Near-miss: Fire axe falls out of cabinet, almost hits a fireman’s toes
- Safety Flash
- Published on 2 June 2015
- Generated on 21 November 2025
- IMCA SF 08/15
- 1 minute read
The Danish organisationSeahealth.dk has published the following near miss report of how an axe fell from a cabinet, narrowly missing someone’s toes.
What happened?
A crewman was preparing to get fire-fighting equipment out of the fireman’s equipment cabinet, when the fire axe fell out and fell 1.5m to the floor. The axe landed blade down only a few centimetres from the crewman – who at that moment was in his socks, wearing no toe-cap boots, as he was preparing to don a fireman’s outfit.
This cartoon can be found at uk.nearmiss.dk/media/24433/Axe-UK.jpg.
This cartoon neatly explains the difference between unsafe conditions, unsafe acts, near misses, and actual incidents. Further similar cartoons and explanatory information was available at uk.nearmiss.dk/knowledge/what-is-what/
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