At around 11:30 a.m., a flash in the presence of petrol fumes occurred inside the manhole of one of the three compartments (two containing SP95 and one containing E10) of a 60 m³ underground fuel tank at the petrol station of a[...]
Although the practice of technical feedback seems complex and costly, its contribution to the safety of installations is inestimable: it helps to identify and prevent accidental contexts that could not be detected otherwise. Learning lessons from the past is also[...]
Risk management stakeholders' attention is naturally focused on the identification and reduction of hazard potentials, as well as on technical and organizational measures to reduce the likelihood of accidents. Whatever the effectiveness of the latter, the risk management approach can[...]
In recent decades, companies have developed technical measures to improve the reliability of their installations over time and to prevent industrial risks. Safety management systems were then put in place to ensure the robustness of the whole. Progress has been[...]
Around 8:00 a.m., an operator smelled mercaptans (strong-smelling gas 110 °C). The operators assigned to performing weekend rounds failed to notice that the mixer was operating although the light on the panel was lit and the shaft at the top of the[...]
Fire was detected at 10:05 pm in the stainless steel sheet stripping unit of an upper-tier Seveso metallurgical plant. The surface treatment line, composed of 7 unheated polypropylene tanks (5 containing hydrochloric acid, 1 containing hydrofluoric acid, 1 containing nitric[...]
At 2:30 pm inside a paper mill located 5 km east of Arcachon Bay, a 5,000-m³ black liquor tank ruptured. Black liquor is a highly alkaline paper manufacturing residue composed of organic matter, soda and other chemical products; it serves[...]
Around 10:30 pm in the isocyanate unit at a chemical plant, a sensor detected a rapid conductivity rise in a heat exchanger, in which phosgene (COCl2) pressurised to tens of bar was being reheated with water vapour at 28 bar before[...]
At 6:56 pm inside a warehouse for phytosanitary products assigned an upper-tier Seveso classification, the activation of a foam-based automatic extinction system installed in a 1,000-m² cell brought fire-fighters to the scene 44 min later. By the time responders arrived,[...]
A kerosene leak (A1 jet category) was detected on a pipeline (nominal diameter DN: 108, pressure: 13.8 bar, operational since: 1942) connecting a refinery to a storage area outside the oil platform site. The quantity of lost product was estimated[...]
