Driller and Service Rig Helper Die in Fracturing Tank at Gas Well Site–Pennsylvania.

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Program
• Description:
  A 39-year-old male driller and a 28-year-old male service rig helper died after entering a fracturing tank at a well within a natural gas storage field in Pennsylvania. They were a team assigned to monitor the fluid level and wellhead pressure at the well during the final stages of a hydraulic fracturing operation. On the evening of the incident, the coworkers relieved the two dayshift crewmen at the site. They were found inside the tank the next morning by the same two men they had relieved the night before. Both men apparently died of asphyxia due to anoxia and/or accumulation of fumes. The fracturing tank was 37 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 8 to 11 feet high. The blow back tank had been bypassed because of a leak, and fracturing fluid from the wellhead was flowing directly to the tank. In order to prevent future similar occurrences, it was recommended that openings in fracturing tanks be covered with physical barriers to prevent unauthorized or casual entry
  
  that confined space entry programs be developed at all job sites where workers are exposed to confined space hazards
  
  and that alternative job procedures used in the instance of equipment malfunctions be evaluated to ensure that the alternative procedures do not increase the risk of injury.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Accidents, Occupational Confined Spaces Hazardous Substances Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Breathing-atmospheres Confined-spaces FACE-92-17 Natural-gas OSHA Region 3 Toxic-gases
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Confined Space
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  NIOSH (In-House)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHFACE9217
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Pennsylvania ; OSHA Region 3
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSR - Division of Safety Research
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  4 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00210224
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB93-119410
• Citation:
  Morgantown, : U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1992
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  21 - Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1992/06/04
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:54caae4ce3d553c2b10d4fb76298f1510feee712f849e36b96e1fd0bc15325a9f2834c27d8b51b007a792fa8a578b3907c19e0eb456512065541da9ea48b7137
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/167538/cdc_167538_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 336.72 KB ]