Fatal Accident Circumstances and Epidemiology (FACE) Report: Two Dead, Five Injured in Confined Space Incident in Oregon, October 10, 1986

摘要

A self employed contractor and a shipping supervisor who attempted to come to his rescue died in an underground vault. The contractor was overcome in an underground vault which housed the backflow device for the city water line running along the front of property owned by a sawmill. His was a one man operation and had no safety program or confined space entry procedures. The below ground vault measured 12 feet long, 6 feet wide, and 8 feet deep with a 30 inch manhole at ground level. The contractor was making an annual inspection of the backflow device, which he had also performed for the preceding 3 years. He removed the steel cover and lowered a ladder into the vault. A half hour later a truck driver saw a body in the vault and called the emergency squad. The shipping supervisor from the sawmill and a maintenance man entered the vault in a rescue attempt. Within 2 to 3 minutes both men had passed out. Two policemen and two paramedics attempted a rescue, but had to be helped out of the vault and taken to a hospital. Firemen with breathing apparatus removed the three men at the bottom; two of them died due to drowning.