AcuSafe -> August 2000 Newsletter
  

Incident News Summary: July 18, 2000 - August 18, 2000 

August 18  Refinery Blast in Convent, LA Injures Nine
An explosion at a Motiva refinery injured nine contract workers, seven of whom were treated at a local hospital. None of the injuries were considered life-threatening. The hydrocracking unit was undergoing maintenance at the time of the explosion, but the immediate cause of the accident was not immediately clear. The Motiva facility is a joint venture with Saudi Arabia, Texaco, and Shell Oil.

August 9  Fire at Copper-Zinc Smelter in Manitoba, Canada Seriously Injures Six
Six workers were seriously burned and another six injured slightly in a series of explosions at Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Co.'s operation in the north Manitoba town of Flin Flon (420 miles northwest of Winnipeg). One of the workers died a week later from his injuries and the company closed the plant on 8/17 out of respect for the family. The company, which is a wholly owned unit of Anglo American Plc., said that the cause of the explosion is unknown, but is under investigation.  In a prepared statement the company referred to a single explosion in the reverberatory furnace while it was being cooled down ahead of being shut off for scheduled maintenance. Copper production at the plant would be reduced by less than 1,000 tons because of the incident (out of a total of 95,000 tons produced annually).

August 8  Fire and Explosions at Water Treatment Chemicals Plant in Ontario
Several companies were evacuated and nearby residents were told to shelter in place after the onset of a large fire at a Quatic Industries factory in Guelph, Ontario. The 10-year old factory, which houses a chemical blending and warehousing facility for water treatment, emitted a mixture of corrosive gases and ignited dozens of subsequent explosions at the plant. Some residents complained of throat and skin irritation, but there were no serious injuries reported. 

 
August 7  Fire and Explosion at Indonesia's Balikpapan Refinery
Pertamina's 260,000 bbl/day Balikpapan refinery shut down after the refinery's 20,000 bbl/day secondary unit that processes naphtha into gasoline was damaged in a blast and ensuing fire. Following the fire, two crude distillation units (CDUs) of the refinery were shut, apparently for inspection. Three workers were injured by the explosion which was described as a powerful bomb blast. Indonesia's Mines and Energy Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono warned of plans to sabotage oil refineries and electrical installations throughout Indonesia and said he had asked Pertamina to secure all its refineries. However, an interim report issued by the local police said there was no evidence of terrorist action or sabotage and described the event as an accident.  The fire, which was extinguished in about an hour, shut down the refinery for two days

August 5 Trouble at the Marathon Ashland Petroleum Refinery in Robinson, Illinois
Marathon Ashland Petroleum (MAP) suffered a fire in it Robinson, IL refinery that shut down its 35,000 bbl/day reformer and 25,000 bbl/day hydrocracker units. No repair estimate was immediately available on the two processing units. This fire comes on the heels of unspecified issues at this 175,000-bpd refinery that forced MAP to reduce flow rates on its crude, FCC, and platformer units on July 17.  

August 4  Water Leak in Steel Mill Furnace Causes Small Fire and Explosion 
A water leak from a furnace caused a minor explosion and fire at the Hilton Works steel mills in Hamilton, Ontario. The leak in the furnace's cooling system reportedly caused a safety valve to open to vent pressure, inadvertently allowing oxygen to flow into the vessel, triggering the explosion and fire. The blast furnace remained in reduced operation throughout the day but was back at capacity around 5 pm. According to the company, the incident did not turn out to be serious because people and systems in place responded properly.

August 4  Fire at an Oil Depot Near Istanbul, Turkey
Fire broke out at an oil depot belonging to French-Belgian company TotalFinaElf on Friday in the heavily industrialized town of Dilovasi, about 30 miles from Istanbul. No casualties were reported. The fire started in a lubricant storage tank, but the cause of the fire was not immediately known. Officials suspected an electricity fault had caused the blaze, and the Anatolian news agency reported the contents of a lubricant tank had overheated, causing a blast that ignited the fire.

August 2 Ammonia Leak in Food Processing Plant Forces Downtown Evacuation
An ammonia leak at a Kraft Foods plant forced an evacuation of a two-block area in downtown Bentonville, Arkansas that lasted about two hours after the leak was shut off. No one was injured. At one point ammonia levels in the atmosphere measured at least 60 ppm, according to the fire chief.

August 1  Pipeline Rupture in Canada Affects Pine River Area in Remote Portion of British Columbia
In an area of northeastern British Columbia (approximately 500 miles from Vancouver), a pipeline ruptured spilling 6,300 barrels of crude oil into the Pine River. The resulting oil slick stretched 21 miles along the Pine River, largely resulting in ecological damage and confirmed kills to birds and fish. The Pine River is also used by residents in this rural area for their drinking water supplies. The Federated Western Pipe Line's owner, Calgary-based Pembina Pipeline Corp., said it had not determined the cause of the line break, although an executive said severe weather in the region late on the previous day caused power outages that shut down pumps more than once. Pembina had purchased Federated only one day earlier. The line, which carries oil to a major pipeline in southern British Columbia from northern oil fields, was shut down after the incident. The rupture occurred on a line that can carry 50,000 barrels of oil a day to Kamloops, British Columbia, from Fort St. John, where various producers operate.

August 1 Explosion at Japanese Gunpowder Factory Injures 51
A powerful explosion tore through a gunpowder factory in Aichi prefecture (155 miles west of Tokyo) Tuesday, injuring at least 51 area residents and shattering windows in buildings up to a mile away. The explosion destroyed several buildings at the site and damaged approximately 161 homes offsite. 
Most of those injured in the blast at Nihon Yushi Co.'s gunpowder-making plant were hit by flying glass or other objects. None of the injuries was life-threatening. The cause of the blast was not immediately available.

July 31  Small Explosion, Fire at Phosphate Plant As Plant Begins Shut Down for Major Turnaround Work
The explosion at an IMC Phosphate plant in Convent, LA rattled house windows, but no one was hurt. A 12-inch line of processed gas exploded and caught fire about 75 minutes after the plant began to shut down for major turnaround work, company spokeswoman Rodie Martin said. The crew working in the area had the fire out within five minutes. Damage was reported to be minor.

July 31  Explosion at Specialty Chemical Company Tears Hole in Roof but Causes No Injuries
An explosion felt a mile away tore a hole in the roof of a chemical plant at the Dayton, Nevada Business Park and set fire to a small patch of adjacent desert about noon Sunday, July 31. Four employees inside the 3-year old building owned by Advanced Specialty Gases were uninjured. The company uses hydrofluoric acid and anhydrous ammonia to manufacture nitrogen triflouride,  a cleaning agent in the computer industry. There was concern about a residential community two miles east of the plant, but an evacuation was deemed unnecessary. Employees refused to discuss the explosion or give any information about the company or its operation. A spokesperson for the company said that all safety systems worked as expected.

July 24  Nitric Acid Leak in Chicago Stalls Commuter Traffic and Prompts Area Evacuation
A nitric acid leak at Krel Laboratories on Chicago's west side formed an orange cloud that hung over the area for more than an hour. The factory, which is is next to a major suburban commuter rail line and near Chicago Transit Authority elevated tracks, prompted officials to stop four trains for over an hour, delaying 3000 commuters. There were no report of injuries as a result of the release. The cause of the release was not immediately known.

July 21  Chlorine Release at Chemical Factory in Czech Republic Sidelines Seven Firefighters
In the town of Neratovice, near Prague, seven firefighters were hospitalized after being overcome by chlorine fumes escaping from a chemical factory. The chlorine cloud escaped following the rupture of a pipe, and continued for 9 hours because of difficulty in accessing the pipe. In 1967 and '68, the plant suffered a series of dioxin leaks which seriously injured 5 employees and contaminated three buildings, only one of which has since been decontaminated.

July 19  Ohio Propane Explosion Forces Evacuations
An explosion at an Ohio propane distribution center operated by AmeriGas Propane Inc. injured one person and forced some evacuations. The explosion occurred about 2:30 p.m. EDT in an industrial area at Willoughby, a Cleveland suburb. One person was reported injured and a few residences near the plant were evacuated as a fire continued to burn. According to a company spokesman, a building, loading dock and a number of cylinder-carrying trucks were involved in the fire, but that large, separate 30,000-gallon propane holding tanks were hosed down and were never in danger of exploding. 

July 18 Serious Petrobras Spill in Brazil Affects Iguaco River Area
Brazil suffered one of its worst oil spills ever as more than 1 million gallons of crude leaked from a refinery into a river near the southern city of Curitiba. Petrobras said the accident was ``quite big,'' about three times the size of its last major accident in Rio de Janeiro's Guanabara Bay in January but smaller than Brazil's biggest spill, when roughly 1.6 million gallons were dumped into the same bay in 1974. While Petrobras shut down the broken pipeline, the refinery continued to function normally. The affected waterways are not navigable and the spill was not expected to seriously affect drinking water supplies; the spill is believed to primarily affect local flora and fauna. More than 1000 workers participated in containing the slick with retention barriers and runoff channels 25 miles from the refinery. Immediately following the spill, a Petrobras spokesman blamed both human and mechanical errors saying that the spill was caused by a worker who forgot to open a valve to let incoming oil flow in and then a pipe joint broke before the emergency pressure valve was triggered. On August 1, Brazil's government penalized Petrobras with a record $ 100 million fine for the incident. Following the fine, Petrobras took a sterner approach blaming company management and firing a total of eight unnamed employees, including two senior superintendents, and suspending three others. This is the fourth significant spill for the state oil company since January. 

July 18  Chemical Fire and Explosion at Phoenix Area Plant
An explosion at the AMR Industries Plant in Phoenix, Arizona seriously injured two employees. The two men were working in an area where chemical sludge is placed on plates and into a furnace to dry out. A chemical explosion apparently ignited the fire, but it was not clear what kinds of chemicals were involved because about 15 chemicals were in the sludge and all were vaporized in the fire. The plant is used to refine precious metals.

Sources:
AcuSafe's Incident News Summary is primarily compiled from Reuters and AP news wires, and from information shared on the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board Chemical Incident Reports Center.

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