash fire in the pipe. Employee #1 received second and third degree burns from the fire. Employee #1 was hospitalized for more than 24 hours and treated for his burns. That same day, Cal/OSHA received a report of the accident.

Keywords: BURN, CONFINED SPACE, AIR MONITORING, FIRE, WELDER, CONSTRUCTION, NATURAL GAS, UNDRGRD INSTALLATION, CONCRETE PIPE, PURGING

Accident Details
End Use		Project Type		Project Cost	Stories	Non-building Height	Fatality
Pipeline		New project or new addition		$1,000,000 to $5,000,000

Employee Details
Employee #	Inspection Nr	Age	Sex	Degree of Injury	Nature of Injury	Occupation	Construction
1	312665425			Hospitalized injury	Burn/Scald(Heat)	Welders and cutters	Distance of Fall: feet Worker Height Above Ground/Floor: feet Cause: Trenching, installing pipe Fatality Cause: Fire/explosion

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