Overheard a safety guy talking about tank cleaning deaths last week

I was grabbing coffee at the hall and heard a safety inspector mention three boilermakers died in the last five years from confined space issues during tank cleaning. One guy didn't check his monitor before going in a storage tank in Gary. I've been in this trade 12 years and I admit I've skipped a few steps when I was in a hurry. Has anyone else had close calls with confined space work or seen guys get too comfortable?

3 comments

3 Comments

henryp4020d ago

I know exactly what you mean, I've caught myself skipping the air test more than once when I was running late.

kim.jake20d ago

Is skipping the air test really that bad though? I've missed it a few times and never had a leak or issue that I could trace back to it. Feels like it's more of a safety theater thing than a real necessity for most quick setups.

jana_shah19d ago

You said "safety theater" and honestly that's the thing that gets me. The part nobody talks about is that skipping the test means you're also not checking if the sensor itself even works right. I've seen sensors fail silently, so the test is the only way to know the thing can actually detect a leak at all.