Month: December 2016

Accident Description
On July 29, 2008, three workers died and a fourth was injured when an explosion occurred inside an 80-foot-tall storage tank at the Packaging Corporation of America (PCA) corrugated cardboard mill in Tomahawk, Wisconsin. The workers were on a catwalk above the tank and performing hot work (welding) at the time of the explosion. The storage tank held a mixture of recycled paper pulp and water which the CSB found decomposed to form flammable hydrogen.

Investigation Status
The CSB issued a hot work safety bulletin summarizing the key findings from the investigation at a news conference on March 4, 2010.         

Accident Description
Six workers were fatally injured during a planned work activity to clean debris from natural gas pipes at Kleen Energy in Middletown, CT. To remove the debris, workers used natural gas at a high pressure of approximately 650 pounds per square inch. The high velocity of the natural gas flow was intended to remove any debris in the new piping. During this process, the natural gas found an ignition source and exploded.

Investigation Status
The CSB’s final report was approved at a public meeting in Portland, CT, on June 28, 2010.         

Accident Description
On October 2, 2007, five people were killed and three others injured when a fire erupted 1,000 feet underground in a tunnel at Xcel Energy Company’s hydroelectric power plant in Georgetown, Colorado, located approximately 45 miles west of Denver. The fatally injured workers were trapped deep underground during an operation to coat the inside of the tunnel with epoxy using highly flammable solvents. The tunnel is several thousand feet long and connects two reservoirs with electricity-generating turbines.

Investigation Status
The CSB’s final report was released at a news conference on 8.25.2010 in Denver, CO.         

Accident Description
Two workers were fatally injured when a waste tank containing the pesticide methomyl violently exploded, damaging a process unit at the Bayer CropScience chemical plant in Institute, West Virginia.

Investigation Status
The CSB’s final investigation report was reased at a public meeting in Institute, WV on 1.20.2011        

Accident Description
On January 23, there was a release of highly toxic phosgene, exposing a veteran operator at the DuPont facility in Belle, West Virginia and resulting in his death one day later. DuPont officials told the CSB that a braided steel hose connected to a one-ton capacity phosgene tank suddenly ruptured, releasing phosgene into the air. An operator who was exposed to the chemical was transported to the hospital, where he died the following day. The phosgene release followed two other accidents at the same plant in the same week, including an ongoing release of chloromethane from the plant’s F3455 unit, which went undetected for several days, and a release from a spent sulfuric acid unit. The plant announced over the weekend that it would be shutting down a number of process units immediately for safety checks. The CSB is also investiating a November 2010 accident at the Dupont facility outside Buffalo, NY, that fatally injured one worker.

Investigation Status
The CSB’s final report was approved on September 20, 2011.