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July 20, 2002 Disputed Nigerian Oil Terminal Hit By Fire
ChevronTexaco said the oil terminal that was targeted by women protesters last week has been hit by a massive blaze, triggered by a lightning strike. The fire broke out in a tank holding 180,000 barrels of crude oil. The firm managed to pump out around 80,000 barrels but the fire raged through the night. Chevron's Escravos oil terminal in southern Nigeria, 320 km (190 miles) east of Lagos, has been at the center of recent protests by local women demanding jobs and investment for their villages. Last week several hundred women who had occupied and blockaded the terminal agreed to stand down their protest after Chevron promised them a school, electricity and clean water.
Source: CSB CIRC
July 20, 2002 Tennessee Oil Well Fire Contained
An oil well fire apparently started during attempts to clean up a leak. More than 200 barrels of oil an hour have been
shooting up from the well, causing a column of black smoke visible 50km away. One minor injury has been reported. A "wildcat
crew" from Highland Drilling first struck oil about 800m underground the previous day and it quickly became apparent that the
find was larger than they had expected. Shortly afterwards, a geyser of oil burst from the earth and tossed the 45 ton oil
rig into the air. Oil and Gas Association officials and Highland Drilling workers used absorbent booms, patches, and other
equipment to control the spill. While they were working, the oil caught fire. One man was slightly injured in the blaze and
several nearby vehicles were destroyed. The well was capped on July 26.
July 28, Turkish LPG Plant Explosion
Tanks at the Akcagaz LPG facility exploded, starting a fire that spread to at least ten houses
near the facility. Those fires, however, were quickly brought under control and authorities evacuated 5,000 people from the
area as a precaution. The facility is close to Tupras, Turkey's largest oil refinery, but the refinery - which caught fire
1999 after a devastating earthquake - was not in any immediate danger. Some reports said a tanker had caught fire while
loading fuel at Akcagaz and flames had spread to nearby storage tanks. At least two persons were injured and four are
missing. The army deployed two helicopters and four aircraft to fight the blaze from the air after rescue services were
unable to reach the depot overland.
July 30, 2002 Norwegian Farm Ammonia Explosion kills 1 Human, 130 Cattle
Unusually warm weather may have caused the explosion of an ammonia tank at a farm which killed one, injured 14 others and
also killed scores of cattle. The person killed was working inside the garage where the ammonia tank was sitting atop a
trailer. Estimates varied as to how many cattle were killed, but the number could be as high as 130. Veterinarians were
forced to put down several animals when they collapsed after inhaling the ammonia gas.
August 9. 2002 Trinidad Seafood Plant Ammonia Leak injures 20
Twenty employees were rushed to hospital after a ruptured line leaked ammonia in the plant's loin freezing section, where
fish parts are frozen before being stored for shipment overseas. According to a statement from Barana, employees were
evacuated from the plant in accordance with emergency instructions. According to Barana: "a preliminary investigation of the
cause of the leak revealed that it was due to human error which occurred in the process of placement in and removal of the
loins from between the freezer plates". However, several employees insisted that the problem had arisen before and was a
result of administrative neglect.
August 9, 2002 BP Gulf Rig Shut Down After Fire
A fire at an adjacent offshore drilling rig forced BP to shut and evacuate a natural gas production platform, cutting about
13 million cubic feet per day of supply. A Diamond Offshore drilling rig had an uncontrolled well situation that flashed into
a fire. No injuries reported. The BP platform, Grand Isle 93C, is located about 60km south of Grand Isle, Louisiana, in the
Gulf of Mexico.
August 9, 2002 Static Blamed in Tennessee Tanker Fire
Static electricity is being blamed for a fire that engulfed a gasoline tanker truck at a fuel storage depot.
The fire erupted from a top-side manhole on the tanker truck, quickly engulfing it, a nearby bulk storage facility and
another empty tanker truck. There was a total of 100,000 gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel on the site. In addition to the
damage at the site, the siding of a nearby house was melted away in the heat, and seven homes and 10 businesses were
evacuated. The driver of the truck was injured, receiving superficial burns and scratches.
August 10, 2002 New York Freight Train Derails, Spills Chemical for Miles
A freight train spilled sodium chlorate powder after one car of a 65-car Canadian Pacific Railway freight derailed and was
dragged for 11km in northern New York state. As the car dragged, a valve sheared off. A driver stopped at a rail crossing
spotted the powder dribbling out as the train passed and managed to flag the train down at the next crossing. It was not
clear how much sodium chlorate powder spilled from the dragging car, but the spill ignited an acre-wide forest fire, which
was quickly contained. No injuries were reported. As a precaution, Essex County officials declared a state of emergency in a
town of about 1,300 people near the Canadian border, but no one was evacuated. The spill began in a residential area and
ended in a rural farming area.
August 11, 2002 North Sea Rig Leak Injures 5
Five people were taken to hospital after suffering minor injuries in a gas leak on an oil and gas platform in the North Sea.
The release occurred during routine maintenance associated with a planned platform shutdown. 235 personnel were on the
platform at the time of the incident.
August 15, 2002 Czech Flooding Leads to Chlorine Leak
Following flooding, chlorine gas was released from the Spolana Neratovice chemical works, owned by Unipetrol. A Unipetrol
spokesman said a third level alert had been issued - the highest before an evacuation is ordered - and the cloud was
dispersing rapidly in the wind. Subsequent releases were reported as the plant was brought back in control. It is now
thought that as much as 840 lbs of chlorine gas, 80 tons of "liquid chlorine", and four containers of alpha olefin could
have been lost during the floods. The containers, hermetically sealed, are lodged in river mud and will require advanced
recovery.
August 16, 2002 Alaskan Well Fire and Explosion Injure 1
An oil field worker suffered burns and broken bones when an explosion and fire broke out at a well. A spokesman for BP
Exploration (Alaska) Inc. said fire-fighters and oil workers needed about six hours to stop a natural gas leak that was
feeding the fire at an enclosed wellhead on A Pad, one of the field's gravel production pads. A roving security officer
spotted the fire, and help arrived on the 60-acre pad within five minutes. The explosion was inside a small metal building
housing the wellhead. The blast blew open doors on the roof of the well house. All three dozen A Pad wells were shut down,
with surface safety valves working as designed on all of them, including the one that caught fire. The gas leak appeared to
come from a point below the safety valve on what is known as the wellhead Christmas tree.
August 18, 2002 Houston Tank Fire Threatens Ship Channel
A fire erupted after an apparent failure of a pipe or expansion joint led to an explosion in a fuel tank along the Houston
Ship Channel, but emergency workers contained the blaze and no injuries were reported. The fire was allowed to burn itself
out, but fire-fighters worked to prevent the sides of the tank from collapsing and dumping oil into the Ship Channel. A
spokesman for Houston Fuel and Oil said about 30,000 barrels of residual fuel used for electricity caught fire. He said about
12 workers were nearby, but all were accounted for. Ship traffic resumed on the channel after about 5 hours, but it was
restricted to a single lane and vessels crept by the fire at reduced speeds so as not to interfere with fireboats or the
containment booms set up by the Coast Guard to trap any leaking oil.
August 19, 2002 Georgia Poultry Plant Ammonia Leak Sickens Employees
An anhydrous ammonia leak at a poultry processing plant sickened 13 workers who were treated
and released from hospital. The Hall County Fire Marshall said the plant employs about 400 people but not all of them were
effected. A compressor seal leak failure was to blame.
August 20, 2002 Dutch Train Leak Injures 7 Responders
Police and fire department officials evacuated parts of the town after a train carrying 70,000
liters of acrylonitrile started leaking. Five police officers and two Dutch railway employees were treated in hospitals for stinging
eyes and noses, but were released shortly afterward. The leak was found during a routine check. After spending seven hours in
Amersfoort, the freight train, en route to the Transpetrol shipping company in Hamburg, Germany, was returned to the port of
Rotterdam where it had originated. was unclear how much acrylonitrile had leaked or how many people were evacuated. The
Amersfoort Fire Commissioner told a news conference the chemicals had been improperly manufactured and did not contain an
important stabilizer.
August 25, 2002 California Man Crushed by Tomato Spill
A man was cleaning up a tomato-paste spill when a crate containing a sealed bag with about 3,000 lbs. of tomato paste
exploded. The explosion caused other crates that were stacked to fall in a domino effect. At least one crate fell on the
victim, who was trapped and crushed in the paste.
August 25, 2002 Japanese Workers Killed During Freighter Recovery
Two workers died and seven others collapsed during a gas leak on a Panamanian freighter that ran aground on July 25. The ship
sustained a split hull and has been stranded ever since. The men were helping to extract fuel oil from the stranded
36,080-ton freighter Co-Op Venture when the gas leak occurred. The coast guard said that local fire department officials
detected hydrogen sulfide gas on the ship.
August 30, 2002 Three Florida Workers Injured During Confined Space Work
Three construction workers were in critical condition after suffering from oxygen deprivation while working
in a manhole. According to the Jacksonville Fire Department, fire and rescue units arrived but could not determine how long
the men were inside the pre-cast concrete manhole. The men were found about 3m down in the hole, where the oxygen level was
about 16 percent, well below the 19.5 percent that's considered oxygen deficient. One man was overcome first, then two other
workers went inside, each to retrieve the other. A police department spokesman said the workers did not have a permit and did
not have a safety harness near the hole.
September 4, 2002 Texas Cooking Oil Explosion Kills, Injures 1
A worker at a cooking oil recycling plant died when a tank of cooking oil exploded. Authorities said another employee was
welding the bottom of the tank filled with cooking oil while the victim applied water to the top of the tank to cool it. The
employee who was welding the tank was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was treated for shock. The victim's body landed in
a nearby parking lot after the explosion threw him about 40 feet. Houston Fire Department said there was minimal damage to the
tank and no fire.
September 4, 2002 Unplanned Reaction Releases Chlorine Cloud at NY
Wastewater Plant
The unplanned mixture of two compounds used to disinfect wastewater triggered a chemical reaction that damaged equipment in
the Oneida County Water Pollution Control Plant disinfection building and released a chlorine cloud outside. The accident
occurred when a truck was off-loading sodium bisulphate into a 10,000 gallon tank. The chemical mixed with about 700 gallons
of sodium hypochlorite still in the tank, causing the reaction. A truck driver and two county employees in other areas of the
building were not injured, although one of the men was examined at St. Elizabeth Medical Center as a precaution. A spokesman
said: "The chemical they started to off-load was supposed to be put in another tank. It looks like it was operator error."
September 6, 2002 India Chlorine Plant Explosion Kills 3, Injures 17- Reactives to Blame
Two persons were killed and 18 injured, three of them seriously, in an explosion in the chlorine filling plant of Gujarat
Alkalis and Chemicals Limited (GACL). One of the injured died later. The accident occurred while a chlorine tanker was being
filled. The operator filling the tanker realised that something was wrong and was moving the tanker to the evacuation bay
when it exploded. The Managing Director of GASL later said the incident might not be a chlorine accident, even though it
happened in a chlorine filling station. He said a preliminary investigation found liquid splashed on the roof, walls and the
floor of the filling area. A sample was taken to the quality control lab where an analysis showed that it was MCA,
monochloro-acetic acid. He said that MCA is not a GACL product and the material had been sitting in a container after being
brought from Transpak Chemicals Ltd on June 25. He suggested that the combination of chlorine and MCA could have caused an
exothermic reaction and an explosion.
September 8, 2002 Iowa Ammonia Leak Blamed on Forklift
A maintenance crew using a forklift struck an anhydrous ammonia line at the IBP meatpacking plant, releasing about 200
gallons of ammonia into the building. An IBP spokesman said the accident involved an ammonia valve in the plant's compressor
room. The plant and about 100 area residents were evacuated and roads in the area were blocked off. The plant does not
operate on Sunday's, but there were about 25 employees, most working on a maintenance team, in the plant at the time of the
accident.
September 9, 2002 German Train Collision Injures 100 Residents
Two freight trains collided head-on, injuring both drivers, derailing several wagons and causing a tanker-car to rupture and
release highly-poisonous epichlorohydrin. Some of the derailed cars began to burn and about three-quarters of an hour later
the tanker carrying epichlorohydrin exploded. Immediately after the accident, approximately 200 nearby resident were
evacuated as a precaution. All residents within 25km of the site were asked to shelter-in-place. On September 14 it was
reported that 106 persons had been treated after complaining of headaches and difficulty breathing. The symptoms began two to
three days after the incident, consistent with phosgene poisoning.
September 10, 2002 Three Greek Refinery Workers Killed During Maintenance
Three workers died after being overcome by fumes in an oil refinery reactor where they were working. According to
the management of the Motor Oil refinery, the men died after inhaling poisonous hydrogen
sulfide fumes. They had not been wearing masks. The men were employees of Mekasol, contracted to change the catalyst in the reactor at the Motor Oil Hellas
refinery near Corinth, about 100km west of Athens. The General Confederation of Greek
Labor said the accident proved "the arbitrary behavior and lack of accountability of employers, and the total lack of safety measures." The Communist Party
spoke of a "crime against the working class."
September 11, 2002 Chinese Freighter Runs Aground, Explodes
An oil tanker seeking shelter from a tropical storm ran into rocks and began
leaking. The captain and 15 seamen safely abandoned ship, but then lit a signal flare which ignited the leaking oil. The
tanker itself then caught fire and exploded. Two crew members were missing and eight suffered serious burns. The tanker was
traveling south from China's Nanjing, a port on the Yangtze River, to Guangzhou, the capital of southern Guangdong province,
with a cargo of solvent oil.
September 12, 2002 Abandoned Italian Ship Runs Aground in South Africa
An abandoned Italian ship, the Jolly Rubino, carrying hazardous material and drifting ablaze ran aground in heavy winds off
Cape St. Lucia, about 600 km east of Johannesburg. The Jolly Rubino had approximately 1,100
ton of fuel oil and 225 tons of gas oil on board. It was transporting an unspecified hazardous material and had been drifting since
two days previous when a raging fire in the engine room forced the crew to abandon her. On 09.14, it was reported that the vessel had begun leaking oil and
was in danger of breaking up. The ship was carrying 400,000 gallons of fuel oil.
September 13, 2002 Texas Railcar Explodes, Causes Evacuation
Employees at the Houston BASF site were working on a railcar containing anhydrous ammonia and cyclohexanone oxime, which is
used in the manufacture of nylon, when a chemical release was reported. The immediate area was evacuated within about ten
minutes and an explosion and fire about ten minutes later. No serious injuries were reported as a result of the incident.
Four individuals were reported to have minor injuries such as cuts and bruises. There was no danger to the community as a
result of the incident, but residents immediately downwind of the site were advised to stay indoors as a precaution during
cleanup of the incident site.
September 13, 2002 Tennessee Distillery Explodes, Injures 6
A major explosion occurred at an alcohol distillery, injuring six workers and halting vehicle and train traffic in the heart
of Atchison. Company officials shut down all of the operations after the explosion, which sparked a fire that burned for more
than six hours. One of the biggest concerns was averting a secondary explosion from the large amount of alcohol in the plant.
Firefighters had to douse 10m flames for more than six hours because equipment that supplies alcohol could not be completely
shut off. It was not clear what the contractors were doing in the plant, but the Atchison Fire Department said outside crews
may have been at the plant to cut up some old tanks. The company manufactures wheat proteins and starches, in addition to
producing beverage alcohol, industrial alcohol and ethanol.
September 15, 2002 Tennessee Train Derailment Causes Mass Evacuation
At least 3,000 people were evacuated after a train carrying 10,000 gallons of fuming
sulfuric acid derailed. The Norfolk Southern railways train was traveling from Knoxville to Birmingham, Alabama, when twenty-four cars of the 141-car train left
the track. The cause remains under investigation. Twenty people and one emergency worker complained of minor skin and lung
irritation and were taken to a hospital.
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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