Document jBEv9wKyaJV8rYm16RyYEr8vR

EtHYL Ga s o l in e Co r p o r a t io n Gh r y s l l k Bu il d in g 405 Le x in g t o n Av e n u e SAFETY DIVISION Ro b e r t A. Ke h o u ,M.D. CHAIRMAN Os c a r 13. Le w is MANAGER Res s e l l Sc h e l l ASSISTANT MANAGER Ne w Yo r k May 9, 19^0 Dr. ?.. A. Xehoe Dear Dr. Kehoe: You have a copy of Mr. McCooley's letter of May Hth, in which he dijscusses at length the arrangements for cleaning a tank at the Orange State Oil Company, Jacksonville, Florida. As yon know, Mr. Costello and Mr. McCooley have "both had a number of dis cussions with the officials of that company since their -o-ery recent accident. Desoite the trouble they have had, they do not seem in clined to take our warnings anc instructions very seriously. It! seems to me to "be an extreme example of lip service on the x>art of certain of our customers that they are willing to co operate with us IQOfo, hut that '"hen the actual job arises, they either forget us or revert to inadequate or dangerous nractices. The one redeeming feature in this present instance appears to be that Orange State at least did notify us a tank was to be cleaned. Thus, our safety engineer was able to prevent what might have been another serious situation. Very truly yours, T:C CI, Enel os'ore KF- 0021078 C Excerpt from McCooley's weekly letter of May U, 15U0 o' p Y Mr, J, A. Costello "Deer Joe: The part week was spent. wn-king in Jacksonville, Port Everglades, Miami, Miami Beach, Haul*, Port Tampa, Tampa and Bade City, Florida. Mondaiy of this week was spent at the Orange State Oil Company ter minal in Jacksonville. Here Orange State was planning the purchase of a 6000 "barrel storage tank from the Commodore Company, this tank had previously "teen leased from Commodore, and was known as tank, that had "been used for Kool- mctcr service, font has "been empty for the oast yean. Orange State wanted to get reedy to clean this tank, in order that it may "be inspected, and an esti mate made cn the necessary repairs, "before they would consider purchasing the tank. This particular tank had a. "boiler type manhead with only a 12H x IS" open ins. I therefore suggested, that the tank "be steamed and gas freed, and that a larger hole "be cut in the tank at the opening, in order to enable the men to enter the tank for cleaning, and later a new manhead could, "be installed, My discussion at this terminal was carried on with Mr. Harry Glover, constriction sitoerintendent for Orange State, and Mr. E. Glover, construction foreman. Earl Glover was the man in charge of the Orange State tank cleaning in Tampa, recently. Both these men wanted, to turn the tank cleaning operations ovr-T the Rubin Iron Tforks, who was to give the estimate on the repairs ne cessary to the tank. I convinced these men that they should clean this tank, nrier to an inspection tour, and that additional cleaning should be done to them, as was necessary depending upon the nature of the repair to be done on the tank, before turning the tank over to the Rubin Iron Works. The blower type air mask that was on hand at the Tampa cleaning, was brought out, after I asked to see the equipment they had. for tank cleaning, a.nd it was found that this equipment was in very bad condition, having the head straps cn the desk broken, the inside of the mask was very hard, the hose lead ing to the face| piece was taped where it had been cut or torn, only 25 foot of hose was in the box and the tank to be cleaned was Ho foot in diameter, and Earl Glover claimed jthat, the blower did. not give sufficient air for a man to breathe, the box had all the hinges and locks broken of? of it, and neither of the men knew where the be shipped back to the Mires Safety Appliance in Pittsburgh, to be repaired or replaced as was necessary, as this equipment could not be used in its present condition. I Iso arranged for them to buy the necessary rubber boots, rubber gloves and clot hing. They had a pair of rubber boots that had been worn in the tank at Tampa, having been removed inside of the tank and the man worked in his bare feet and t hen put on the boots before coming out of the tank. I had these boots destroyed KA 0021079 N 24477.01