All three were contract workers hired to clean out a vat of chemicals.
An employee of Deep South Industrial Services, died in the accident. A second Deep South employee was transported to a local Hospital and later released after being treated for minor burns. The third man, who was employed by Pulp Mill Services, was airlifted to a burn center in Shreveport. His condition was unknown late Tuesday. A VP for the employer said “They entered into the tank to do work when whatever happened happened”.
The Hodge Police Chief received a call around 10 a.m. for assistance in a confined-space rescue operation. A fire and rescue services group was called in to assist in the operation. The director of corporate communications for Rock Tenn said “An investigation is underway as to the cause of the accident. At this point, we can’t speculate as to the cause”.
I was a Process Engineer in paper mills for five years. I've entered many confined spaces and I am blessed to not have experienced an injury with these entries. In this instance, a firm was contracted to clean in a tank. According to the firm's website, they have been in business for 60 years, and have a strong focus on safety, including confined space entry. The full article said there was no explosion, and that the tank had several inches of liquid in it. I'm guessing the burns mentioned may be chemical burns.
We need to "make sure all the potential hazards of a confined space entry are considered and that appropriate preventive measures are included in the planning and CS entry permitting process". This includes addressing mundane items such as slip & trip hazards. I'm curious whether the company considered erecting a platform over the liquid for workers to stand on, or whether they were walking on an uneven surface that they could not even see below the liquid.
"When accidents occur, we need to carefully research the situation to really understand root causes". In this case, some of the questions that come to mind might include the following: Could one of the three men have been assigned to be the attendant outside the tank, but entered to assist in a rescue before others arrived? Was anyone at the plant assigned to be available to assist in emergencies? Did they consider planning for a "non-entry rescue"? Did they consider pumping out more liquid prior to entry and during entry? Was the "host" paper mill involved in the planning? Was the PPE appropriate for the job? Were all the pipelines to the tank properly double-blanked-and-bled of fluids in-between?...
