Pollution
Humain
Environnement
Economique

Fire broke out in the hydrocarbon deposit pumping station located southeast of the deposit between a retention basin for 2 diesel tanks and the site boundary. This station comprised 3 vertical pump installations and was dedicated to transferring ordinary home heating oil, in conjunction with 2 nearby tanks. On the day of the accident, the station contained just 2 pumps as the third one was undergoing maintenance by the supplier, who was also responsible for periodic equipment inspection on-site. Around 5 pm, a technician noticed smoke originating from the pumping station and sounded the alarm by activating the pushbutton emergency stop switch, thereby shutting down all facility activities. An employee was assigned to the office to oversee communications with the outside. Very quickly, the station’s retention basin was ablaze, with efforts to control the outbreak using two 5-kg extinguishers followed by two 50-kg extinguishers proving unsuccessful. A foam gun was then deployed, resulting in extinction at 5:25 pm. The gantry crane continued to be cooled until 6 pm. No heating oil left the basin. Losses were basically confined to equipment: both pumps were inoperable, and the electrical installation was heavily damaged. Ordinary heating oil deliveries were suspended until the pumping station could be restarted. An initial hypothesis forwarded by the station operator focused on the heating of fittings for one of the pumps. An inspection of both pumps was scheduled to determine the cause of this fire. Moreover, the operator planned on equipping the damaged station with numerous detectors (flame, hydrocarbon, etc.) as well as video surveillance. Inspection authorities requested that the operator update facility emergency management procedures, given that the internal emergency plan had not provided a comprehensive response: operations alarms were delayed or non-existent.