Ancon Marine: OSHA inspections and violations

Incident on Sep 14, 2005 (fatal): Employee dies in fall into 15 ft pit

At approximately 8:47 p.m., on September 14, 2005, Employee #1 of an industrial cleaning company and often does contract work in refineries. In this particular contract, employer was given the task of cleaning waste tanks. Employees #1 thro ugh #3 were on the night shift on the night of the accident. After the tanks had been emptied of water, the employees descended into the tanks one by one to man ually pick up solid debris. The actual worksite is an area which had several tan ks or pits. The pits were of different configurations: there were rectangular, s quare as well as round pits, varying in depth from 15 to 30 ft. While the pits w ere separated by concrete walls, they were connected together at the bottom but were guarded by gates. After coming out of a 15 ft pit, Employee #1 was resting on the perimeter of the pits, preparing to enter into a 30 ft pit. He was wearin g a body harness with a lanyard. Employee #1 was a six foot tripod, an emergency rescue equipment, leaning against a post. Upon seeing that his coworkers were h aving difficulty setting up a ladder for the next descend, Employee #1 walked ac ross the top of the walls of the pits to help Employee #2 and Employee #3 out. A s he walked across, employee #1, somehow pulled the tripod with him, the tripod fell and dropped into one of the pits, pulling him down with it. Before Employee #1 fell into the hole, his head hit the lip of the 29-in. wide pit, causing him to die of blunt head trauma. It is not clear whether his landyard got entangled with the tripod or that Employee #1 had hooked both his lanyard caribeeners int o the tripod. According to refinery management, when the tripod was retrieved ou t of the pit, both caribeeners of the lanyard of Employee #1 were found hooked u p to the tripod.

Incident on Jan 4, 2001: Employee's leg burned with hot water

At approximately 3:40 p.m. on January 4, 2001, Employee #1 and several other wor kers were cleaning out a storm water culvert of oil, mud, and other debris. The culvert was 1.5 to 2 ft deep and 3 to 4 ft wide. The equipment used was an open- fired hot water and steam generator manufactured by Sandy Equipment, Model 1.5 M BTU Boiler Steamer Unit, diesel fired. The water steam is delivered from the equ ipment at 200 to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Employee #1 wore a Nomex suit, hard hat , safety glasses, knee high rubber boots, and rubber gloves. When they finished the lead man gave the order for the boots of the laborers to be cleaned using th e hot water steam generator gun. This order directly contradicts the employer's general safety rule number seventeen, do not hot water wash or steam clean prote ctive clothing or boots while worn, they must be removed for such cleaning. The hot water steam gun operator caught the wand of the gun in the top of Employee # 1's right boot, filling it with hot water. Employee #1 was hospitalized with sec ond and third degree burns to his right thigh and received skin grafts.

Incident on Apr 23, 2000: Employee fractures foot in fall from hanging ladder

At about 8:00 a.m. on April 23, 2000, Employee #1, who worked for a hazardous wa ste abatement contractor, was on a safety ladder at a marine dock. The metal lad der was suspended by short sections of chain from the dock's underside and exten ded down into the water. The bull rail was set back from the edge of the dock fo r the placement of one's foot, and the bull rail and the end of the dock had ver tical cleats nailed to them for handholds. Since the ladder was suspended by cha ins, it swung back under the dock when someone stepped on it. A horizontal suppo rt beam under the dock prevented the ladder from reaching the natural angle it a nd the climber would have achieved. Since the ladder was suspended under the doc k, anyone starting down would have had to blindly feel for its rungs with his or her feet. Employee #1 was descending the ladder when he fell onto a floating do ck, fracturing his left foot. He was hospitalized for a month. At the time of th e accident, he was wearing a rubber rain suit, rubber boots, rubber gloves, a ha rd hat, and safety glasses. Employee #1 stated that he was not sure why he had f allen, but believed that the general instability of the ladder was a contributin g factor.

Incident on Nov 1, 1993 (fatal): Employee buried in silo material

A five-man crew had the job of removing material buildup in a 5 mole, #1 Borax s torage silo 33 feet in diameter and 80 feet high. The buildup was about 10 feet thick around the inside of the silo and extended the full length and height of t he silo. The material was barred down from a scaffold and bosun chair and allowe d to fall to the bottom of the silo where there is a manually operated gate to t he silo's unloading chute. The entrance to the work area is through a 2-foot by 2-foot door in the side of the silo to a waiting suspended scaffold. When the ba rred-down material reached the silo entrance door, it was released through the u nloading chute. The tail cable of the suspended scaffold was embedded in the loo se material buildup. Employees #1 and #2 entered the silo with no lanyard attach ed to their body harnesses. They stood on the loose material and attempted to fr ee the tail cable from the broken material they were standing on. The gate on th e silo unloading chute opened and Employee #1 went down, grabbing the belt of Em ployee #2. Employee #1 remained embedded in the material during the next 5 hours while rescue attempts were made. Employee #1 suffocated by the time he was free d. Employee #2 was rescued and suffered no life threatening injuries.