March
19, 2002 Ammonia Explosion Injures 2
An anhydrous ammonia explosion sent a Harrison County, MO. man to the hospital in serious condition and injured a nearby customer. The tank of a pickup was being filled from the business’s large anhydrous ammonia storage tank when the driver left the vehicle. The vehicle rolled, possibly because it came out of gear, and disconnected the filling apparatus. The chemical fertilizer spilled and exploded.
Source: CSB CIRC
March 13, 2002 Plant Train Derailment
leads to Evacuation
About 35 people were ordered to leave their homes after Norfolk Southern Corp. cars derailed at the Sunoco Chemicals plant in Wayne County, West Virginia, Emergency officials said the evacuation was a precaution because one car was carrying 30,000 gallons of liquefied petroleum gas. The plant's trackmobile operator was preparing to throw a switch that would have sent the train onto a section of plant-owned track, but he did not have time to do so because the cars approached so quickly. The train crashed into the
trackmobile, which then hit a string of empty hopper cars sitting alongside two silos. Two hopper cars were derailed and a third was damaged.
Source: CSB CIRC
March 12, 2002 California Truck Accident Leads to Wine Spill
About 13,000 liters of white wine spilled from a broken steel tank after the semi-trailer's driver lost control going around a slight curve and overturned. The driver was not injured. A spokeswoman with the California Highway Patrol said the wine was probably Chardonnay, adding that Chardonnay could be toxic to drinking water, but since it did not run into a stream or groundwater, posed no risk.
March 10, 2002 Wyoming Oil Field Tank Explosion Damages Nearby Home
A nearly empty oil field tank exploded and sent the 7m diameter lid of the tank into a nearby trailer home. A woman and her 10-week-old infant inside the home were not injured. Also uninjured were three employees of Orcan Oil Field Services who were working near the tank, owned by Jim's Water Service.
March 9, 2002 Explosion Rocks Wa. State Oil Refinery
An explosion in a de-asphalter unit sparked a fire at the Tesoro oil refinery. The de-asphalter and a nearby processing unit that refines crude oil were temporarily shut down as a precaution. No injuries were reported. It was unclear what caused the explosion.
March 8, 2002 Marin County, CA Firefighting Foam Spill Kills Fish
A spill of firefighting foam in Larsen Creek, a Marin County salmon stream, killed at least 20 fish. Firefighters were putting down a fire in a school outbuilding in San Geronimo when a burst valve on a fire truck spilled 20
liters of concentrated Silv-Ex, a mixture of sodium and ammonium salts, water, alcohol and butyl carbinol. The mixture splashed into a drain that flows directly into the creek and formed large quantities of foam as far as 3 km downstream.
March 6, 2002 Oklahoma Gas Plant Explosion Injures 2
Two men were critically injured in an explosion at a natural gas processing plant. The explosion severely damaged one-third of the
center portion of the nearly 200 m long building. A preliminary investigation indicates the explosion occurred in one of the compressors which may have been under maintenance.
March 6, 2002 Indian Explosives Facility Explodes, killing 20
At least 20 people were killed, many others critically injured and 10 houses were destroyed in a massive explosion which occurred near a warehouse storing explosives and detonators. Police said the incident took place when a local dealer was unloading the explosives at his warehouse. The explosives had been intended for stone quarrying work.
March 6, 2002 German, Danish Soldiers Killed in
Missile Accident
Two German and three Danish soldiers died and eight others were injured as they attempted to destroy two Russian-made SA-3 ground-to-air missiles with a controlled explosion at a munitions site near Kabul.
March 6, 2002 Thieves Cause Major Ammonia Leak
About 3,400 liters of anhydrous ammonia leaked from a delivery vehicle after an attempt to steal the product for the manufacture of methamphetamine. The leak forced residents near the LaPorte County Co-Op to temporarily evacuate their homes for about 2 hours. Berrien County Sheriff's office said evidence at the scene indicated one or more persons had attempted to connect the 20-pound tank to the 1,000-gallon delivery vehicle with a hose and a valve. The pressure was too high and caused the connection to fail, resulting in the leak.
March 4, 2002 HF Leak From Oklahoma
Refinery
Four refinery employees were affected by a small release of hydrocarbon and hydrofluoric acid vapours. Two were flown to hospital for precautionary treatment and two were sent to a local medical centre for outpatient observation. The release occurred at the alkylation unit, which was brought down on three days previously for turnaround maintenance. The unit was being purged with nitrogen to remove any remaining liquids when a small quantity of hydrocarbon and hydrofluoric acid vapour mixture was released. The release had no adverse environmental impact and did not affect refinery production since the facility was already shutdown for turnaround repair.
March 3, 2002 Kiwi Thieves Steal HF Acid Containers
Thirteen 20-liter containers, containing hydrofluoric acid were stolen from an East Tamaki chemical company. The Senior Sergeant of Otara said thieves probably took the chemical thinking it could be used to manufacture illegal drugs. The acid is actually used for stripping metals and separating rocks and has no use in drug manufacture. Three days later police in Auckland confirmed that they had found one of the stolen containers.
March 1, 2002 Indonesian Well Blowout causes Rig Damage, Evacuation
TotalFinaElf E&P Indonesia said its gas production in East Kalimantan dropped by 130 million cubic feet per day (MMCFD) due to a blow-out at the Maera drilling barge in the Tunu field. A fire started and spread on the rig. The blow-out forced the company to evacuate all its workers and stop its operation at the Maera well, in addition to seven nearby wells for security reasons. The company's gas supplies to the Badak LNG plant were unaffected.
March 1, 2002 Japanese Nuclear Fuel Facility Leaks Again
Officials admitted on March 8 that they had found another radioactive water leak in a cooling tank at a nuclear fuel storage facility. The leak is coming from the same cooling tank that developed a leak in July of 2001 and which technicians were unable to isolate using an underwater camera. Leaking water is captured and sent to a waste-water disposal facility where the water's radioactivity level is reduced to meet Japanese environmental standards and is discharged into the ocean.
February 27, 2002 Power Failure causes California Nuclear Plant Shutdown
A backup transmission connection that was in use during repairs at the San Onofre substation failed , necessitating that San Diego Gas & Electric cut power to about 210,000 customers without warning. The failure caused Southern California Edison's San Onofre Unit 3 nuclear reactor to shut down. The loss of 1,100 megawatts of capacity resulted in the California Independent System Operator ordering SDG&E to cut 300 megawatts of demand to head off a blackout in San Diego.
February 26, 2002 Confusion leads to Extended Chicago Gas Leak
City workers repairing a sewer line ruptured a gas line, causing Chicago's largest natural gas outage in a quarter-century. The crew encountered an abandoned cast-iron pipe in the ground, and in attempting to remove it they accidentally broke the gas line. A propane heater crews were using ignited the leaking gas, causing an explosion felt blocks away and leading to a fire with flames shooting 60 ft into the air. Two workers suffered minor burns, and three homes sustained damage. According to some reports, because of the peculiarities of the ageing gas infrastructure, it took three hours to determine which gas lines had leaked.
February 25, 2002 Kiwis Lose Gas Supply for 22 hours
An eight millimeter thick gas pipe, running a meter below ground, was severed by a contractor's bulldozer, cutting off 65,000 commercial and private natural gas consumers. Repairing the pipe meant shutting off gas to the lower North Island and the Hawkes Bay. NGC says the pipe was dug up from an area of land administered by NGC on a private farm, and no permit had been issued for the work. Gas supplies were restored after a 22-hour outage.
February 24, 2002 Illinois Anhydrous Ammonia Leak Caused by Thieves?
Thieves apparently caused a cloud of anhydrous ammonia to blow over Illinois Route 142 requiring the closing of the highway until the tank could be shut off. According to a Saline County Sheriff's report, a cloud sprayed from the tank farm area of the Twin County Services FS plant. Employees estimated 450 kg of anhydrous ammonia was lost in the leak. Deputies notified area hospitals to be on the lookout for possible chemical burn victims that might come in for treatment, believing whoever tapped the tank may have been injured in the process
February 24, 2002 Utah Substation Damaged by Mysterious Explosion
A power outage caused by an incident at a substation near Salt Lake City International Airport disrupted service to 33,000 Utah Power customers for about two hours and was indirectly responsible for a fire at the Tesoro refinery. Later the FBI said that the explosion was not caused by equipment failure and it is investigating the possibility that the outage was caused by a bomb after it was found that a security fence had been cut. The bureau said in a statement that investigators do not think the explosion was the work of terrorists or was related to the Winter Olympics. This substation, which is surrounded by open fields, had 24-hour security on site and was surrounded by a 6-foot fence, topped by three strands of barbed wire.
February 24, 2002 Power Outage leads to Multiple Fires at Utah Refinery
A regional power outage, caused by an incident at a substation near Salt Lake City International Airport, knocked out most of the Tesoro oil refinery north of Salt Lake City. As the refinery was starting back up, a relief valve in the catalytic converter released some oil-soaked catalyst. The material hit the catalyst regenerator, which was at a temperature of about 1,300 degrees, and caught fire. After the fire had been extinguished, the relief valve again released the material, causing another fire.
February 21, 2002 Dust Cloud Explosion Injures 2
Two employees suffered minor injuries in an explosion in the dust collection system at a Wisconsin wood processing facility. Firefighters were also told that a fire on the inside involved a sanding unit. Cause of the explosion and fire are under investigation.
Sources and Disclaimer:
AcuSafe's Incident News Summary is primarily compiled from news wires, online
sources, and from information shared on the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board Chemical Incident Reports Center. An effort has been made to summarize stories only from reputable sources, but neither AcuSafe nor AcuTech Consulting can guarantee the accuracy of the story, nor do they necessarily reflect the views of AcuTech, AcuSafe, and its staff.
All information accessed in this report is public domain information. We make no effort to independently corroborate the accuracy of the incident news stories.
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