I must thoroughly commend the CSB. No other organization that I know of produces such concise and informative documentaries that even a layman can understand with regards to what occurred during a particular industrial accident(s).
Absolutely. The production is top notch, they include root cause analysis, conclusions and recommendations, and still somehow manage to keep them concise! Remarkable.
Dumb: Connecting hydrocarbon tanks with unvalved straight pipes that ensure flame propagation from on tank to the next. Dumber: That ladder trick. Asinine beyond belief: "Hey, let's use an open flame to test for a flammable atmosphere in this tank!"
I had to restart this video a couple of times to make it through to the end - my brain stopped processing when I heard "used an acetylene torch to test for flammable atmosphere".... 😮 Composed myself & started again until "two workers stood on one end of the ladder".....😲...😣
I have been criticized of using smoke to test smoke detectors.. I'm not sure it's relevant. A gas detector is $4. I'm looking at a bag full of them right now...
There are several points in this video where they could have paused and I would have said "surely THAT'S what killed someone". Check for flammables with an oxyacetylene torch? Two guys standing on a ladder as a platform? It's almost ridiculous that a supervisor was killed because it's a wonder there was even a supervisor present.
It's like that old Bugs Bunny cartoon where he's working a munitions line (during WW2) and checking for duds by striking artillery shells on the nose with a mallet.
The supervisor was like 21 years old, family owned and operated and to become the supervisor wasn't about what you know but who you know. I worked there as my first job. Luckily I'm alive and was running an amine pipeline with other crew in Columbia
Yep, everything they did was just the worst and dumbest decision they could have possibly made at the time. Not a single brain cell between them. Absolutely amazing.
Watching through all of the CSB's videos I start to find three categories: guiltless tragedies that occured because a risk was overlooked or not thought of, e.g. the chlorine release or the reboiler explosion, incidents caused by criminal negligence, such as the BP Texas City explosion and straight up stupidity, like the firework disposal or this thing right here.
Dont forget the propane mishap CSB video (30 Seconds to Tragedy) in Ghent, West Virginia that blew up the Little General and somehow didn't kill any of the people that SEALED THEMSELVES inside the gas station during a severe propane leak
I was gonna say...these workers are straight out of a 3 Stooges episode...but where they die instead of developing alcoholism. "Let's see if there's gas in here that could blow us up by seeing if it ignites with this torch and blows us up..." The logic escapes me.
I saw an interesting comment of the firework video, about the reason behind the disastrously unsafe disposal method being that the employees were familiar with military explosives, which behave very differently to gunpowder used in fireworks. Not sure how true that is, but i found it interesting that it might not be the result of stupidity.
@@mina47879 If they had any training on military explosives they should however have known how differently different explosives behave. Afterall they would not only deal with their own bombs and grenades, but also with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) planted by the enemy, made with all sorts of explosives, be it industrial or homemade. It is true though. TNT, composite explosives and the like are remarkably unsensitive to fire and impact. You can jump on a block of TNT, you can drop a match on it, nothing will happen. You need a small initial detonation from a blasting cap, sometimes even a booster charge, to properly set it off. Gunpowder on the other hand will readily ignite from just a tiny static discharge from wearing a fleece pullover.
@@whynotjustmyusername Why would the military ship IEDs to Hawai'i for disposal? A US based disposal group is going to be specialized in dealing with stuff that the US produces for its own use.
"Hey guys, what if, uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh, you maybe tried not welding gas containers while they contain flammable gasses?" I normally don't do misanthropy, but the fact that this needs to be said is just depressing.
"To stabilize the ladder 2 workers stood on top of one end"... you can't be serious! If that's the normal working practice for these guys then you have something coming...sorry to say.
A friend liked to say "incompetent" as in "an incompetent" (using it as a noun). Seems appropriate for many of the "procedures/incidents" discussed from the CSB, especially (but not limited to) the oil field examples.
Yeah, a lot of "accidents" are caused because some exec somewhere decided it was more cost effective to pay out a couple fines and settlements than to invest in safety measures. The companies in this video obviously didn't invest in any sort of training or even apparently proper scaffolding. With the supervisor right there, it's obvious this was standard procedure. Sure, these guys are being kinda dumb, but they were rushing and being told to do these things by the supervisor...because it's more cost effective.
Let’s not make fun or say condescending things about the workers. Obviously, this practice was commonly used. I was trained to drive an 18 wheeler over 9 years ago and you wouldn’t believe the challenges I faced trying to tell my instructor what was dangerous and wrong.
@@Olivia-W.. "practice is not great, but"... Do you even read your own rubbish? Lacking standards are the core reason for all to many accidents. Have fun, working class hero!
@@OmmerSyssel Hey, uh... thanks for assuming my position- bit of a miss on that one though. You are right, however, standards should be followed, as not doing so is a big part of many, many accidents. That said, in _this particular case,_ that _one_ action was not necessarily that terrible.
Agreed. We must remember two things here: 1) It is only appropriate to look for fault or become discipline once you have established that all safety systems in place were not flawed. Systems isn’t just machinery, but the entire management, training, and hazard reporting process. 2) Management cannot conduct operations using primarily human factors for safety management, as any system that relies on human behavior is inherently unreliable.
This was in 2006. It was common to use a torch to check for LEL?(lower explosive limit) I’ve been in refineries over 15 years and every time I went into a confined space, a gas monitor was used. This is sad. Sorry for the loss of the workers.
@@antoy384 I graduated in 4 years with a BA in Marketing Communications yet I still worked in the oilfield for over 2 years. I keep drafting messages and deleting them. The straight and honest truth is that people die and get mangled in the oilfield way more than what is most likely reported. I have a plethora of experiences that still haunt me. I worked at a rig site that had been tested positive for H2S2 recently and a 3rd party had to be called in to shadow while we worked to keep testing to see if any levels were present. By the way, H2S2 will KILL you if you breath in a couple parts per million. Another time, the rig site was replacing old tanks. Therefore, we brought our cranes in and loaded them on a flatbed. They were 12 foot tanks. I had to climb up a ladder that was placed on top of the trailer to the top of this tank to spin off the swivel. On my way down on the first step, the ladder slipped and my arm got slashed on the sharp edge of the tank. Luckily, after my arm got sliced on the way down, I kicked off the tank and landed on my side. My arm was bleeding really, really badly and I still have the scars to prove it. I didn't report the accident because I wanted the hours and the money but everyone there that was with me talked about the accident and therefore I had to work in our shop area at our home base for the next week or two while I healed up. Damn. There's too many stories of injuries, close calls and what not because that's essentially the nature of the business when most of the people working in this industry are ex meth addicts and convicts. The last day my hand almost got crushed and a 50,000 pound compressor almost got dropped on top of me by an inexperienced crane operator and had to jump over a containment wall. After that, I called it quits. Probably had PTSD for quite sometime thereafter. The oilfield is no joke.
@@EnjoyLife-sg3kt certainly is no joke. I work in power plants,chemical plants,and refineries. I’ve seen water jetting shotguns cut feet off,super sucker vacuum truck hoses leach on to peoples legs,backsides hit with blast guns,ive seen a 500 LB chunk of aluminum fly passed my buddy’s head and had to report a near miss and immediately take a drug test even tho it was another guys fault who was welding above him WITH NO PERMIT! In this game,if u fuck up,u move up. Not to mention the sacrifice is terrible in them safety suits in mid summer scorching southern heat. We work 15 minute rotations for water. One guy had a heat stroke back to back in one day and a guy and his son fell through kyger creek power plant skylights to their deaths. It’s crazy out here. Not for the faint of heart. I’m only 25 but plan on retiring out here
Generally true...absolutely. But it may not have made a difference in this case, as a partially filled tank was directly connected (with no valve!) to the one they were standing on.
@@mercoid it might have since you can supply enough flow and pressure to keep the flammable gas in the other tank and the inert gas wouldnt allow a combustible atmosphere.
Simon Deng it's one of them small old Town oil fields they have no rules I bet lots of drugs and alcohol believe me I come from history boom in North Texas it's dangerous here that's why I'd rather go to West Texas
The old torch test is serving two purposes. One, it tests for vapors. Two, it gets rid of any vapors that are present. Oh, and three, it makes for good drinking stories. RIP
I'd be very cautious to blame the workers first! - It is ALWAYS a management and training issue with ANY activity at ANY job! - The series of failures leading to this accident stem from a breakdown in the management of the job site. TRAIN, TRAIN, TRAIN your people! - Most times these issues are also the result of rushing to meet deadlines or cut corners due to budget or time constrains. But the price as we see is incalculable for the worker and their family.
@@Syclone0044 ok you do have a point (albeit with sarcasm) indeed workers share a great deal of responsibility with any job. However, as I said it’s a management problem when you also don’t hold them accountable and whenever possible certify them. People tend to lose respect for their daily tasks for many reasons and that will catch up with you. Thank you for the reply
@@peek2much3 Greetings from maintenance safety in railway. Risks of all kind have to be assessed, classified, and all that potentially cause hazards and might happen every x years have to be managed. As in, depending on the potential severity, you need to implement things like check lists, 4 eye principle, safe preparation procedures etc. for all parts of the work. In that matter, yes, all hazards are a management failure. If it's a previously unknown error, no one is to blame, but the new learned "lesson" has to be shared within the whole industry and relevant government bodies. More often it's not really a new issue, just lack of time and expertise when writing the maintenance plan, and pressure / stress when executing the maintenance. Just observations in my railway bubble, I'm sure there are studies and statistics about the most typical human causes of hazards. Long story short: It's almost always a management issue. But of course the worker plays an important part in the safety plan, as he is the one actually using all his senses and experience to notice if sth. weird happens.
My first job was with this company at the age of 18. Luckily I was with the other crew. That welder was the eldest in the company. The young men that died RIP. The welder he survived.
The care and supervision which is typical of a refinery site does not often happen in small sites of on-land production units. We must become very vigilant in these small remote sites. Same comments can be applied to farm tank repairs.
i mean, most people who say that aren't referring to obviously significantly important safety guidelines, and are referring more to things like licencing requirements for cutting hair in several states that takes $10k+ and >100 hours of schooling, which does nothing but stifle people's ability to compete with existing hairdressers while providing only tiny amounts of useful additional knowledge.
This is much cheaper than following safety rules. Many companies contract with labor companies because they don't have to pay for insurance and retirement benefits. When the lawsuits come the company files for bankruptcy and the executives start a new company. No one ever faces criminal charges. This is a key reason why there are no unions in the oil industry.
checking for explosive vapors inside a huge empty flammable storage tank by using an open flame and working off a ladder while two people stand on the other end of it 50' up .......... I don't understand what possibly went wrong.....
Many of these companies, and contractors need to adopt CRM, (Cockpit Resource Management) which encourages workers to speak up, if there's any doubt about a potential hazard. The PanAm, KLM collision on the runway in the Canary Islands is a perfect example not wanting to question a shortcut, or unsafe practice!
Agreed - and regular external auditing with actual visits of the work (rarely happens in my sector). Because besides the fear to speak up, people also simply get used to unsafe standards, until they appear not worth mentioning anymore. My favourite case was a train workshop, where maintenance workers without the proper training would drive trains back and forth on the company property area - because it was quicker and more fun than the existing safe alternatives. The management interestingly had only agreed to that practice orally, so when we finally found out about it, it was very hard to pin it to any of the managers. We learned about it when two younger workers, due to lack of training, drove a train on an unsafe part of the track, causing a light bow from the strong current above, what could've easily killed them.
@@jonmeray713 If it were anything like mine, you had to sit through several hours of safety videos which quite predominantly displayed blood, severed limbs, and disfigured body parts. They do that to scare you, because fear keeps you alive.
Yet the plumber who hooked up the gas line in our kitchen years ago tested for leaks with a match. No shit. A fucking match, to check for a natural gas leak.
The fatality rate is higher in the oilfield industry than in the American workplace in general?!? I'm SHOCKED!!! I figured a desk job was more dangerous!!! :)
They talk about training, and yet, here I am, with ZERO training, and ZERO experience in the oil industry (although I have worked as a welder in manufacturing), but I had no trouble seeing every single dangerous aspect of this event with nothing more than common sense. The level of ignorance exhibited by those workers is incomprehensible.
Dude I’m just a fabricator but even just doing that, I saw everything wrong as they were doing it. Anyone who knows how to use a torch should know that’s a stupid idea, yeah it should just WOOF out of the opening but there’s flammable vapors everywhere, why risk it? Nitrogen is cheap, just fill up the tank to displace the oxygen, and I would have definitely checked for vents on openings in the tanks before I lit a flame or struck an arc. We won’t even get into the ladder stupidity….
People who are found to be responsible for fatal accidents due to negligence should be held criminally liable, then the frequency of these accidents might go down.
I know that it is an old oil field... but I never imagined an oil field in the US to look that ramshackle... And I never expected workers to pull stunts like that pretty "creative" use of a ladder as a platform.
Im from and live in Raleigh, ms and this oil well is located on a old dirt road called Boykin church road. This road is cursed. In the early 1800s the kkk went and locked the doors on the church one sunday morning *this was a black church and burned it to the ground. After that a man was hung from the bridge on the road. The church was planned to be rebuilt but never was all that sits on the site is a gutted hull of what was a church and a cemetery. It is the most scaryest place in smith county and my mom stepdad little brother and sister went there on Halloween 2 years ago and recorded a figure of what appears to be a man hanging from the bridge.
Good thing they had a 'supervisor' on hand to green light that trick with the ladder. Well, he did have the guy clip on his harness. But checking for flammable vapors with a lit torch?
hello, is it possible to buy the 3-dvd CSB safety videos compilation? the CSB website says to fill out a "dvd request form" but I couldn't find it anywhere. thank you.
'Used a lit oxyacetylene torch to check for flammable vapours..' Holy shit, I have no words.. This is why Peanut packets have 'warning contains nuts' written on them.
A nut warning for the nutheads 😆 But you are 100% right If you watch the Videos Here you understand why we have warnings Like a Microwave ist Not for drying your pets, warning the Coffee is hot and so on
I wonder, just how much of this so-called prosperous land is in short a bunch of little kids playing store? I've been watching a lot of these CSB videos.
I don't know what the fourth man was for sure, but three of them were named Larry, Moe, and Curly. The Fourth guy might have been Shemp. I don't mean to make light of this accident, but this crew was an accident looking for a place to happen.
After watching these for a long enough time, all you have to get to is "there was crude oil in another storage tank nearby," and the chain of events become very clear. Why can't people actually learn from mistakes?
Unfortunately other societal watchdogs are not looked at favorably by political/business interests and their functions are also being defunded in so-called interest of decreasing big intrusive government.
These are very well done. Unfortunately, the default attitude from many companies and workers is that of ignorance, getting the job done quickly with safety being considered an annoyance.
I thought the 2 workers holding the ladder in place would be blasted into the air by the exploding storage tank they're standing directly on top of, and then going splat as soon as they run out of upward momentum, fall back to earth, and be instantly killed on impact with the ground below
30 years in the petrol chemical industry and I have seen some really dumb things, done some really dumb things, but this just blew my fucking mind... That was a "holy shit" video, and I am dumbfounded... 3 men lost their lives...
This is incredible. So many clear safety issues with every step of this process. Glad we are reforming, but management will always risk lives for money. After all, just ask Ford.
I worked in the refineries for 10 years as a pipefitter. I always thought "how are not people dying everyday or explosions everyday". Dangerous is a under statement. I been out for 4 years and been thinking of going back I miss it! Then these videos from some reason started popping up in my feed. Weird lol. I still might go back but these videos gives me second thoughts....
The subcontractor obviously didn't take safety seriously. Two guy's standing on a ladder while the third guy worked off it, and checking for explosive fumes with a cutting torch? Wow.
This channel has been the coolest government sponsored one I've found.
the ONLY one.. :)
The Farmacy Seeds Network NTSB? FAA? or would you prefer to fly in any airplane someone put together in the barn over the weekend?
Yes watching horrible, deadly accidents is sooooo cool. #CurbYourDumbassery
@@wappaman1784 people getting hurt isn't the cool part
@@luke7522 yes it is.
I must thoroughly commend the CSB. No other organization that I know of produces such concise and informative documentaries that even a layman can understand with regards to what occurred during a particular industrial accident(s).
I totally agree. I just wish they had more teeth. Hats off to the CSB.
Also kept short enough that they could be used for training.
Every Republican voter who talks about "too much regulation" needs to be forced to watch these.
Absolutely. The production is top notch, they include root cause analysis, conclusions and recommendations, and still somehow manage to keep them concise! Remarkable.
Their target audience is the managers in charge of the activities that lead up to the accidents. I think the vids might be a little to intellectual...
Ahh yes, I recognize the "blow yourself up with a torch" test for vapors... WTF?
Unbelievable in beyond Year 2000, isn't it?
We are thinking in 2020 they are thinking in 3000
Galactic stupidity. RIP but..... smh
Darwin awards abound on this one...
Yeah I was thinking what would have happened had they done the blowtorch test on the tank that ended blowing up.
“Is this gun loaded? Let’s see.”
The ladder stunt was also ridiculous. Buffoonery all around.
Not as much as open sparks into an OPEN/ CONNECTED PIPE that obviously would have had a strong smell without gas detector
It's cool bro, he had fall protection on lmfao
It probably saved the life of that welder. One look at that "platform" he was supposed to work on and I bet he tied off tight.
@@gloomyblackfur399 Indeed, that welder was probably the only professional tradesmen in the group.
@@TEverettReynolds
Apart from using the lit torch to see if any vapour in the tank
Dumb: Connecting hydrocarbon tanks with unvalved straight pipes that ensure flame propagation from on tank to the next.
Dumber: That ladder trick.
Asinine beyond belief: "Hey, let's use an open flame to test for a flammable atmosphere in this tank!"
Holy shit
The fuckery that day did not fail to amaze
I had to restart this video a couple of times to make it through to the end - my brain stopped processing when I heard "used an acetylene torch to test for flammable atmosphere".... 😮
Composed myself & started again until "two workers stood on one end of the ladder".....😲...😣
to be fair; the tanks in the animation were much farther apart than in reality. It wasn't that dangerous at all considering he was harnessed.
'Acetylene torch used as a gas detector". Darwin strikes again.
I have been criticized of using smoke to test smoke detectors..
I'm not sure it's relevant. A gas detector is $4. I'm looking at a bag full of them right now...
Or using oxygene from that same torch to blow your coverall off and or working space...😭🤪
@@mattlogue1300 smoke doesn't start a fire or cause an explosion.. depending on how you MADE the smoke?
Genius
It does work, and it also clears the area
I will give my employer props for showing us these videos.
Good job.
There are several points in this video where they could have paused and I would have said "surely THAT'S what killed someone". Check for flammables with an oxyacetylene torch? Two guys standing on a ladder as a platform? It's almost ridiculous that a supervisor was killed because it's a wonder there was even a supervisor present.
It's like that old Bugs Bunny cartoon where he's working a munitions line (during WW2) and checking for duds by striking artillery shells on the nose with a mallet.
This made me laugh, I was thinking the same thing
The supervisor was like 21 years old, family owned and operated and to become the supervisor wasn't about what you know but who you know. I worked there as my first job. Luckily I'm alive and was running an amine pipeline with other crew in Columbia
@OG Zephyr not real funny. Young men killed.
Yep, everything they did was just the worst and dumbest decision they could have possibly made at the time. Not a single brain cell between them. Absolutely amazing.
**Using a lit torch to check for flammable vapors**
OSHA: "i sleep"
**Improper use of a ladder**
OSHA: "REAL SHIT"
Watching through all of the CSB's videos I start to find three categories: guiltless tragedies that occured because a risk was overlooked or not thought of, e.g. the chlorine release or the reboiler explosion, incidents caused by criminal negligence, such as the BP Texas City explosion and straight up stupidity, like the firework disposal or this thing right here.
Dont forget the propane mishap CSB video (30 Seconds to Tragedy) in Ghent, West Virginia that blew up the Little General and somehow didn't kill any of the people that SEALED THEMSELVES inside the gas station during a severe propane leak
I was gonna say...these workers are straight out of a 3 Stooges episode...but where they die instead of developing alcoholism. "Let's see if there's gas in here that could blow us up by seeing if it ignites with this torch and blows us up..."
The logic escapes me.
I saw an interesting comment of the firework video, about the reason behind the disastrously unsafe disposal method being that the employees were familiar with military explosives, which behave very differently to gunpowder used in fireworks. Not sure how true that is, but i found it interesting that it might not be the result of stupidity.
@@mina47879 If they had any training on military explosives they should however have known how differently different explosives behave. Afterall they would not only deal with their own bombs and grenades, but also with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) planted by the enemy, made with all sorts of explosives, be it industrial or homemade.
It is true though. TNT, composite explosives and the like are remarkably unsensitive to fire and impact. You can jump on a block of TNT, you can drop a match on it, nothing will happen. You need a small initial detonation from a blasting cap, sometimes even a booster charge, to properly set it off. Gunpowder on the other hand will readily ignite from just a tiny static discharge from wearing a fleece pullover.
@@whynotjustmyusername Why would the military ship IEDs to Hawai'i for disposal? A US based disposal group is going to be specialized in dealing with stuff that the US produces for its own use.
"Hey guys, what if, uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh, you maybe tried not welding gas containers while they contain flammable gasses?"
I normally don't do misanthropy, but the fact that this needs to be said is just depressing.
Larry, Moe, Curly & Shemp Pipefitting Welding, and Makshift Rocketry LLC.
Three people died jerk, how dare you make me laugh at this!
Highly underrated comment
Hahaha!
@@TheTrainChasingPoet1999 He was joking.
Dark, but still funny. I like that.
"Let's make sure this thing isn't flammable by trying to make it explode. Wouldn't want it to explode, after all!"
"To stabilize the ladder 2 workers stood on top of one end"... you can't be serious! If that's the normal working practice for these guys then you have something coming...sorry to say.
Absolute hacks.
Here in darkest Africa we put dry ice in tanks like this to fill them with co2 instead of using an oxy acetylene torch!
thats more brain power than 90% of management here in the U.S.
That's a good idea.
Inerting the tank FTW!
There u go
That's brilliant
unbelievable, that in spite of many similar accidents, these tragedies still occur. hopefully, somebody somewhere will learn from this tragedy.
They need to stop using the term "accident" when referring to incidents that are caused by poor practices and are preventable.
You're right. 'Incident' is more accurate. Watching these videos makes me shake my head in frustration that so many people work so stupidly.
There's a saying
"Accidents don't just happen, accidents are caused!"
A friend liked to say "incompetent" as in "an incompetent" (using it as a noun). Seems appropriate for many of the "procedures/incidents" discussed from the CSB, especially (but not limited to) the oil field examples.
Yeah, a lot of "accidents" are caused because some exec somewhere decided it was more cost effective to pay out a couple fines and settlements than to invest in safety measures.
The companies in this video obviously didn't invest in any sort of training or even apparently proper scaffolding.
With the supervisor right there, it's obvious this was standard procedure. Sure, these guys are being kinda dumb, but they were rushing and being told to do these things by the supervisor...because it's more cost effective.
Let’s not make fun or say condescending things about the workers. Obviously, this practice was commonly used. I was trained to drive an 18 wheeler over 9 years ago and you wouldn’t believe the challenges I faced trying to tell my instructor what was dangerous and wrong.
Earlando Johnson Hey, the practice is not great, but it's not that bad as far as checking goes. Sadly, they did not air out or cap the other tank...
@@Olivia-W.. "practice is not great, but"...
Do you even read your own rubbish?
Lacking standards are the core reason for all to many accidents.
Have fun, working class hero!
@@OmmerSyssel Hey, uh... thanks for assuming my position- bit of a miss on that one though.
You are right, however, standards should be followed, as not doing so is a big part of many, many accidents. That said, in _this particular case,_ that _one_ action was not necessarily that terrible.
Agreed. We must remember two things here:
1) It is only appropriate to look for fault or become discipline once you have established that all safety systems in place were not flawed. Systems isn’t just machinery, but the entire management, training, and hazard reporting process.
2) Management cannot conduct operations using primarily human factors for safety management, as any system that relies on human behavior is inherently unreliable.
Oh no, we're not taking it out on workers
We're taking it on companies that let this happen
Cannot possibly stress enough the importance of standards and regulations.
Yeah
This was in 2006. It was common to use a torch to check for LEL?(lower explosive limit) I’ve been in refineries over 15 years and every time I went into a confined space, a gas monitor was used. This is sad. Sorry for the loss of the workers.
That entire crew deserves a Darwin Award.
@2:30 I would have quit on the spot and called OSHA if my boss asked me to do this...
Quite efficient. If you want to become superman and fly 750 feet in the air like in the video.
@@antoy384 I graduated in 4 years with a BA in Marketing Communications yet I still worked in the oilfield for over 2 years.
I keep drafting messages and deleting them. The straight and honest truth is that people die and get mangled in the oilfield way more than what is most likely reported.
I have a plethora of experiences that still haunt me.
I worked at a rig site that had been tested positive for H2S2 recently and a 3rd party had to be called in to shadow while we worked to keep testing to see if any levels were present. By the way, H2S2 will KILL you if you breath in a couple parts per million.
Another time, the rig site was replacing old tanks. Therefore, we brought our cranes in and loaded them on a flatbed. They were 12 foot tanks. I had to climb up a ladder that was placed on top of the trailer to the top of this tank to spin off the swivel. On my way down on the first step, the ladder slipped and my arm got slashed on the sharp edge of the tank. Luckily, after my arm got sliced on the way down, I kicked off the tank and landed on my side. My arm was bleeding really, really badly and I still have the scars to prove it.
I didn't report the accident because I wanted the hours and the money but everyone there that was with me talked about the accident and therefore I had to work in our shop area at our home base for the next week or two while I healed up.
Damn. There's too many stories of injuries, close calls and what not because that's essentially the nature of the business when most of the people working in this industry are ex meth addicts and convicts.
The last day my hand almost got crushed and a 50,000 pound compressor almost got dropped on top of me by an inexperienced crane operator and had to jump over a containment wall. After that, I called it quits. Probably had PTSD for quite sometime thereafter.
The oilfield is no joke.
@@EnjoyLife-sg3kt Thank you for sharing
@@EnjoyLife-sg3kt certainly is no joke. I work in power plants,chemical plants,and refineries. I’ve seen water jetting shotguns cut feet off,super sucker vacuum truck hoses leach on to peoples legs,backsides hit with blast guns,ive seen a 500 LB chunk of aluminum fly passed my buddy’s head and had to report a near miss and immediately take a drug test even tho it was another guys fault who was welding above him WITH NO PERMIT! In this game,if u fuck up,u move up. Not to mention the sacrifice is terrible in them safety suits in mid summer scorching southern heat. We work 15 minute rotations for water. One guy had a heat stroke back to back in one day and a guy and his son fell through kyger creek power plant skylights to their deaths. It’s crazy out here. Not for the faint of heart. I’m only 25 but plan on retiring out here
I remember telling a contracted welder (in the oil field) about this safety video. He agreed with using the torch to test for fumes. I was like WTF?!
This narrator is amazing, keep him in all your videos please!
I think the narrator isn't a real person. We love the esteemed professor voice, even from the Air Safety TH-cam site, but I think its a voice program
@@Defender78 His name is Sheldon Smith
@@Defender78 some of these vids were posted 15yo homie
If possible, always flush a container with a inert gas like argon or nitrogen
Generally true...absolutely. But it may not have made a difference in this case, as a partially filled tank was directly connected (with no valve!) to the one they were standing on.
@@mercoid it might have since you can supply enough flow and pressure to keep the flammable gas in the other tank and the inert gas wouldnt allow a combustible atmosphere.
Using a torch to test for flammable gas is textbook Mississippi.
If OSHA rules were followed, the accident would be prevented
Simon Deng it's one of them small old Town oil fields they have no rules I bet lots of drugs and alcohol believe me I come from history boom in North Texas it's dangerous here that's why I'd rather go to West Texas
The old torch test is serving two purposes. One, it tests for vapors. Two, it gets rid of any vapors that are present. Oh, and three, it makes for good drinking stories. RIP
I'd be very cautious to blame the workers first! - It is ALWAYS a management and training issue with ANY activity at ANY job! - The series of failures leading to this accident stem from a breakdown in the management of the job site. TRAIN, TRAIN, TRAIN your people! - Most times these issues are also the result of rushing to meet deadlines or cut corners due to budget or time constrains. But the price as we see is incalculable for the worker and their family.
John A Are you really claiming that workers strictly adhere to safety rules and equipment?
Couldn't agree enough this was my first employer. O training luckily I was at other job site
Training costs money.
@@Syclone0044 ok you do have a point (albeit with sarcasm) indeed workers share a great deal of responsibility with any job. However, as I said it’s a management problem when you also don’t hold them accountable and whenever possible certify them. People tend to lose respect for their daily tasks for many reasons and that will catch up with you. Thank you for the reply
@@peek2much3 Greetings from maintenance safety in railway. Risks of all kind have to be assessed, classified, and all that potentially cause hazards and might happen every x years have to be managed. As in, depending on the potential severity, you need to implement things like check lists, 4 eye principle, safe preparation procedures etc. for all parts of the work. In that matter, yes, all hazards are a management failure. If it's a previously unknown error, no one is to blame, but the new learned "lesson" has to be shared within the whole industry and relevant government bodies. More often it's not really a new issue, just lack of time and expertise when writing the maintenance plan, and pressure / stress when executing the maintenance. Just observations in my railway bubble, I'm sure there are studies and statistics about the most typical human causes of hazards.
Long story short: It's almost always a management issue. But of course the worker plays an important part in the safety plan, as he is the one actually using all his senses and experience to notice if sth. weird happens.
My first job was with this company at the age of 18. Luckily I was with the other crew. That welder was the eldest in the company. The young men that died RIP. The welder he survived.
The care and supervision which is typical of a refinery site does not often happen in small sites of on-land production units. We must become very vigilant in these small remote sites. Same comments can be applied to farm tank repairs.
And some people still claim there're too many regulations in the US...
i mean, most people who say that aren't referring to obviously significantly important safety guidelines, and are referring more to things like licencing requirements for cutting hair in several states that takes $10k+ and >100 hours of schooling, which does nothing but stifle people's ability to compete with existing hairdressers while providing only tiny amounts of useful additional knowledge.
@@LoreleiBlaine no I don't think so. You're taking an edge case. The push against regulation is a push for profit over safety.
This is the best true crime series on YT
This is much cheaper than following safety rules. Many companies contract with labor companies because they don't have to pay for insurance and retirement benefits. When the lawsuits come the company files for bankruptcy and the executives start a new company. No one ever faces criminal charges. This is a key reason why there are no unions in the oil industry.
"The CSB investigation identified several unsafe work practices..." Ya no wonder they did.
checking for explosive vapors inside a huge empty flammable storage tank by using an open flame and working off a ladder while two people stand on the other end of it 50' up .......... I don't understand what possibly went wrong.....
Many of these companies, and contractors need to adopt CRM, (Cockpit Resource Management) which encourages workers to speak up, if there's any doubt about a potential hazard. The PanAm, KLM collision on the runway in the Canary Islands is a perfect example not wanting to question a shortcut, or unsafe practice!
Agreed - and regular external auditing with actual visits of the work (rarely happens in my sector). Because besides the fear to speak up, people also simply get used to unsafe standards, until they appear not worth mentioning anymore.
My favourite case was a train workshop, where maintenance workers without the proper training would drive trains back and forth on the company property area - because it was quicker and more fun than the existing safe alternatives. The management interestingly had only agreed to that practice orally, so when we finally found out about it, it was very hard to pin it to any of the managers. We learned about it when two younger workers, due to lack of training, drove a train on an unsafe part of the track, causing a light bow from the strong current above, what could've easily killed them.
You guys make the best animations. Props to the animators and 3d guys
i learned a new tip, use acetylene torch to check for flammable liquids
CSB lead investigator Johnny Banks says if workplace safety mandates are not followed, he will personally come down there and whoop your ass.
Safety handbooks are written in blood
Eli Sianez i remember in shop class i used to wonder”howd they come up with all these crazy specific rules and stuff”
@@jonmeray713 If it were anything like mine, you had to sit through several hours of safety videos which quite predominantly displayed blood, severed limbs, and disfigured body parts. They do that to scare you, because fear keeps you alive.
_And the hands that write the handbooks, shake hands with danger._
How can anybody more than about five years old not see how dangerous this was? A foreman observed the work. But he didn’t put a stop to it?
I mean, I'm probably THE prototype layman and I wouldn't use a torch to test for flammable gasses. sad to say, but this is peak darwin
Yet the plumber who hooked up the gas line in our kitchen years ago tested for leaks with a match. No shit. A fucking match, to check for a natural gas leak.
If someone wanted me to weld on a horizontal ladder with 2 duded standing on it I'd grab all my tools and be out of there. fuck that.
Thank you I hope this finds its way to many lookers.
The best to you all from Earl
The fatality rate is higher in the oilfield industry than in the American workplace in general?!? I'm SHOCKED!!! I figured a desk job was more dangerous!!! :)
As per previous CSB video,,, a desk job near facilities that CSB did an investigation is very dangerous! Some got killed.
"Joe's Flammable Vapor Detection Company" our motto: "We always get it right the second time".
They talk about training, and yet, here I am, with ZERO training, and ZERO experience in the oil industry (although I have worked as a welder in manufacturing), but I had no trouble seeing every single dangerous aspect of this event with nothing more than common sense. The level of ignorance exhibited by those workers is incomprehensible.
Dude I’m just a fabricator but even just doing that, I saw everything wrong as they were doing it. Anyone who knows how to use a torch should know that’s a stupid idea, yeah it should just WOOF out of the opening but there’s flammable vapors everywhere, why risk it? Nitrogen is cheap, just fill up the tank to displace the oxygen, and I would have definitely checked for vents on openings in the tanks before I lit a flame or struck an arc. We won’t even get into the ladder stupidity….
A vivid example of increasing entropy with time.
I think this was the only time a welder in the group survived
Well honestly who could have seen that coming?
I crack myself up.
People who are found to be responsible for fatal accidents due to negligence should be held criminally liable, then the frequency of these accidents might go down.
How much do you want to bet, that the welder was mocked for his fall harness by the other members of this crew?
I know that it is an old oil field... but I never imagined an oil field in the US to look that ramshackle... And I never expected workers to pull stunts like that pretty "creative" use of a ladder as a platform.
CSB has the best content change my mind
What would have been wrong with building a scaffolding???
As for the vapors that goes deeper
Im from and live in Raleigh, ms and this oil well is located on a old dirt road called Boykin church road. This road is cursed. In the early 1800s the kkk went and locked the doors on the church one sunday morning *this was a black church and burned it to the ground. After that a man was hung from the bridge on the road. The church was planned to be rebuilt but never was all that sits on the site is a gutted hull of what was a church and a cemetery. It is the most scaryest place in smith county and my mom stepdad little brother and sister went there on Halloween 2 years ago and recorded a figure of what appears to be a man hanging from the bridge.
Boykin Church
Raleigh, MS 39153
goo.gl/maps/MqtqLVe3MWm
somebody should post the vid and link that plz!
Omg, and WTF!!? Is this straight from the hillbilly handbook!!?? I've worked the West Texas Oilfield 30+ years and all I can say is WTF!???
Fire blanket is cheap insurance and any hot work at an oil or chemical plant should never be undertaken without its use at a minimum.
how can something be so sad and funny at the same time
Good thing they had a 'supervisor' on hand to green light that trick with the ladder. Well, he did have the guy clip on his harness. But checking for flammable vapors with a lit torch?
nitrogen purging. CO2 purging. putting a gas detector into operation. anything but lighting the fuse would have been good.
Heck, flapping around a little paper chinese fan, would have been good.
Let me check the tank with a torch.Brilliant!!
this is the most serious slapstick comedy video ever
0:15 imgine if that happend on june 6th, 2006
free sex, free sex , free sex!
This wasn't an accident. It was pure negligence.
hello, is it possible to buy the 3-dvd CSB safety videos compilation? the CSB website says to fill out a "dvd request form" but I couldn't find it anywhere. thank you.
One of very few CSB videos where I can say in all honesty "Good. Fuck those guys."
dang... should have used the torch trick on the other tanks...
Lmfao
'Used a lit oxyacetylene torch to check for flammable vapours..'
Holy shit, I have no words.. This is why Peanut packets have 'warning contains nuts' written on them.
A nut warning for the nutheads 😆
But you are 100% right If you watch the Videos Here you understand why we have warnings Like a Microwave ist Not for drying your pets, warning the Coffee is hot and so on
@@sebastianschmidt566 common sense, isn't
I wonder, just how much of this so-called prosperous land is in short a bunch of little kids playing store? I've been watching a lot of these CSB videos.
More then 90% for Sure.
And its Not better Here in Europa.
The part about "TESTING" for flammable vapors by sticking a LIT blowtorch in the tank nearly made me soil myself....
I often hear workers and even supervisors say I just want to get it done and go home. Well you, and others, just might not be going home at all...
I don't know what the fourth man was for sure, but three of them were named Larry, Moe, and Curly. The Fourth guy might have been Shemp. I don't mean to make light of this accident, but this crew was an accident looking for a place to happen.
One time I lit an internal flare by crawling in the bottom and lighting the fumes with a burning rag on a stick
This level of stupidity might be criminal.. it did have a death penalty attached
hmm i wonder if there's gunpowder in this barrel, lemme light it on fire to check
*sticks torch in barrel full of highly flammable and explosive liquid* BOOM
Got Tori Amos writing the intro music.
Always wear your safety harness
IF ANYBODY EVER TELLS YOU
You only know enough to be dangerous!!
Please use public transportation when traveling. And stay away from me plz..
Wonder how far away the “other two” workers were found....
After watching these for a long enough time, all you have to get to is "there was crude oil in another storage tank nearby," and the chain of events become very clear. Why can't people actually learn from mistakes?
This is what happens when we deregulate and cut funding to OSHA. People die in the name of saving a few bucks.
Philip Ebersole -Bullshit!!! People die because they have their head up their ass!
And now the administration wants to cut the CSB...
But the market will fix everything! Jesus Trump tells me so.
Unfortunately other societal watchdogs are not looked at favorably by political/business interests and their functions are also being defunded in so-called interest of decreasing big intrusive government.
Maybe your educational level is behind necessary standards?
These are very well done. Unfortunately, the default attitude from many companies and workers is that of ignorance, getting the job done quickly with safety being considered an annoyance.
The CSB is so genuinely good, and I'm sure they're all very dedicated but I can't help think the CSB is like Ed Helms in Brooklyn 99.
I wonder if the survivor is still welding???
I thought the 2 workers holding the ladder in place would be blasted into the air by the exploding storage tank they're standing directly on top of, and then going splat as soon as they run out of upward momentum, fall back to earth, and be instantly killed on impact with the ground below
This is how uncle Bob died in Urban Cowboy.
that was a lightening strike lol. that part was sad as hell
30 years in the petrol chemical industry and I have seen some really dumb things, done some really dumb things, but this just blew my fucking mind...
That was a "holy shit" video, and I am dumbfounded...
3 men lost their lives...
Let's check for flammable vapors using a lit torch. Can't blow up if you're already blown up...
Ay you think the tank has been aired out enough?
Idk man, stick the torch in there and see if it explodes.....
_You don't need eyebrows, where you're going!_
Astonishing incompetence. These guys would find a way to be unsafe in any job.
Using a lit torch to check for an explosive mixture in the air.
That's some Wile E. Coyote next-level genius stuff there.
Honesty this kind of laziness in this kind of job is something that me and my friends would do as a joke - not as an actual work strategy
Does anybody else watch these because they are lowkey interesting
This is incredible. So many clear safety issues with every step of this process.
Glad we are reforming, but management will always risk lives for money.
After all, just ask Ford.
I worked in the refineries for 10 years as a pipefitter. I always thought "how are not people dying everyday or explosions everyday". Dangerous is a under statement. I been out for 4 years and been thinking of going back I miss it! Then these videos from some reason started popping up in my feed. Weird lol. I still might go back but these videos gives me second thoughts....
“Hold my beer, I’m a gonna weld this here pipe yuk yuk yuk...
The subcontractor obviously didn't take safety seriously. Two guy's standing on a ladder while the third guy worked off it, and checking for explosive fumes with a cutting torch? Wow.
Bruh. The guy on the ladder was the *LAST* person I expected to survive this sheer *STUPIDITY.* 🤦🏿♂️