Oil and petrol drum explosions. Injuries and casualties by exploding oil and petrol drums containing various...

If ignited, an evaporated inflammable liquid remaining mixed with air in an oil or petrol drum may cause an explosion in which the top and bottom of the drum are blown off by the blast and act as projectiles causing extensive injuries to persons nearby. To analyse the occurrence of this type of accident and to study the injuries involved information was sought from all police districts in Denmark and all the departments of plastic surgery with a burns unit. The investigation revealed a total of 21 accidents caused by oil drum explosions over a period of 36 years with 16 injured within the last 5 years in a population of five million people. Fifteen accidents occurred during attempts to divide a drum with a disc grinder or a cutting blow-torch; five of the victims were welding drums or using drums as a support when welding or cleaning iron materials and one man was shifting a drum which exploded because of the heat of the sun. Five men were killed: three died from burns and two from fatal brain injuries. Two men with several facial fractures survived. Five victims received injuries to the lower limb and presented with a total of six open, comminuted fractures of the tibia. Nine men had burns covering from 2 to 50 per cent of the body surface, up to 30 per cent of the burns being full-thickness. This paper draws attention to the extreme danger of working on apparently empty oil or petrol drums with tools generating heat or sparks, unless specific precautions are taken.