A company with a troubled track record on safety experienced a workplace fatality last week, when an employee died in an apparent electrocution.
The Feb. 15 early morning incident at Carbide Industries in Louisville, Kentucky claimed the life of 38-year-old Patrick Childers, according to news reports. First responders administered CPR, but were unable to resuscitate Childers.
The company issued the following statement:
"Carbide Industries LLC is sad to report one of its employees was fatally injured this morning in a workplace accident at the company’s Bells Lane facility in Louisville, Ky. The company takes employee safety very seriously and is working with government authorities to determine the cause of this incident.”
Carbide Industries produces calcium carbide -- which is used to create acetylene gas used in metal fabrication and construction -- by heating a mixture of coke and lime to a very high temperature using an electric arc furnace.
OSHA inspectors found nine serious safety violations at the company between 2011 and 2016 – some related to an explosion at the company in 2011 killed two workers. In that incident, OSHA found that the company failed to act upon more than two dozen work orders on the faulty furnace that blew up.
