An explosion occurred at 1:30 am inside an urban heating plant (500 MW, 6,000 m² floor area), with the energy dissipated into the ground estimated at the equivalent of a 50 kg charge of TNT. Operational since 1987, this heating[...]
Inside a pectin extraction unit at a food processing plant, 102 m³ of nitrous vapours were discharged into the atmosphere during 1 or 2 min, following bursting of the rupture disc on a reactor. Fire-fighters were called to the scene,[...]
Fire followed by explosion struck a (32-m³) road tanker during a transfer operation at a depot storing home heating oil and diesel (3 underground 30-m³ tanks, 3 aboveground 70-m³ tanks) subsequent to a fuel oil leak at the transfer hose[...]
An exothermic runaway reaction triggered an explosion and subsequent fire in a workshop at a pharmaceutical plant during a reduction step carried out inside a reactor inerted with nitrogen; this reduction was being performed in an anhydrous environment on an[...]
An explosion occurred around 12:30 pm on a cadmium vaporization column inside a unit devoted to refining zinc by means of fractional distillation. A cloud of zinc vapour and zinc oxide powder (?), combining to form an opaque white fog,[...]
While transferring concentrated liquid waste inside a chemical plant, a tanker lorry driver died. He arrived at 9:30 am at the reception area and was joined in the transfer zone by the plant's safety engineer. The transfer from tank to 2[...]
A series of explosions occurred on a Sunday afternoon inside a pyrotechnic facility, when only the guardian was onsite. He sounded the alarm. The fire would have been ignited in warehouse D22 by the fall (most likely caused by rodents,[...]
A release of hydrochloric acid vapours occurred during cleaning of a 50-m³ tank that had contained sulphur chloride. The water introduced by site technicians reacted with the sludge at the tank bottom (approx. 30-mm thick), composed for 50% of sulphur[...]
A tank glazed with 85% H2SO4 ruptured leading to a workshop to close down for five days in an explosives factory. Given the waste acid storage autonomy period of four days for production, 3 tank trucks hired in February and[...]
The number of casualties resulting from the Florrifoux silo explosions is high: 5 dead and 4 injured. Debris were scattered over a 100-m radius, windows were broken and damages to homes were observed as far as 300 m away. This[...]
