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On Dec. 24, 1989, a thunderous flammable vapor explosion at a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, petroleum refinery delivered a holiday event that no sane firefighter could want to make a tradition — 16 fuel storage tanks, plus various spill and pressure fires, all ablaze simultaneously. Jerry Craft, fire chief at the refinery, missed being at Ground ...
The McKee refinery tank explosion and fire on Sunday, July 29, 1956, was an explosion and severe fire-related mass casualty event, killing 19 firefighters. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] The fire is considered to have the fourth (the September 11 attacks being first) most casualties of fire fighters in the United States for a single fire event. [ 2 ]
Refinery employees began to fight the fire whilst the Philadelphia Fire Department was notified. Six alarms were transmitted bringing 201 city firefighters and over 50 items of fire-fighting equipment. Cooling lines were quickly brought into play on all exposures. The fire in Tank 1114 was promptly extinguished.
- Proximate Cause:
- station “dead-leg” inlet elbow
- 1:00 pm February 17, 2007: Fire extinguished.
- APPLICABILITY TO NASA
- -Trevor Kletz, quoted by the CSB
- QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- SYSTEM FAILURE CASE STUDIES
• Water in an idle section of pipe froze and expanded, cracking the pipe. As the ice thawed, propane escaped and ignited.
significant significant danger. danger. Wind Wind carried carried the the propane propane cloud cloud toward toward a a boiler boiler house, house, where where it it likely likely found found the the spark spark that that ignited ignited the the entire entire cloud. cloud. Immediately, Immediately, flames flames shot shot back back to to the th...
petroleum petroleum products. products. This This steel steel column column did did not not have have fireproofing fireproofing and and it it collapsed collapsed under under the the flames flames within within minutes. minutes. The The pipes pipes broke broke and and the the fire fire intensified intensified as as it it fed fed on on more more p...
Among the many lessons that can be learned from the Valero Refinery fire, two stand out as particularly relevant to NASA’s work. First, develop controls that detect and correct the latest conditions in unused equipment or facilities. As far as investigators could tell, the PDA dead-leg remained attached to the unit for at least a decade before the ...
Another lesson from the Valero fire is to plan for the actual energy releases possible within a system – be realistic when estimating safety margins. As Dr. Richard Feynman noted during the Challenger inquiry, “Nature cannot be fooled.” If Valero had fireproofed the pipe bridge that collapsed during the fire, firefighters might have had time to con...
Is your project accepting a PHA for a legacy system without verifying the analysis? What systems do you have in place to ensure work is actually completed before it is marked complete? What is the greatest energy release possible in your system(s)? What is your margin of safety? What change management practices do you employ when modifying a facil...
Special thanks to Mark George for his insightful peer review.
Executive Editor: Steve Lilley Developed by ARES Corporation steve.k.lilley@nasa.gov This is an internal NASA safety awareness training document based on information available in the public domain. The findings, proximate causes, and contributing factors identified in this case study do not necessarily represent those of the Agency. Sections of th...
Mar 1, 2001 · "The only kind of refinery fire that could be of longer duration, and this is unlikely, would be if a 300-foot diameter crude tank boiled over and involved a lot of other tanks," Harman said. "But with modern fire fighting equipment and trained professional fire brigades we'd have a lot better handle on getting a fire like that under control."
Dec 24, 1989 · The resulting fire involved two large storage tanks holding 3.6 million gallons of diesel, 12 small tanks containing a total of 882,000 gallons of lube oil, and two separator units. The explosion resulted in the partial loss of electricity, steam, and fire water for the refinery, since two power lines, two steam lines and a 12-inch diameter fire water line were located in this pipe rack.
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Jul 28, 2010 · The Sunray Fire Department laid in a water line on the downhill side of the tank farm, and the Dumas Fire Department laid in a line from the upper side. All hoselines were approximately 900 feet in length.” According to Industrial Fire Brigade, Dumas and Sunray firefighters used the water available to them to keep adjacent tanks cool.
