Narrative:

While performing normal safety cleaning operations for our hangar clean up sheet; I was asked to dispose used hydraulic oil into the used oil barrel. The used barrels for both fuel and oil are outside in a flammable cabinet; both labeled accordingly. The barrels sit on a drip tray that can slide in and of the cabinet. Our base has a large funnel that can hold used oil cans and filters to drain for 24 hours before being disposed. At the time the funnel was not lined with the hole to dispose the hydraulic oil properly. The cabinet has very limited space to dump anything into the barrels and is not an approved cabinet to be used outside. To line up the funnel; I had to slide the tray with both barrels on it just enough to line the funnel properly. While sliding the tray out; the tray with both barrels with both fuel and oil toppled over onto the walkway underneath the gates; which is where we keep our disposal flammable cabinet. I was unable to stop the barrels from falling because they were too heavy to stop. I was able to move quickly out of the way of the barrels falling on top of me. Both oil and fuel barrels were now on the ground spilling everywhere. I got up and quickly and tried to pick up the barrels but was unable to because of the weight of the barrels. I quickly got help to pick up the barrels from spilling any more fuel and oil. Others from our base; both management and mechanics; jumped in and helped contain the spill. We grabbed the airport's spill kit on site to contain the spill and used pig mat to absorb the spill. The spill never reached any of the aircraft or ramp vehicles. Airport ops was notified of spill and also the airport fire department. The fire department came and made sure it was not getting into any drains; which we confirmed that there were not any drains near spill. They saw that we had contained the spill and no other action from their part needed to be accomplished. We cleaned the used pig mat and oil spill kit and disposed of them into special bags to be sent out to be cleaned or be disposed of properly. Caution tape and signs were put around spill area until it was deemed passable. We cleaned area with isopropyl alcohol. An approved cabinet is needed with enough room to dispose waste fuel and oil properly without having to slide the barrels in and out of cabinet.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Maintenance personnel reported flammable liquid [class 3 Hazmat] spill due to inadequate storage procedures.

Narrative: While performing normal safety cleaning operations for our hangar clean up sheet; I was asked to dispose used hydraulic oil into the used oil barrel. The used barrels for both fuel and oil are outside in a flammable cabinet; both labeled accordingly. The barrels sit on a drip tray that can slide in and of the cabinet. Our base has a large funnel that can hold used oil cans and filters to drain for 24 hours before being disposed. At the time the funnel was not lined with the hole to dispose the hydraulic oil properly. The cabinet has very limited space to dump anything into the barrels and is not an approved cabinet to be used outside. To line up the funnel; I had to slide the tray with both barrels on it just enough to line the funnel properly. While sliding the tray out; the tray with both barrels with both fuel and oil toppled over onto the walkway underneath the gates; which is where we keep our disposal flammable cabinet. I was unable to stop the barrels from falling because they were too heavy to stop. I was able to move quickly out of the way of the barrels falling on top of me. Both oil and fuel barrels were now on the ground spilling everywhere. I got up and quickly and tried to pick up the barrels but was unable to because of the weight of the barrels. I quickly got help to pick up the barrels from spilling any more fuel and oil. Others from our base; both management and mechanics; jumped in and helped contain the spill. We grabbed the airport's spill kit on site to contain the spill and used pig mat to absorb the spill. The spill never reached any of the aircraft or ramp vehicles. Airport ops was notified of spill and also the airport fire department. The fire department came and made sure it was not getting into any drains; which we confirmed that there were not any drains near spill. They saw that we had contained the spill and no other action from their part needed to be accomplished. We cleaned the used pig mat and oil spill kit and disposed of them into special bags to be sent out to be cleaned or be disposed of properly. Caution tape and signs were put around spill area until it was deemed passable. We cleaned area with isopropyl alcohol. An approved cabinet is needed with enough room to dispose waste fuel and oil properly without having to slide the barrels in and out of cabinet.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.