Mushroom Composting Facility Incident Animation | WorkSafeBC
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- Опубликовано: 8 июн 2024
- This animated re-enactment shows the sequence of events of the workplace incident at a mushroom composting facility in Langley, B.C. Three workers died and two others were seriously injured when hazardous gases were released while workers were performing maintenance on a blocked pipe.
This educational video is a helpful training tool about the dangers of anaerobic conditions and hazardous gases - including hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide - and the dangers of confined spaces.
To view the incident investigation report summary, which provides information on the causes and underlying factors that led to this incident, visit www.worksafebc.com/en/resourc....
For more information and resources about addressing risks in this industry, visit: www.worksafebc.com/en/health-...
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:31 Clearing a blocked pipe
1:07 The pipe system explained
1:45 Redirecting & collecting water to the containment area
2:17 Operational problems causing tank to fill with sludge
2:41 Protecting the pumps
3:08 The day of the incident - what happened?
3:35 Disconnecting the valve & pulling out material
3:58 A strange smell - the release of gas in a confined space
4:07 Worker 1 collapses, supervisor & worker 2 help
5:04 Additional workers come to help
5:56 Ambulance services arrive
6:29 First responders prevent further casualties
7:03 Removing five workers from the shed - three dead, two with serious injuries
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For people wondering.
From the report
“Hazardous gases were released when the blocked pipe was disconnected at the valve. Anaerobic conditions in the process water recycling system had resulted in the production of hazardous gases, including hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide.
The release of gases from the piping system into the shed, a confined space, created a hazardous atmosphere consisting of hydrogen sulphide gas, oxygen deficiency, or a combination of the two.”
Likely, the only thing that prevented an explosion and fire was the high level of CO2.
Hydrogen sulfide behaves very much like hydrogen cyanide, stopping cellular respiration.
Thank you! I was left wondering...
Thanks for telling us I see the Canadian safe work agency whatever it’s called. Doesn’t give a crap about telling people how they died. at least with the United States there animations tell us everything.
What is the materials in the pipe that reacted together to make the hazardous Gaz ? And where it came from?
... why TF didn't the video say that then??
For those not interested in going and reading the report: The pipe released hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide. Because the area was a confined space, the workers were also deprived of oxygen. The combination of poisonous gases and lack of oxygen ultimately killed them.
Thank you
Give this man an award!
Hindsight is 20/20, but it seems absolutely ridiculous that a business that deals with decomposing materials didn't have exhaust fans everywhere.
Thanks I thought they were shredded by a machine.
No amount of oxygen makes h2s poisoning survivable...
"Hey, this guy said he smelled something weird and collapsed. Think we should remove him and GTFO?"
"Nah. Let's just lean him against the wall and hang out in here for a while."
00011theman Probably to heavy to lift up the ladder
Time for a cigarette break
"Yeah you just sit tight I'm gonna call someone and tell him to call emergency services"
Your not understanding they climbed down a ladder to get in there, the guy that fell was probably overweight and his buddy couldn’t stomach leaving him in water passed out
Human nature drives most to injury or kill themselves while trying to save a friend or even a stranger in some cases
Disorientation will do that , they were basically under the influence , think 🤔
I like how Safeway casually omits the fact that they received numerous complaints from neighbors and the town of Langley inspector, but allowed the unsafe conditions and air contamination to persist.
Turn them in again
Anyone who has ever worked around facilities like that knows the workers are minimally trained and most have no knowledge of industrial safety or chemical hazards. They just do what they are told and don’t understand the dangers present. When you combine that with management that spends the absolute minimum for maintenance, you have a recipe for these tragedies.
except management is also usually very ignorant to potential hazards as well.
Hit that right on the nose.
That's what happened in 2008 at the Imperial sugar refinery explosion down in Georgia.
@Sean Stevenson you are correct & they look for folks who may not be all that smart as they will work for less. tell me i'm wrong
And when the government implements safety regulations, things become expensive and production moves to other parts of the world.
Worker 1: “Something smells weird...”
Worker 1: *passes out*
Everyone at the compound: “LETS ALL CLIMB IN!”
To be fair, they wanted to help out. Even the supervisor risked his safety to go inside the shed to check on the workers. Which is rare to see in these kinds of workplace tragedy info videos
@@silversunset I mean, it is in British Columbia, so the Canadian Spirit of "Let's help our coworker out!" happened, and the rest is history.
Yeah, I'm kind of surprised that they didn't have like one gas mask or something for situations like this. I have worked in far less dangerous places that have simple safety precautions like that. Seems like negligence on the owners part but its hard to say
@@silversunset don't risk your safety z you cant help anyone if you pass out too
@@silversunset don't risk your safety z you cant help anyone if you pass out too
Those workers were suppose to be trained in H2S Sour Gas Hazard Safety. Whenever dealing with decaying organic matter, like manure, sour gas is always produced. An enclosed shed poorly ventilated, full of water, moisture, and decaying organic matter is a recipe for H2S exposure.
apparently its the gypsum. I would be surprised that agricultural run-off could generate 500 ppm of H2S.
@@superwiseman452 Well, just FYI, 500 ppm H2S is more than enough to incapacitate humans!
Yes, idk anything about this stuff but yeah I'd assume they'd train their workers properly on safety.
@@alfredomarquez9777 aw, it's as harmless as HCN, which it behaves like in the body.
For the chemically challenged, HCN is also known as hydrogen cyanide. Both halt cellular respiration.
At a minimum, they needed tank respirators to extricate the incapacitated. Better would've been to scrub the gas and exhaust it from the system and separate the solids, thereby preventing the entire disaster.
The problem really goes back to when the walled-in area for the storage tanks was allowed to accumulate and keep so much water in the first place. It's meant to be a dry area for maintenance purposes. They kept doing hacks to compensate for the problem rather than addressing the real problem. That caused them to add hacks on top of hacks, which ended up with the closed space that killed the workers. Heck, building a shed in the middle of an area that was designed to be an open maintenance space was stupid in itself. Should have simply built a roof over the tank area (to direct rainwater away) and left it open on the sides.
or install an exhaust fan in the maintenance area.
Never did any kind of process safety analysis on any of those hacks
Or just insulate the pipes so that they would not freeze.
Except the purpose of the holding tank was probably to allow for venting of any gases so you can't put a roof on it.
And to think, personal gas detectors are about $500 a piece and for an operation that size you need maybe 10. The company could have spent $5000, and saved the heartache, legal expenses, fines, PR nightmare, insurance skyrocketing, and corporate re-shuffle which can sometimes cost hundreds of thousands as well. A friend of mine had a good saying for this behavior, "tripping over dollars to pick up dimes".
The animations and description of the emergency response were well done, but there should have been some discussion of what gas was released and how maintenance can be performed in the future to prevent this from happening. It's pretty clear that gas can be deadly in a confined space, what else can be learned here?
From the site:
Conclusions
Findings as to causes
Hazardous gases were released when the blocked pipe was disconnected at the valve. Anaerobic conditions in the process water recycling system had resulted in the production of hazardous gases, including hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide.
The release of gases from the piping system into the shed, a confined space, created a hazardous atmosphere consisting of hydrogen sulphide gas, oxygen deficiency, or a combination of the two.
Findings as to underlying factors
Straw and sludge blocked the intake pipe. The system did not prevent solids from entering the system and there was no maintenance program to manage the solids and sludge.
Anaerobic conditions (without oxygen) developed in the process water recycling system when composting production was reduced. There were no features incorporated to keep the process water uniformly aerated, and as a result the process water became stagnant.
There were missed opportunities that might have prevented the development of hazardous conditions that led to this incident.
Minimal attention was paid to occupational health and safety at this workplace.
Link:
why are they not just issued masks to use when stuff like this happens? problem solved
most likely methane... even though it is not toxic, high enough concentration can displace oxygen from confined area (like shed, or lungs) and cause suffocation. Slightly higher concentration than that can explode.
Look up the accident report like it said in the beginning of the video if you really care so much. Instead you waste that time to make a bitchy comment. It's a video used in class to talk about the potential risks. They don't give everyone the answers.
Matthew Munson sometimes things that go up don't come down.
I think the problem is that probably nobody mentioned the smell when relaying info, they probably just said "hey worker 1 fainted, can you guys come help?" and that lack of communication started the chain of events. Just a theory.
I can get behind that...
Another theory is that these guys must live in caveman era because the lack of awareness in general
Yeah. I don't like how everyone in the comments is saying that all these people knowingly entered a hazardous atmosphere for the banter
"A film theorie"
Profoundly dumb on their parts, confined space work hazards are well known in the safety industry.
Isnt it logical not to stay in/go in a building when someone says they smell something funny and then collapse?
The smell goes away quickly (or your acclimatize to it) and then it's very possible the exposure clouded their mental capabilities. The Supervisor probably had decided to call for help before becoming seriously mentally compromised himself.
It's a tragedy caused by ignorance, not knowing the risks or the consequences and therefore not having any procedures or safety equipment in place.
Maybe they are human beings doing what they could to try to save eachother's lives?
Their coworkers were in there and needed help.
In scuba diving, we have to take training lectures because we have a limited air source, and the situation is dangerous due to the isolated environment that limits communication, and nitrogen & oxygen in our air becoming narcotic & toxic respectively.
In any shit-hits-the-fan situations the number one message that they always try drill into us is “save yourself: 1 fatality not 2”. The person you’re trying to save might not be saveable to begin with, or they could attack you for your air source in desperation of drowning, and it’s very likely you’ll overextend or further endanger yourself while being vulnerable to same problems & risks. Get yourself safe, then request emergency services.
In the moment ppl might think worker2 was crazy/selfish/not doing the right thing if they ran outta there as fast they could leaving worker1 face down in the water, with the supervisor not allowing anyone else to get anywhere near. But without adequate air source, and sludge making a weird smell that incapacitated someone in a confined space, that’s unfortunately the best option.
You can’t save anyone if you’re dead
He was overcome by the time he smelled it and if you all ran out and left him to die what would that make you?
worker 6 smart guy
Supervisor was, he was released..... Figures.
Worker 6 deserves a raise
yes
Worker 2 should of got out
That's not a sentence
Worker 7 was the smartest guy. He went home sick that day, saw what happened on the telly, then collected compensation saying the smell sickened him, when he really just wanted to go fishing.
Worker 7 is that you?
perhaps the Worker 7 planned all of that...
@@jonathandufault2099 damn busted.
*Whenever I’m in the mood for CGI freak explosions and decapitated heads in hardhats, this channel never disappoints.*
Lol
Don't miss the guy pulled into the woodchipper
Expected the shed to explode after reading your comment, was thoroughly disappointed. Now I gotta find that decapitation video.
@@NicholasLittlejohn seriously? Oh no.
Check out USCSB
they have better 3D animations
This chain of events happens time after time because of ignorance and human nature
My experience was on a a barge (I was working on the diesel transfer pumps at one end on deck) where a cleaning crew worked was working inside. I was young but I'd been in the US Navy and had had confined space training.
I heard a guy shout and saw a guy rushing to enter the manhole in the deck so I quickly went over to see if any help was needed.
When I looked in, I saw a guy laying on the bottom of the tank below and the other guy descending the ladder. As I watched, in less than a minute he started moving wrong and I realized it was a poor atmosphere problem. Shouting to him I told him to get out to climb up but he shouted something in Spanish at me and kept going down (later I found he didn't even speak English) as he got to the bottom he too fell off the ladder and lay motionless.
I ran up the dock to call for help (pre cell phone days) and the cleaning company owner was arriving.
I shouted to him he had two men in the tank down and it was bad air, don't let anyone else go in.
But he was stupid and didn't listen, after I called for help I ran back and didn't see him. Looking down inside there he was laying on top of the other two guys.
All three died.
I saw there was no forced ventilation, no safety winch, the workers weren't wearing safety harnesses either.
Now I'm not a union guy at all but I do believe that anyone doing industrial or repair work should have had basic safety training so they know how to avoid accidents and not due like lemmings.
Falls, crushing, fire and confined space accident prevention should be taught in a one day class to every high school kid (make and female, whether they are going to be white or blue collar) so they build up some life common sense.
Nah and the union wouldn't prevent any of that because a DIRECT RELATIONSHIP between you and the guys sending you to your death is better for business :p
That incident didn't turn you into a union guy? Lmao
Why wouldn't you be a 'Union Guy' - if it saves lives?
If being in a union would have caused better training, maybe you should be a "union guy".
@@conflagrationTuesday because theres quite a few unions who just fuck with things nowadays in some places when they _really_ should just let things be fine.
Remember seeing the family of one of the victims at a news conference, His wife and two small daughters were so distraught at how their dad had been severely handicapped, mentally and physically. it was very sad to watch. H2S is as deadly a gas as ever could be produce. It can destroy brain cells in seconds.
The weird thing is, that flammable, toxic gas behaves like hydrogen cyanide, but is used in the body for cellular signalling. There are a few noxious chemicals that the body constantly uses that are toxic in fair sized quantities.
@@spvillano Even water is toxic when ingested to excessive levels, I think it throws off your electrolyte levels iirc.
Astonishing that a breath can kill so quickly.
@@spvillano It makes sense when you think about it. If very small changes in the concentration of a signalling molecule can have an profound effect on a cell's functioning, imagine what happens to the cell when it's flooded by a concentration 100x higher than it's used to.
My father worked in health and safety most of his life. On one occasion he visited a company where 2 people had died cleaning out an empty tank. The first guy climbed in to start cleaning the tank but quickly collapsed. A colleague climbed in to assist and also collapsed. Turns out there was a build up of CO2 and both men died from asphyxiation.
A relative of mine bought a new house in a brand new development. The developers had put in a large concrete vault, the size of a small house, in the ground across from her property on the corner. This vault had large inflow pipes at the top for stormwater, and a large storage capacity, and a small drain into the metropolitan sewer system at the very bottom. It was supposed to accept large amounts of storm flow for a short time, and then feed the water out slowly into the storm sewer system.
Three of the four people living on this corner began throwing grass clippings into the storm sewer vault. After a couple of years several feet of clippings accumulated. One day a bad storm came, the clippings clogged the drain at the bottom of the vault and it overflowed. People called the sewer district. Three men and a service truck came out... They went down one at a time and died inside the vault. The soaked grass clipping fermented, consumed all of the oxygen in the vault and replaced it with CO2.
first 2 minutes there's your problem... agricultural gypsum (sulfate) in anaerobic conditions converts to H2S
what they smelled was H2S and they should've had SCBAs
in low concentration can smell, in high concentration impairs sense of smell
Thats the reason why H2S is such a dangerous gas. The owner should have known that! Also, why did so many workers entered the confined space? Max 2 persons; in case of emergency or questionable things going to stop working and inform your boss.
Thats what I learned while working in some chemical plants and refinerys.
APOKOLYPES true. As long as you can smell it, you’re probably OK. It’s when you stop smelling it that you’re screwed. In this case, the workers probably got a whiff of it before the concentration climbed to dangerous levels. Why they didn’t have a gas monitor, I’ll never know. (Or a whole host of other required safety gear for that matter.)
Ryarios you can still smell h2s up to 100ppm or so which can kill you. But yeah as long as you can smell it you’re good right?
"i smelled something funny" said first worker and collapsed
"cool" -said other workers, and climbed inside too (giggling like beavis and butthead)
Pull my finger.
@@ZorbaTheDutch i pulled your finger
huhuh uhhh huhuhuhhuhh huhuhuh hey beavis, what a dumbass huhuh we should like, pull him out. huhuh pull out huhuhuhuh
@@fabanano6158 can i join?
@@dickartist 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I'm laughing but I shouldn't be
"There's a funny smell in the shed, how about we all go in?"
Arthur from RD2: "I reckon I'll go...all in."
I tell my guys all the time, "Don't be the second victim. If you're not in the space, dont go in the space. You can't help if you're dead too."
That is very good advice.
The critical thing about this story is that this maintenance occured for years without issue and incident, because it was done outdoors with a constant fresh breeze.
This was the first time the pipe had been blocked since the construction of the shed, so I imagine the supervisor had never had the thought cross his mind. They mightve smelled it before when it was out in the open and had no procedure as there is virtually no threat. Carry that attitude into a different environment however, and you get events such as this
Why these guys were doing any of this without SCBA, harnesses and gas detectors is a joke! This company should be fined millions! I do confined entries everyday and this is the exact reason there is training involved!
Harnesses? Calm down, Clay.
@@JamesBiggar Harnesses are for rescue, you always wear a harness when working in confined spaces.
How about legitimate plant design in the first place. Would've negated need for confined space.
Quite aside from the H2S/oxygen deprivation situation, I'm still trying to work out why someone would build a pump shed that you had to climb down into from roof level. Could they not be bothered putting in a door at ground level? Was that deemed too expensive? Like, what the hell?
It is inside a containment dike. There is a low wall around the tanks to catch the contents should a tank rupture. in order to maintain the integrity of the dike, you have to climb up and over the wall.
… how are you supposed to get inside to service the pumps when it’s flooded?
the roof was at ground level
it appeared as though the pump shed was set below ground level, with the roof barely above that.
I was trained in confined space entry and rescue about 20 years ago. From the little information in this vid I can assume either the space wasn’t labeled as confined, or if it was, the workers either weren’t trained or ignored entry procedures. In any case, totally preventable. A heavy price to pay
Having been a mushroom grower for a number of years myself I find this unbelievable that this terrible tragedy happened in the first place.
Every single person that works on these facilities know exactly what happens with the build up of ammonia gases and how dangerous it is, the owners and managers should have been charged with manslaughter to say the very least. But that said every single person that works in these places know what to do and what not to do, the biggest no no was to remove the bolts, this facility should have had bypass valves in place and each person working within this plantroom should have been wearing a gas mask and rebreather plus protective clothing.
There's no excuse for incompetence at all EVER!!!
Since they tried this technique so efficiently I would bet a few dollars that they had done this before and may possibly have had results that weren't as catastrophic as this outcome. Businesses like this, I would suspect are running on a thin profit margin and it would have costed much more to bring in an outside crew to clear this valve. The lost production was on the back of the supervisors mind and also the owner. Now this is all conjecture but I'm reading in between the lines here.
Tragic that peoples lives are part of the cost of doing business and it's the workers responsibility to say, "Hell no. I'm not doing this."
Well its Canada..
So the odor that they inhaled is what killed them? What was that odor? Ammonia?
@@rickyaclickpowr2187 It was likely hydrogen sulfide, H2S. It will kill you faster than ammonia will and at lower concentrations.
They won’t be charged because they donate with their lobbyist. Politics pay no taxes and scapegoats for the rich.
Should have never converted it to a confined space. Should have just slinged a shade overhead to prevent water and snow from falling directly on to the pipes then fit the pipes with insulation and a pipe heater to keep them from freezing.
It would have been a confined space by definition without a shed around it. Gas and air testing lacked. Especially the environment given. They were in an environment NOT designed for continuous human occupancy.
Agree. Plus, bring air ventilation (or wear air supply) whenever work needs done in the soup(brown water) or with any pipes to/from.
zok310 plus gas monitors throughout the facility. They don't need to be all linked together to a computer system (would be nice but think of your house smoke detector). Gas monitors you wear on the body only needed when going to those parts of the system, required for sewer workers. As far as fresh air yeah an open bottom with grateing on the bottom, at least one open side, or those fana attached to ducts like those underground workers use. All affordable
Canary in a cage will do, like the coal mining days, if the canary finally shuts up you gtfo.
Near zero ventilation.along with no concentrate detection system in place spells disaster.
I’m starting to fall in love with all the safety and accident report videos on RUclips.
I really can't get over the quality of these accident reports.
You could literally just string these together into a reality show docu-drama about workplace accidents.
is this commander tuvok narrating
The second they said "strange smell" it was clear enough they were contending with H2S. Cramped quarters, no ventilation ... it's a recipe for disaster. These farms should be regulated to have SCBA onsite for this very reason. It isn't the first such accident of its kind. I recall seeing a report from elsewhere about two guys working underground to clear a pipe at a different farm. Vaguely similar situation and very similar outcome.
The root cause of this accident was improper facility design. The outlet of the process water tank should have been equipped with a macerator to grind up the solids in the sewage.
THIS is the kind of stuff they should teach in high school instead of yet another literature course. I imagine that if "accident investigation" was a mandatory course, this kinda stuff would be a lot rarer.
Good idea, actually. Students could analyze mistakes and imagine ways to prevent such accidents.
Good point. I was in an engineering class where we held a mock trial for the NASA staff who made the decision to launch the Challenger after adverse weather conditions, but maybe it could be made part of history or civics curriculum?
No reason not to have both. Teach kids about Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle.
buddy dont shit on literature
First rule of a confined space emergency, DON'T go in to rescue without an SCBA, or you're likely to be ANOTHER casualty. When the first worker went down the CORRECT thing to do would be to EXIT get an SCBA on and perform the rescue. If no SCBA was available, taking their chances, the other worker and Supervisor could have held their breath, made damn sure not to bend down too much (as the gas that likely displaced the oxygen, probably Methane, is heavier than air and pooled at the bottom of the shed), grab the downed worker and GOT THE HELL OUT OF THERE. This is an EPIC FAILURE of Training and Following Accepted Safety Procedures.
Ryan Taylor The person monitoring the entrance should never try to perform a rescue, their job is to monitor oxygen levels and call for help in an emergency. It sounds like this place didn’t have a confined space policy.
yeah rule number one when there is a gas leak, get everyone and get the hell out.
Ryan Taylor You know what they say, hindsight is 20/20
You can't hold your breath and help anyone
Well spoken! It seems that there was no safety training. Seriously, who goes into a building unprotected where another person has just keeled over? Yet numerous people went in and out!
In my mind, it was the building of the shed that set the stage for this. It seems little thought was given to the confined space hazard it created or the training the workers needed. The wall didn't help, but at least it was a larger area and not as confined.
H2S gas is too potent. You'd need a very high rate exhaust that is impractical. Gas masks much more sense.
my mother who is a scientist had worked with a farmer and his two sons once and was informed that the three of them had died. the farmer was working in a pit of manure and died from inhaling the toxic emanations. both his sons tried to go down and help him and died in the process. the farmer's wife found them a few hours later. what a horrifying sight it must have been.
I've watched everyone of these! Sad as they are, they are very well documented and useful!
this is why i work at walmart. dying on the job is one of the worst ways to go out man.
Poor man was just trying to save Augustus gloop
that's impossible my dear lady! absurd!
Agustus Gloop, silent, but deadly
Hydrogen sulfide is one of those smells you don’t forget. I worked at a garden center and we would drag all our old mulch beds out every spring and put in fresh pine mulch for the season. The mulch beds were placed on old tarmac back in the day so drainage isn’t great-they got watered through daily. By fall, when we turned the mulch to add new rows of trees, the hydrogen sulfide stench of rotting mulch and pine straw kicked you right in the head on a still day. I remember flipping over a big chunk of mulch and revealing a murky puddle and a smell so bad it made me dizzy. We were never in any danger because we were outside but good god does H2S have an unforgettable funk
It could have been any of a number of decomposition products, CO2, H2S, PH3, CO, CH4. Since worker 1 complained of a strange smell, I'd put my money on H2S.
Looks like you're right. Hydrogen Sulfide. "The release of gases from the piping system into the shed, a confined space, created a hazardous atmosphere consisting of hydrogen sulphide gas, oxygen deficiency, or a combination of the two."
I would agree with you. What they were doing was just crazy. If nothing else, that water has got to be toxic itself and it obviously was a confined space. Where was all the equipment needed for that? Sadly, I’ve seen dead bodies pulled out of confined spaces before. It’s not a pleasant feeling for anyone to see.
H2S is very common (inevitable even) in landfills with cellulose and gypsum. In fact I'd be as confident assuming H2S near an anaerobic digester with sulfate as assuming methane in a coal mine.
hydrogen sulfide?
Frank Roberts agreed
Excellent recreation video - absolutely mindblowing that such an easily avoidable tragedy still occured... but that's exactly why we have workplace safety organizations.
I always figured that in confined spaces where gases can form, install high volume emergency circulatory ventilator(s). Smash any of the big red buttons and the air in that space is totally replaced every 15 or less seconds. This system can auto trigger when it detects certain gases in specified concentrations. In this case it was H2S. You don't have much time to reach fresh air.
I cant believe the stupidity from everyone involved in this especially the supervisor. The guy smells something weird then passes out. Right away NO ONE should have entered that shed without full face mask . Also the shed should have had some type of ventilation that kicked on to vent it. Thats a horrible yet totally avoidable accident.
Its a wonder it wasn't some type of explosive gas.
Well, FYI H2S IS explosive too!
In nearly all situations these incidents can be blamed straight on to the employer. You have to get permits to build tanks like these, and in those permits, engineers determine the types of chemicals used. The chemicals running through the pipes can release deadly gases, and those gases are indicated on the permit report. It's up to the employer to then (when he receives and sign off on the permit) formulate some sort of safety standard to prevent loss of life in the event gasses, fluids, chemicals, or impact hazards are present. When guys die, it's because the employer doesn't want to spend the money on the safety equipment, and tosses the reports aside. In these cases the employer should be charged with multiple counts of manslaughter, but these companies literally get away with murder and are allowed to stay in business. This is the problem workBC has with fatalities. Another point to make here is that often, during maintenance of equipment and flow systems, the maintenance workers file a report to indicate things that need to be replaced. These reports are often tossed aside as the employer needs to make his lamboghini payment and doesn't want to have to spend $10,000 replacing a piece of pipe, a hose, or whatever. Also, supervisors are often pushed to see production at the carelessness of the employees health and safety, so often times fatalities are a result of supervisors not following LOTO procedures or pushing their guys to jump in a hole with potential chemicals/gasses without proper monitoring equipment and PPE. I'm actually a safety guru, I have worked on many jobsites, both everything ranging from industrial to residential, and I'm an absolute hawk when it comes to spotting safety infractions. I don't take any bullshit from anyone and I've gotten into screaming matches with foremen over safety standards, only to see those foremen fired the next day. I've never been wrong about safety and the safety standards are never too high. My life and the lives of the guys I work around are never held above the company owner making his hotrod payments. I will not see myself or anyone else for that matter die at the hands of a greedy corp owner. Hell no.
Another good and very quick example of rushing a job and ignoring safety standards. 2 weeks ago where I live, a roofer came to bang off a job so he could start fresh on the next building the following monday. He left his home and went to work on a rainy sunday night, without telling anyone where he was going. He climbed up on the roof and was one of the "old boys" from back in the day that yelled at his guys to just GIT'R DUN. Well low and behold, he was doing a roofing job by himself (safety infraction #1), on a rainy day, with no harness (infraction #2), without telling anyone he was gone to work as a roofer (infraction #3). He fell off the roof and died. So there you have it. It's sad to see a guy die, but pushy bosses and foremen that push their guys into safety incidents deserve everything they got coming to them.
I worked at a foundry. They did castings in a non oxygen environment below grade. There were two employees that had a feud. They got in a fight and both ended up in the below grade space. Died in this way. We think the one knocked the one down. Reconsidered a murder charge and went down to get him. He died.
I’m reminded of the workers who climbed into a metal compartment inside a large ship. The rust covering all the surfaces in the previously sealed compartment had absorbed all the oxygen resulting in multiple deaths.
Findings as to causes:
*Hazardous gases were released when the blocked pipe was disconnected at the valve. Anaerobic conditions in the process water recycling system had resulted in the production of hazardous gases, including hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide.
*The release of gases from the piping system into the shed, a confined space, created a hazardous atmosphere consisting of hydrogen sulphide gas, oxygen deficiency, or a combination of the two.
Findings as to underlying factors:
*Straw and sludge blocked the intake pipe. The system did not prevent solids from entering the system and there was no maintenance program to manage the solids and sludge.
*Anaerobic conditions (without oxygen) developed in the process water recycling system when composting production was reduced.
*There were no features incorporated to keep the process water uniformly aerated, and as a result the process water became stagnant.
*There were missed opportunities that might have prevented the development of hazardous conditions that led to this incident.
Minimal attention was paid to occupational health and safety at this workplace.
H2S is scary stuff. Youre either alive and theres not enough in the air, or theres just enough and your done. The first breath doesnt kill you, the second one does.
and *YOU'RE done ....not your.
@@deirdrekiely6187you're right about that.
Im shocked how entertaining I found this channel to be. lol love it. And as investigations go, these were top of the game on this accident.
Similar accidents happen in manure storage units on farms, and inside manure spreading trailer tanks. With multiple deaths involving failed rescues. One of the fundamental dangers is that only carbon dioxide makes you feel short of breath, concentrations of other gas don't. You will only feel yourself losing consciousness, with the risk being if you don't detect it fast enough. Very unfortunate. Accidental discharges of refrigeration gases are a similar threat.
This animation and explanation is excellent.
Very clear and easy for the layman to understand
What a shame, all of this could have been avoided with increased awareness through even a little training.
Some confined spaces can be tricky because they don’t seem like what we think as confined space.
These worksafe videos are excellent for case studies!!
Working in an Oil Refinery for a lot of years I know about danger. It’s too easy to get complacent and make mistakes. Truthfully , we should have gone over real accidents in our industry and others. Lot of guys had close calls but were too embarrassed to talk about it or feared getting in trouble.
Been working at hazardous jobs since I was 18.. first thing they train you on is don't rush in to save someone get help first. Also good example of why fire department and ems travel together in a lot of states.
Conclusions
Findings as to causes:
Hazardous gases were released when the blocked pipe was disconnected at the valve. Anaerobic conditions in the process water recycling system had resulted in the production of hazardous gases, including hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide.
The release of gases from the piping system into the shed, a confined space, created a hazardous atmosphere consisting of hydrogen sulphide gas, oxygen deficiency, or a combination of the two.
Findings as to underlying factors
Straw and sludge blocked the intake pipe. The system did not prevent solids from entering the system and there was no maintenance program to manage the solids and sludge.
Anaerobic conditions (without oxygen) developed in the process water recycling system when composting production was reduced. There were no features incorporated to keep the process water uniformly aerated, and as a result the process water became stagnant.
There were missed opportunities that might have prevented the development of hazardous conditions that led to this incident.
Minimal attention was paid to occupational health and safety at this workplace.
From the report: "... hazardous gases, including hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide.
..The release of gases from the piping system into the shed, a confined space, created a hazardous atmosphere consisting of hydrogen sulphide gas, oxygen deficiency, or a combination of the two."
Thank God for the knowledgeable EMS!
if there is a god why do we need EMS ?
Right... good on your god. The rest of us rely on education.
So many things could have prevented this tragedy.
1) Breathing Apparatus
2) Safety Harness for removing collapsed workers
3) Emergency ventilation equipment
Probably a lot more that a better trained person than I would notice. But the most important thing was identifying, training and preparing for the hazards in this location, which sounds like it wasn't done or allowed to lapse. There was also the fact that so much of the design of this facility was flawed.
Another thing that could have prevented this tragedy was if the workers were trained in how to handle confined space emergencies and if they were also Trained to not enter a confined space to preform a rescue unless they were properly trained and equipped to do so.
We hauled out all the liquids from that place after this accident that was a long process working with hazco to remove everything
The US CSB Videos are awesome!
Worked at j&m farms in miami oklahoma in the watering department. Had to pass couple of chemical certification classes.
Crazy our system was nothing like this. We used tanks that we pulled around. We filled them with water ourselves and added chemicals. Im thankful. It was that way now. After seeing this.
I wish I could hear the owner's call to 911. As a 911 dispatcher myself, depending on what was said could have changed the situation drastically. There's a HUGE difference in emergency response between "One of my workers just passed out" and "One of my workers was clearing a pipe and collapsed after he saying smelled something strange". I'm not saying its a fault of the owner, but it gives you an idea of how much information can be lost when relayed from another person and not being on scene yourself. If the supervisor had just told him "hey chuck just passed out" then there is no indication of the hazardous leak. My bottom line is, if you work on an industrial site or anything similar and you have to call 911, context can save lives.
Wow, I never thought that working with mushrooms can be deadly.
Yes commercial mushroom farms can be a dangerous place to work at but it can be rewarding.
Thanks Mr Roboto.
If you say this title one word at a time, the suspense just builds and builds
Knowing how to identify risks in the work place is a life saving skill. I've worked in restaurants and industrial settings. Both are equally dangerous. It always surprises me how people don't take the time to walk around a new work place and think... how could I die here, how could this be safer? You, with a fresh set of eyes on a situation, might even spot risks that people either have not noticed or have grown complacent with the added risk because "nothing has happened yet". Don't be that statistic, think for yourself and know when to speak up.
Wow... The lack of confined space entry protocol is amazing
There wasnt a sharpest tool in the shed...
Ah, not like a gas that is invisible and destroys your sense of smell killed these guys or anything. No you're right let's keep making fun of people that died just trying to make a living.
THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH 4 UPLOAD
what this channel has taught me is never try to unblock a pipe under any circumstances
Why no mechanical ventilation?
Or air alarms?
Probably because they had no idea that a hazardous confined space condition could develop? They make mushroom compost, not refine hazardous chemicals. Simple ignorance to the hazard is completely plausible, despite hindsight being 20/20.
I have an FOI and I remember them stressing that you never go back in to try to retrieve someone suffering from hazardous gas exposure. They messed up by not installing a proper ventilation system for that shed. With enough outside air being pumped in it wouldn't have been a problem.
What a waste.. what a waste.... These men didn't deserve to die this way...
This is a great educational video. Thank you for taking the time.
Hopefully People can have better anititive than to call someone else to call 911.
guy passes out in shed, instead of getting him out, the other worker and supervisor enter, then all the other workers enter the shed too....
stupidity
If there's anything I've learned from watching these it's that you always want to be "the supervisor"
@totallymassive Seems to me the video was just keeping consistent with the official accident report, which kept most names anonymous, and that report in turn did so to be compliant with BC privacy law.
So the supervisor got out immediately yet still sent others in ?
This reminds me of that Amish tragedy where one after the other went to rescue a family member that passed out in a dairy farm sewage tank.
Not the way I wanna go.
Must look that un up!
Sadly this happens pretty regularly, even in the present day.
Who doesn't know that if you open something and fumes escape then a co worker collapses to get your buddy and your butt out of there?
Kinda sad but they should have known better. We can only hope that the families at least got a decent compensation.
They could have installed a isolated strainer/ basket in the return line ahead of the suction inlet of the gaseous water mixture pump. Also what I completely do not understand is why no proper drainage in the walled in area or even use a sloped foundation drainage to a sump pump along with a high water level alarm for pump failure redundancy.
Even I know it would’ve been a bad idea to just open pipes in enclosed spaces. It’s kind of common sense, a toxic or hazardous atmosphere can be created. They should’ve known better as well considering the contents inside the pipe is waste. It sounds rude, but you really think people would know better. Guess not. I could already tell what was going to happen right when they mentioned the workers trying to open the pipe. “Oh yeah, fumes escape, they inhale it and people inside die and more as well in an attempt to help them” it’s pretty common.
The narrator sounds like a fungi.
The vehicles look so cute, the way they scoot up to help people lol.
Man these people were ignorant. Went into a confined space full of hydrogen sulfide vapors and then decided to just hang out inside even after they saw the gas's effects on their coworker.
This seems like one of those "the mistake was made a long time ago and nobody made any knowing errors once the problem started." kinda things. The boss called 911, the worker reported the strange smell immediately, the supervisor didn't tell them to tough it out. Someone just never knew the chemistry of the situation.
No, there was a lot of fail here on the part of the company and the workers. The company should understand its processes and the byproducts from them enough to know the environmental dangers. The workers should not act like lemmings and just jump into teh deadly gas pit one after another without proper protective gear. If that wasn't available, see issue 1 again.
They should have been wearing an air monitor if they were in a confined space.
I guess you could say that in that line of work, there isn’t...MUSHROOM for error.
Never know when the algorithm is gonna hit you with a banger
So no mention of the cause of foul air, most likely hydrogen sulphide. The smell of rotten eggs is what the first person most likely noticed. Or what to do in this event (leave area immediately).
So gases from organic decomposition killed them???
yes
Just by lack of oxygen, methane (CH4) isn't dangerous ti breathe
To*
0.08% and 0.1%
H2S only takes about 400 ppm for IDLH. Some can smell it at 1ppm, but you stop smelling it after a short time.
I think that was a shity supervisor
Exactly. What expertise are they claiming to supervise over others? The don't know what the materials are or the hazards, and they call the boss before dialing 911. Infuriating.
not only that, he called his boss to call 911, he should be the one calling the emergency, probably cutting the response time by 5-10 min and he should have been educated in cpr.
He may have been disoriented himself, confusion and poor judgement is one of the first symptoms of oxygen deprivation. People usually die because they don't realize until they begin to get lightheaded and faint then its too late. As someone who has experienced breathing distress, for a few seconds you are trying to figure out what is wrong, then you panic but you struggle to figure out what to do and it feels like your mind is spinning, then you get this rush of euphoria a sense of profound well-being but then you brain kind of fights between that and survival instinct and by the time you go through that your hearing fades in and out and you get tunnel vision and then your muscles get weak and you fall down and pass out and unless someone can help you you're dead. It is the strangest thing to breathe air, but not get oxygen, when you have just breathed normally w/out thinking. Sometimes it is like you brain just refuses to believe you or someone else could die that what happen when you live a foam padded life like in the western world.
As soon as those guys got a good wiff of the H2S gas coming from the pipe, they were done. A few minutes and CPR wouldn't have changed that. I agree that he/they should've gotten everyone else out if they couldn't get the first guy out. They obviously had no idea how dangerous a gas they were exposed to though.
It sounds incredibly callus, but if you want to stop 2 out of every 3 confined space deaths, let the first guy die. I've seen this everywhere from inside chemical plants to gas releases on roadways. Someone sees someone else go down, they rush in to help, and they go down too. There are several examples of such in the USCSB videos, and a famous one of a cop rushing to save a driver after that driver overturned the ammonia tank he was hauling. Whole department got to listen to that mans last breaths. If you don't know why the first guy went down in a confined space, or see someone go down in a gas cloud, don't just rush in. Chances are they'll be pulling your body out too, and additional victims help no one.
Any supervisor worth his salt would have stood upwind at a safe distance and made other people go into the shed to eyeball the problem.
Sad thing with dangerous gases in confined spaces is that once you are unconscious and cant stop yourself from breathing in more of it, you really only have a couple of minutes and you are finished. Emergency services (unless stationed at the work site in the form of a rescue team) will rarely arrive, asses and compile a rescue plan on time to save you. Its a horrible situation for everyone.
It's crazy to think that their first reaction was "flip him over and lean him against the wall" and not "let's get him out of the shed, I'll call 911 while you call the owner."
Yea right? "Sir, i smell something funny.... drops dead"
"Ok guys, let's prop him up and hangout while we call 911..."
They knew that if he was face down in the water he would drown. They didn't know that he had already stopped breathing. There are lots of reasons why someone can pass out and without training you would never guess that all the air had been displaced and that what you were breathing was something that did not have oxygen in it.
When it started talking about removing bolts. I said to myself “This is going to be good”
Holy shit the amount of fail here. If there's a chance that you're gonna be stirring up H2S then you should be using a SCBA. As a kid, I learned that you NEVER go into a septic tank/cesspool. I don't care if you give it cute names like "process water" or "brown water tank", it's still an industrial cesspool so it's probably not a good idea to be going in there without some sort of protection. Finally, after 7 people went in the shed and only 2 of them barely made it back out, the ladder team should have known better than to go down there, and should have been stopped by the owner and anyone else still conscious and not in Lemmings mode. Sounds like this place had a severe lack of PPE, or just a non-existent health and safety program.
Lack of any education.... very sad. It’s basic emergency response. You DON’T go into an area in order to rescue someone without first making sure you won’t simply be another person needing rescue
At my job, If someone collapsed in a confined space, we’re not allowed to go get them because they collapsed for a reason.
An investigation without an investigative conclusion. Cmon.
Thanks for watching. Please find the incident investigation report summary link in the video description or here: www.worksafebc.com/en/resources/health-safety/incident-investigation-report-summaries/hazardous-atmosphere-at-mushroom-composting-facility?lang=en. You can also find the cause below the video in the pinned comment.