Inside a plant specialised in thio-chemistry, an explosion occurred at 9:55 am on a unit undergoing a restart procedure, less than one year after major facility modifications. Following the unintentional intake of ammonia into the oven on an acid nitrosyl[...]
An explosion perceived tens of km around and an ensuing fire destroyed 1,000 of the 4,000 m² of a hydrogen peroxide unit (H2O2) located near a series of hydrogen and chlorine tanks. The fire spread into the adjoining sewers, and[...]
Within a refinery storage zone, the shell of a fragile 15,000-m³ tank (at the end of its filling cycle) containing 13,500 m³ of HTS residue (at 130°C) split open. The flow of HC then destroyed two other tanks (15,000 m³[...]
An explosion and a fire occurred during the night in a chemical plant during the manufacture of a silicon oil- and additive-based waterproofing agent. A junior technician (hired 6 months back), recently assigned to this post, was left without supervision[...]
At a warehouse storing unknown contents, the self-sustaining decomposition of a stockpile of 850 tonnes of fertiliser NPK 15-8-22 delivered five days earlier caused the formation of a cloud 10 km long heading westward; in this cloud, the presence of[...]
A fire broke out within a warehouse (depot 956) containing phytosanitary products south of Basel. The first responders had been on the scene for 20 min. when fire-fighting teams from neighbouring sites arrived to provide backup. The 80-m high flames[...]
At a pesticide manufacturing plant set up in 1969, a release of about 40 tonnes of methyl isocyanate (MIC) and other toxic gases continued for 2 hours during the night of 2nd to 3rd December, subsequent to a runaway reaction[...]
A chemical plant that had stopped its production for the weekend released a toxic cloud containing 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzodioxin into the atmosphere : 6½ hours earlier, at the end of the shift, the production cycle of 1,2,4,5-trichlorophenol had been stopped while only[...]
