Aug 13, 2015, Tianjin, China– For those who think warehouse safety is merely slip and fall protection for workers in a warehouse, think again. The Tianjin warehouse incident has shown that chemical warehouse safety is much more important, as compared to the standard warehouse safety protocols and trainings out there. When hazardous, toxic or other dangerous materials are stored in a warehouse, then safety of the warehouse itself and surroundings, including environmental impact, people impact and impact (literally) on buildings surrounding it is real.
See the aerial footage below captured by a drone from the Tianjin warehouse explosion. It looks like a war zone, rather than a warehousing area of a busy port.
Chemical warehouse safety is a totally different ball game altogether. All warehouses are not the same. An Amazon warehouse that stores and ships books or electronic gadgets, is not the same as a warehouse in Tianjin that stores highly hazardous chemicals. Both are as different as chalk from Cheese. And both require different standards and procedures of design, operation and safety.
This is why we feel that Chemical Warehouse Safety needs to get more seriousness from managers and safety professionals all over the world. It is not only oil refineries and offshore production platforms that can be the source of disastrous explosions, fires and environmental incidents, it can also be warehouses sitting in a busy port city.