Record Number: 2479 CIS Descriptors: ASPHYXIA PETROCHEMICAL INDUSTRY FLAMMABLE GASES EXPLOSION HAZARDS PETROLEUM REFINING BURNS FATALITY REPORT REPORT CHARACTERISTICS: DONOR: Office of the Chief Medical Examiner JURISDICTION: Alberta REPORT TITLE: Public Inquiry INDIVIDUAL PRESIDING: Judge N.A.F. Mackie, Provincial Court Judge PLACE OF INQUIRY: Sherwood Park DATE OF INQUIRY : 1991-10-28 INFORMATION ABOUT DECEASED: NAME: Donald Gordon Johnson OCCUPATION: Process supervisor INDUSTRIAL SECTOR: Petro chemical industry ACCIDENT INFORMATION: DATE OF ACCIDENT : 1990-05-24 PLACE OF ACCIDENT: Petro Canada Edmonton Refinery, County of Strathcona BRIEF CAUSE OF DEATH: Asphyxia. BRIEF MANNER OF DEATH: Due to superheated gases. ACCIDENT DESCRIPTION: The subject was a process supervisor at the Petro Canada Refinery near Sherwood Park and was badly burned when there was a sudden explosion of flame due to a rupturing pipe carrying volatile hydrocarbons through a furnace, which he was observing at the time from underneath with a coworker. The subject died instantly at the site. COMMENTS ON RECOMMENDATIONS BY CORONER: None. Fire retardant clothing could not have protected this man, by virtue to his closer proximity to the escaping flaming gases.