Saturday, September 12, 2015

Man suffers second-degree burns to face from flash fire while working on underground fuel tank in Dania Beach, Florida










Worker injured in flash fire at Dania Beach gas station


Author: Amanda Batchelor, Senior Digital Editor, abatchelor@local10.com
Jeff Weinsier, Investigative Reporter, jweinsier@Local10.com 


Published On: September 11 2015

 
 DANIA BEACH, Fla. -

Local 10 News has obtained surveillance video that shows a flash fire at a Dania Beach gas station that left one man injured on Tuesday.

Workers told Local 10 News reporter Jeff Weinsier that a man, identified as Elvio, was working on the underground tanks when vapors ignited, sparking a flash fire.

Video from the Mobil on Stirling Road and Southwest 40th Street shows Elvio jump up and run from the flames.

Elvio suffered second-degree burns to his face and has since been released from the hospital. He is expected to make a full recovery.

Two other workers from Petro Solutions who were not underground were not injured in the fire.

One man, who did not want to be identified, told Weinsier that he has never seen anything like this in his 30 years of working on gas station tanks.

Elvio has been cleared to return to work for "light duty," but remains on leave.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the incident.


These fires occur because the worker failed to evacuate the tank from vapors prior to performing work on the tank, such as welding, cutting, etc.  The sparking from such work will ignite the vapors that are remaining inside the tank, causing the explosion/flash fire.