A fire started in the creosote impregnation plant, sometime before 09:57 on Sunday the 24th of May 2015. This is where the impregnation of power and telephone poles normally takes place. The automatic fire alarm went off to the SOS Alarm Centre who alarmed the emergency response. Approximately 200 (metric) tons creosote oil was stored in the impregnation plant together with equipment for running the impregnation process such as (pressurized) impregnation cylinders,  transport pumps, vacuum pumps, pipes etc. The fire was extensive and the whole creosote impregnation plant burned down. Parts of the building connected to the impregnation was also ruined and other parts were demolished in order to prevent spreading of the fire. The emergency response services called in several emergency response teams and when the most, there were 35 rescuers from 5 different teams. The fire was fought with water and foam additives. All the water from fire fighting  was left in the concrete kasuns/pools that were casted under the impregnation impregnation cylinder. This fire fighting water, totally 841 tons, and 220 tons with unspecified environmentally dangerous building material, was later sent for destruction. An investigation including soil samplings has been made.

The site is an impregnation plant for impregnation of railways sleepers, power and telephone poles and was built 1996. The plant uses 3000 tons/year creosote oil. The site is located a couple kilometers from nearest populated area. A railway main line is situated close to the site.

Installation Description

Impregnation unit for Creosote with 2 impregnation cylinders, 4 vacuum pumps, 3 transport pumps, 2 pressure pumps, 3 heat exchangers, 3 storage tanks of 65m3 and 1 of 100m3, more than 230 tons of Creosote oil, 1 fan to send Creosote gas to combustion, condensate pumps, 3 compressor units and 60 pneumatic valves and 100 of meters of pipes.The impregnation plant is built upon a embanked concrete plate. There are also pools for collecting the creosote oil in case of leakage.

Consequences Description

Octowood has transferred production to other sites but has not been able to produce in full capacity. The new rebuilt factory will be ready to be used more than one year after the fire.

Emergency responsePositive experience

• Knowledge of the site. Use staff from the site as consultancy under the operation (and preferably with knowledge from fire fighting, for instance part-time fire fighters).
• Capacity to take care of water from fire fighting to avoid it spreading to soil.

Developements

• Fast cooling of the fire with automatic sprinkling systems or first response in order to prevent the fire from spreading.
• Gathering of resources of the fire fighting capacity early to a mustering of strength in order to extinguish/reduce the fire.
• Store personel equipment for the company’s own fire fighters on site (they are also the communitys part-time fire fighters).

BarriersPositive experience

• Embankment around the building and the capacity of the pools under the impregnation plant made it possible to collect the water from fire fighting and the creosote oil. 

Developements

• Fast cooling of the fire with automatic sprinkling systems or first response in order to prevent the fire from spreading.
• Separation of possible ignition sources, i.e. electrical equipment, from other processes.

Environmental issues

• A strategy or plan for environmental soil sampling is important. It could be useful to take soil samplings before an accident on strategic points in order to have a zero value to compare with when doing soil sampling after an accident.

Insurances

• The importance for a company to have insurance against disruption of production and the risk of damage to outsiders or third persons.
• The importance of the insurance company decision regarding installation of prevention measures and their judgement of risk.