by Kevin Lilly
A contractor working on the new Ivy Tech campus in Logansport has been fined for a series of violations related to a natural gas explosion that sent two men to the hospital, one with third-degree burns.
The Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration notified Project Design & Piping Inc. this month that it had been penalized $7,500 for five violations.
On Aug. 17, Project Design & Piping employee Daniel Lee suffered severe burns to nearly half his body when a natural gas explosion rocked the $16.6-million, 81,000-square-foot Ivy Tech building under construction near 18th and Main streets.
Lee has since been released from the burn unit at Wishard Memorial Hospital in Indianapolis. The other injured worker, a man employed at Fissel Electric in Logansport, suffered only minor injuries.
The IOSHA report states that Lee’s employer “did not furnish employment and a place of employment which were free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees.”
Workers testing a section of gas pipe were reportedly doing so without the ends capped. Human error caused the release of the natural gas that exploded, according to the report.
There was no warning sign in the work area, no lockout device on the shut-off valve that would have prevented the release of natural gas and no safety data sheet for natural gas on hand.
The report also stated that Project Design & Piping had not properly instructed employees in how to recognize and avoid unsafe conditions.
All but one of the matters has been corrected, according to IOSHA. The deadline for employee training is Dec. 23.
A call to the company was not returned. IOSHA says the company has the option of contesting the findings.
Ivy Tech facilities director Mike Karickhoff said he had not seen the IOSHA report and added that the matter did not directly involve the college so he was primarily focused on making sure the campus was ready in time for the start of spring semester in January.
The blast caused no structural damage and work resumed less than two weeks later. Karickhoff says many of the 14 contractors on the project are on site six days a week to ensure a timely move to the new campus.
• Kevin Lilly is news editor of the Pharos-Tribune. He can be reached at (574) 732-5117 or kevin.lilly@pharostribune.com.
