Three workers died following a propane gas explosion on a quail/pheasant farm.
Authors
Oklahoma State Department of Health
Source
Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, FACE 03OK058, 2004 Mar; :1-4
Two Hispanic workers, ages 31 and 54, and the 57-year old owner of a quail and pheasant farm died from burn injuries received on August 4, 2003 following a propane gas explosion in a building where birds were kept. The owner of the farm was attempting to light a brooder in one of the quail buildings when the explosion occurred. The two workers were moving quail from a delivery truck to the building at the time of the incident. They witnessed the explosion and immediately went into the burning building to pull the owner, who was unconscious, out of the building. After moving the injured owner to safety, one of the workers was overcome and lost consciousness as a result of injuries sustained during the rescue. The other rescuer ran to the house, which was about 50 yards away, to have the owner's wife call for emergency services. All three men were severely burned and also suffered from smoke inhalation. The rescuer who ran to get emergency aid died 8 days after the incident, the worker who lost consciousness at the scene died 34 days after the incident, and the owner died 57 days after the incident. Oklahoma Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (OKFACE) investigators concluded that to prevent similar occurrences, employers should: 1. Develop written procedures for lighting, servicing, maintaining, and labeling all gas powered heating equipment. 2. Ensure that ventilation is adequate in all enclosed areas so that flammable gas does not accumulate. 3. Seek guidance from the gas company on proper procedures for installation and use of gas systems. 4. Ensure that multilingual workers are able to comprehend instructions and follow safe work practices.
Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot attest to the accuracy of a non-federal website.
Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website.
You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link.
CDC is not responsible for Section 508 compliance (accessibility) on other federal or private website.
For more information on CDC's web notification policies, see Website Disclaimers.
CDC.gov Privacy Settings
We take your privacy seriously. You can review and change the way we collect information below.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
Cookies used to make website functionality more relevant to you. These cookies perform functions like remembering presentation options or choices and, in some cases, delivery of web content that based on self-identified area of interests.
Cookies used to track the effectiveness of CDC public health campaigns through clickthrough data.
Cookies used to enable you to share pages and content that you find interesting on CDC.gov through third party social networking and other websites. These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes by these third parties.
Thank you for taking the time to confirm your preferences. If you need to go back and make any changes, you can always do so by going to our Privacy Policy page.