What happened?

An employee at a member company was operating a wood processor to convert logs into firewood when a log came sideways onto the trough and out of alignment for the saw.  The employee  opened the cab’s side window and reached around the front  of the machine, in an attempt to straighten the log. The employee’s fingers and thumb were severed when his hand came into contact with the blade.

The risk of a dust explosion increases when low humidity levels, like those seen in winter months, make dust easy to disperse and ignite. In fact, industrial accident investigations by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board found that seven out of eight fatal combustible dust explosions from 1995 to 2009 occurred during cold winter months when these weather conditions were most prominent.