Vent: Nearly had a nasty flash burn at a plant in Baton Rouge last month

A new guy drained a boiler but left a pocket of hot steam I didn't catch before opening a valve, came within inches of my face. Anyone else had a close call with trapped steam that made you triple-check every lockout tagout?

2 comments

2 Comments

susan42417d ago

Was the new guy the one who did the lockout tagout on that boiler, or did he skip it entirely? I've seen too many close calls happen because someone assumed the trainee knew the procedure, and that's a recipe for disaster. Makes you wonder if the plant has a buddy system for new hires on steam equipment, or if they just threw him in solo.

jason75216d agoMost Upvoted

Yeah, I actually read about a similar incident a few months back in a safety newsletter. This new guy at a chemical plant skipped the whole lockout tagout on a steam valve because he said his old job didn't require it for that type of equipment. The guy got lucky, just a minor burn, but the plant had to shut down for three days for a full investigation. From what I recall, the root cause ended up being that his supervisor just pointed at the boiler and said "tag it out" without walking him through the specific procedure. My experience has been that a proper buddy system for steam work saves a ton of headaches, but only if the buddy actually watches the new person do the steps, not just tells them what to do. Take it with a grain of salt, but I'd bet that boiler's tagout process has some gaps if they're letting trainees solo it from day one.