Accident: 170081459 - Killed In Fall To Bottom Of Air Intake Shaft

A four-man crew was removing flue gas tubes from inside an air preheater using cutting torches. An air intake shaft was 7 ft from where Employee #1 and a coworker were working. The supplied lighting was not bright enough to illuminate the open shaft. Employee #1 was apparently moving an unused portable lamp toward the open shaft to protect it from falling debris when he stepped into the air shaft and fell 20 ft. By the time the fire department and others retrieved Employee #1 from the bottom of the shaft, he was dead. The air preheater was considered a permit-required confined space. The opening to the air shaft at the 20 ft level was not guarded.

fall, poor visibility, confined space, unguarded, work rules, lighting, air shaft

Accident: 170585376 - Injured In Fall Through Metal Grate Over Air Shaft

At about 5:00 a.m. Employee #1, a security guard employed by a guard service firm, was on duty at a hotel and restaurant and making his rounds. He heard an unusual noise from an enclosed area next to the hotel. This area was enclosed by a solid board wall about 10 ft high. There was an opening where boards had been removed. Employee #1 entered to investigate. He stepped into the area onto metal grating and fell through the old and badly rusted grating into an air shaft. He fell about 15 ft to a concrete floor. Employee #1 required hospitalization. This area is an exhaust area from the hotel and restaurant ventilation system.

grating, inadequate maint, security guard, fall, air shaft, struck against

Accident: 170585657 - Security Guard Injured In Fall Into Hotel Shaft

At approximately 5:00 a.m., Employee #1, a security guard for a guard service firm, was making his rounds at a hotel/restaurant when he heard an unusual sound come from an enclosed area next to the hotel. This area was enclosed by a solid board wall approximately 10 ft high, with an opening where several boards had been removed. When Employee #1 entered the area to investigate, he stepped onto an old, rusted metal grating and fell through it approximately 15 ft to the concrete floor of an exhaust shaft for the hotel's ventilating system. He was hospitalized with foot fractures. The noise that Employee #1 was investigating was not identified.

fall, security guard, air shaft, grating, fracture, foot, ankle, corrosion, walking surface

Accident: 170178677 - Breaks Both Legs In Fall Down Shaft

At approximately 10:40 a.m. on January 21, 1993, Employee #1 was working on the third floor of a building under construction. A tool dropped from his pocket and fell down an air ventilation shaft. To retrieve the tool, he descended to the lowest level, which was two levels below ground surface. The shaft was open only at the third floor and in the ceiling of the lowest level. There the ceiling was 97 inches above the floor. The shaft was about 48 inches wide and 133 1/2 inches long in rectangular section. Although CAL/OSHA safety orders required two means of access to the third floor, only one such means of access was provided and it was in an unsafe location at a distance from the shaft. Employee #1, attempting to take a short cut back to his work post, stacked a number of buckets, mounted the stack, and proceeded up the shaft by pushing his hands against the shaft walls, stopping to rest on an occasional projection. He got within about 5 feet of the top of the shaft before falling all the way to the concrete floor, about 45 feet, and sustaining fractures in both legs. Paramedics transported him to a hospital.

construction, leg, fall protection, fall, air shaft, fracture, work rules

Accident: 14397657 - Dies In Fall Through Air Duct

Employee #1, a journeyman electrician at a construction site, had been employed since August 13, 1991. He left the ground floor work location to determine the reason for a power failure on the sixth floor. He fell 34 ft through an open 6 ft by 9 ft air duct shaft before reaching the sixth floor. Employee #1 died. Circumstances causing the fall remain unknown. Because work was not in progress, workers were not on the mezzanine-level entry to witness the employee's fall through the air duct shaft.

construction, fall, electrician, air shaft, unguarded

Accident: 170055289 - Hospitalized After Fall From Air Shaft

At about 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, March 18, 1990, Employee #1 was attempting to retrieve some waste that had collected in one of a plant's air return pits. She fell approximately 28 ft from an unguarded open air return shaft to a concrete floor. Employee #1 was hospitalized.

air shaft, cleaning, fall, struck against, concrete, unguarded, work rules