3 replies to this topic

[ShaunHill]

I recently heard that there was an explosion at BP's Texas City refinery near Houston.

The details were sketchy. Does anyone know what happened?

I'm hoping this could be a chance to start some discussion on plant fire safety, if we can understand what some potential causes are.
As engineers, it is important for us to look at these kind of events to make sure that our own practices will not result in a similar failure.

[Art Montemayor]

Shaun:

I agree 100% with everything you write and even more. You can try to go to :

http://www.chron.com...politan/2476496

to see some pictures of the horror in such an industrial accident.

I have had to contend with various personal feelings when I heard this terrible news:

1. I have a brother and a nephew working at that site; they've both been spared, thank God. But my brother was very seriously injured -2nd and 3rd degree burns from hot, preheated crude while removing a safety relief valve at an elevation of 30 feet about 7 years ago. This was something that sent a rage through my body when I discovered that my brother was ordered to do this in spite of his suspicions and protests that the installation had no indication that the line was empty or that there was no temperature or pressure indications on the line. He was ordered to follow orders or be laid off. He followed orders and he and 3 other workers were severely burned. My brother still works there in the instrument shop. You can't sue your employer for repeated stupidity and negligence in safety - that's what lawyers told him. This is not about suing; it's about the fact that the same incident had happened months before on a similar crude line that was left hot and pressurized while still labeled as drained and purged for maintenance.

2. I was born and raised in Galveston, Texas directly across Galveston bay and 15 miles from this site; I have a lot of friends and family in the area and who work there. This refinery has a miserable and disgusting reputation for stupidity and lack of safety concerns for their equipment and much less for their workers. I personally know that their safety record is a disgrace and they undergo this type of "accidents" every week. My brother's accident happened while it was Amoco's refinery; now that BP has bought the "hot potato", the situation still continues.

3. So, as you can see, when I hear of this incident - this makes it very personal. I don't know how to stop this type of industrial carnage except to complain and threaten the federal government; I certainly hate to resort to this, but the situation doesn't seem to improve but steadily gets worse and worse.

I believe that Chris Haslego may have some input or information regarding how to legally get official reports on this type of incident from federal or local authorities. If so, maybe we can get Chris to give us his information on this thread or on the forum. In fact, I would certainly like to see a forum on this website dedicated to nothing more than the reporting, discussion and investigating of industrial accidents and how to avoid and prevent them by applying best practices and historical, factual evidence.

It makes me very proud to see that there are some young engineers out there that are intelligent and resourceful enough to see that it is plain stupidity to keep repeating bad historical events by repeating our mistakes. Why does our society foment the acts of keeping our mistakes and stupidity in closets or sweeping them under the rug? If we don't learn from history, we're going to be condemned to repeat it....

I hope some other interested and irate Chemical Engineers join in on this thread with their ideas and thoughts on the subject. Guys, there isn't enough money in the world that our employers can pay us to risk our lives while we carry out our jobs. That is not logical, fair, necessary, and much less engineering! That's suicide. I'm afraid unless we speak up, lawyers are going to be working overtime to sweep this incident under the rug once again. And our multi-millionaire national TV anchors will stay away from the subject - until the next time. That's the way these "accidents" have been dealt with in the past.

[mbeychok]

Shaun Hill:

If you will use Google to search for the keywords BP Explosion Texas City, you will find a number of news articles regarding the accident. It is much too early to find any sources of real information regarding the cause.

Within a month or so, you might find some information at the web site of the Federal government's Chemical Safety Board at www.csb.gov since BP must file an investigative report with them.

[Chris Haslego]

Great idea to start a dedicated forum on the topic of plant safety. It's done. You can find it on the forum homepage. Let's help prevent future incidents!