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from the ever-decreasing-state-of-workplace-safety dept.
The World Socialist Web Site reports
On Thursday [July 29], two workers at an electrical plant near Tampa, Florida were killed horrifically when a tank spilled molten slag onto them. Four others were hospitalized with life-threatening injuries. The plant is operated by Tampa Electric Company (TECO), the Tampa Bay area's largest electrical utility service. The company was purchased exactly one year ago to the day by Canadian energy company Emera Inc.
Christopher Irvin, 40, and Michael McCory, 60, were both killed, while Gary Marine Jr., 32, Antonio Navarrete, 21, Frank Lee Jones, 55, and Armando J. Perez, 56, all sustained life-threatening injuries. Only one of the men was a TECO employee while the other five were employees of Gaffin Industrial Services who were contracted to work at the plant.
[...] A TECO spokesperson reported that at the time of the incident workers were performing routine maintenance on a slag tank--a container which houses coal waste after it has been burned. Slag is a glass-like substance that forms when hot coal mixes with water; the slag tank catches leftover by-product that drips down from a coal-fired furnace into water.
The crystallized slag is still molten hot when it forms, and it was slag spillover that killed and injured the workers in question. An expert compared the gushing slag to "what comes out of a volcano".
Workers were reportedly trying to unplug a hole in the slag tank when the material spilled out. A spokesperson from TECO stated that slag filled a large part of the floor in the plant, "6 inches deep and 40 feet in diameter".
[...] An OSHA spokesperson stated in response to the incident, "It's the employer's responsibility to provide a safe and healthful workplace." Apparently, OSHA was already investigating a chemical exposure that happened at the same plant on May 24. This incident involved the release of anhydrous ammonia that caused four employees to be hospitalized.
TECO has a long history of similar incidents.
[...] [A statement from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 108] notes that the incident was entirely avoidable. "It's time to listen to the employees", it reads. "It's time to stop using contractors to do 'routine maintenance' when the safety of this maintenance has been questioned by employees. It's time to stop putting profit before safety. It's time to truly put safety first."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 04 2017, @08:46PM (2 children)
You paint a gruesome picture, but my guess (only a guess) is that you are overcome/rendered-unconscious by fumes before you have time to notice that you are trapped in solidifying slag. So you probably don't have time to consider the stupidity of contracting to do a dangerous job that comes without safety training.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 05 2017, @08:58AM (1 child)
Nah... it doesn't work like that. Your lungs are being burned by the gases because they are hot. Chemical burns take time, this is instant. Your legs would literally melt in something as hot as lava. You would not really be trapped in it, but you would be set on fire. And you would lose your balance and face-plant into it. Most likely few second of panic.
The bottom line is, don't mess with large loads of anything. And even a single drop of things like molten steel (this was "only" slag), is enough to burn right through your body like hot knife through butter.
People have problems understanding heat like this... it doesn't even burn. You won't even feel it unless radiant heat causes you to be set on fire.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday July 06 2017, @12:22AM
Can we assume they died quickly then? Christ, if I weren't already used to nightmares where worse happens this would give me insomnia...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...