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Following a magnitude 7.4 earthquake, a reinforced concrete crude distillation unit (CDU) charge furnace flue stack failed and collapsed onto the furnace and a pipe rack, rupturing 63 product and utility lines and triggering a major fire. Concurrently, 4 floating roof naphtha storage tanks caught fire (which subsequently spread to 2 more tanks). Meanwhile a smaller fire developed in a chemical storage warehouse when glass containers fell to the floor and smashed. The refinery’s firefighting capability was lost because of an electric power failure and rupture of the water pipeline supplying all the refineries water. Fires burnt for days and had to be contained by an aerial bombardment with foam. There were no fatalities at the site. There was lost production worth of about 6 months operation.
Ask yourself and your crew:
- How can something like this happen here (e.g. on our site)?
- What safety measures (i.e. procedures, controls/barriers) do we have in place to mitigate the risk?
- How do we know the risk controls/barriers are working?
- What improvements or changes should we make to the procedures, controls/barriers or the way we work?
Original content courtesy of IChemE Safety Centre
