Firefighters performing a safety drill at one of The Boring Company’s construction sites in Las Vegas received burns from chemicals used in the tunnel excavation process, according to a new report from Fortune.
Those Clark County firefighters weren’t previously made aware of the potential hazard, but were permanently scarred, the report states. Employees working on The Boring Company’s tunnels have also received similar chemical burns.
The Boring Company has been digging tunnels in Las Vegas for a few years in an attempt to connect the entire city with a subterranean network that uses Teslas to shuttle people. It’s the first effort to create a watered-down version of Elon Musk’s dream to build underground transportation, which once included fanciful ideas like hyperloops and larger people-movers.
But the project has been plagued by safety concerns and injuries since its inception. In September, the company even briefly halted work after an employee suffered a “crushing injury.”
Boring Company employees have been receiving burns from the chemical — an accelerant that the company uses to harden the concrete tunnel walls — for years, according to prior reporting from Fortune’s Jessica Matthews.
In late 2024, the Clark County fire department (CCFD) started conducting emergency rescue drills at the tunnels. During prep work ahead of the drills, though, firefighters appear to have not learned about the potential to be burned by the chemical, which mixes with groundwater and dirt and forms pools of muck.
While employees reportedly tried to clear the muck before the drills, they weren’t able to get rid of all of it. Firefighters reported irritations on their legs because their “boots were full of muck” and were taken to a nearby hospital to be treated for chemical burns. Nevada’s Occupational Saftey and Health Administration (OSHA) opened an investigation.
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The Boring Company blamed the firefighters. “The key breakdowns in the Training Plan were committed by CCFD employees, not TBC employees,” a lawyer for The Boring Company wrote to Nevada OSHA.
Nevada OSHA still issued three “willful” citations (its most serious level) to The Boring Company in May over the incident, and proposed fines of $425,595.
That same day, Boring Company president Steve Davis — a top Musk lieutenant and one of the leaders of the billionaire’s Department of Government Efficiency — called the Nevada Governor’s office. Records show he spoke with the governor’s state infrastructure lead, a former Tesla employee. The next day, high-level Nevada officials met with Davis and Boring Company representatives.
The meeting was a highly unusual break from the normal citation-and-appeals process, former OSHA officials told Fortune. Regardless, Nevada OSHA withdrew the citations.
What’s more, Nevada OSHA didn’t properly document the removal of the citations — something a rep for the state agency admitted to Fortune. And a document in the case file was altered to remove evidence of the meeting between the Boring Company leaders and the governor’s office. The meeting information was added back after Fortune pointed out the change.
