CSB video warns of hot-work hazards

July 1, 2010
The US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has released a 14-minute safety video warning of the hazards of welding and other hot-work activities in and around

The US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has released a 14-minute safety video warning of the hazards of welding and other hot-work activities in and around storage tanks containing flammable materials.

Entitled Dangers of Hot Work, the video presents key lessons from the CSB's hot-work safety bulletin. That was released March 4, 2010, in Wausau WI near the Packaging Corporation of America (PCA) facility where three workers were killed in July 2008 during a hot-work-related explosion.

Hot work is defined as burning, welding, or similar spark-producing operations that can ignite fires or explosions. Since the release of the CSB hot work safety bulletin, there have been at least an additional 11 hot-work accidents resulting in five fatalities and 14 hospitalizations. Included in these events is the explosion and fire at the Navajo Refining Company that killed two workers and injured two others in Artesia NM, where a crew of insulators was reportedly working on a crude oil storage tank.

The video uses 3-D computer animations to depict three hot-work accidents at Partridge-Raleigh, an oil production site in central Mississippi; the Bethune Waste Water Treatment Plant in Daytona Beach FL; and the Motiva Enterprises Refinery in Delaware City DE.

This video is available for viewing and downloading on the CSB's website as well as the agency's YouTube channel. For free DVDs, complete the online request from www.csb.gov.