Abstract: At approximately 3:00 p.m. on September 29, 1988, Employee #1 was applying an epoxy paint with a spray gun on the interior of a 60,000 gallon circular above ground storage tank inside a cookie bakery. The two-part epoxy cast emitted flammable vapors. The lighting source used inside the tank was a portable, hand-held flood lamp that was not explosion proof. The flood lamp was either dropped or bumped, breaking its bulb and igniting the flammable vapors. The subsequent fire burned Employee #1 over 90 percent of his body. He died the next day. If an explosion proof lamp fixture for Class 1, Division 1 locations had been used and/or an air horn had been used for evacuating explosive vapors from the tank, the explosion could have been prevented.