Archive for November, 2009
Explosion and Fire at Silver Eagle Refinery-CSB deploys investigative team
Washington DC, November 4, 2009 – A six-member team from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) is deploying to the scene of today’s explosion and fire at the Silver Eagle Refinery in Woods Cross, Utah.
According to local officials, the explosion in the diesel hydrotreater unit caused damage to homes in the surrounding area and was felt several miles away from the facility.
The CSB is investigating a January 2009 flash fire at the same refinery that burned two refinery operators and two contractors. The investigation team will be led by CSB Investigations Supervisor Donald Holmstrom and will be arriving Wednesday evening and Thursday morning.
This seems to be an unfortunate season of accidents and undesirable events at petroleum facilities all over the world. Whether this is a coincidence, or a reflection of today’s cost cutting management practices, needs to be investigated more in depth.
Indian Oil fire in Jaipur continues to burn-faulty operation blamed
Nov 1, 2009- Even after several days have passed, the fire that started in an Indianoil storage tank farm at Jaipur, India continues to burn with intermittent explosions also being reported. After many hours of futile efforts of firefighting, the authorities say that they will allow the fire to burn itself out. Several fatalities have been reported due to the initial blast and subsequent fire, but could not be independently verified. Here is a footage of the fire from a posting on YouTube.
A faulty operation involving transfer of volatile hydrocarbons from tank trucks caused a spillage and is said to be the cause of the accident, although what caused the ignition of this spill is not clear.
