A catering facility (handling 35 tonnes/day), in the process of obtaining administrative authorisations, ignited (due to flames or a short circuit?) around 1:10 pm at the periphery of an industrial zone. 4,000 m² were destroyed within 17 min, followed by[...]
Inside a motor factory the day after a pressure test was conducted on a double-shell tank containing hydrocarbons, pollutants spilled into the ENNS River; local fishermen made the discovery. This pollution outbreak affected 35 km of river length and 3[...]
The dike on a storage basin for pyrite mining waste broke over a 50-m length following a landslide. 4 million tonnes of acidic water plus 3 million tonnes of sludge containing Zn, Fe, Cu, Pb and As (0.3 g/l) reached[...]
On a tubular exchanger, a disc broke over ¼ of its cross-section at 4:50 am during a pressure surge in the liquid ammonia (NH3) circuit connecting medium-pressure NH3 storage cells to a urea workshop operating under stable conditions. A valve[...]
In a port zone, 28 of the 44 vertical cylindrical concrete cells of a 37,150-tonne cereal silo exploded during the transfer of corn from a lorry to the port storage facilities. The silo was nearly full, and the intermediate gates[...]
A malicious fire broke out at 4.20 pm in a warehouse with 30,000 m² of covered area over two levels that housed archives and a reefer shed including a decommissioned refrigeration unit containing 5 tonnes of ammonia (NH3). The flame[...]
Fire broke out in a low-pressure hydrogenation unit at a chemical plant. The unit's fire detectors sounded the alarm while the 1st process phase (hydrogenation of phenylacetylcarbinol with benzylamine in an isopropyl alcohol solution using a catalyst) was ongoing. An[...]
In the attic of a slaughterhouse, 2.2 tonnes of ammonia (NH3) intended for recycling back to the unit leaked onto a solenoid valve on the low-pressure return circuit of a ground beef freezer. Employees were evacuated for 24 hrs, 40[...]
At a facility specialised in renovating gas cisterns (degassing, washing, painting), a 2.3-m³ tank exploded during welding work. One worker was propelled 10 m and away died, 5 other employees sustained slight injuries and had to be hospitalised. A third[...]
In a synthetic rubber unit, a pressure spike on the demineralised water network at 3:30 pm began disturbing height verification performed at the cement/water + catalyst interface in a settling basin, causing 10 to 15 tonnes of cement to be[...]
