Advanced Search

Explosion and fire at a chemical plant

  • PAYS-BAS
In a chemical plant producing mainly cellulose derivatives, an explosion and fire occurred at about 4 pm during the restart of a production line stopped for 9 h after a breakdown. The commissioning of the vacuum belt filter by the[...]
Read more

H2S release in a refinery

  • BELGIQUE
At 11.57 AM a power failure occurred in a refinery. The supply of electrical power was cut off, as a result of the failure of the main power line during maintenance. Because of this the refinery was almost completely powerless,[...]
Read more

Methomyl explosion and fire at a pesticide plant

  • ETATS-UNIS
Inside a pesticides plant with 520 employees, a 17-m³ reservoir used to treat methomyl residues in a methylisobutyl ketone (MTBK) solvent suddenly rose in pressure at 10:20 pm and exploded 15 min later, seriously damaging the production unit, ripping apart[...]
Read more

Breakage of an oil tank

  • FRANCE
The bottom of a 13,500 m³ containing 12,000 m³ of light crude oil tank ripped open at 8:00 am within an oil depot. The earthen dikes surrounding the retention basin withstood the wave effect; 2,000 m³ of oil still overflowed[...]
Read more

Release of LPG at a railcar tank Loading station

  • FRANCE
Approximately 2 kg of propane were released into the atmosphere at an LPG filling centre (Seveso installation) and designed to supply customers throughout the region.A tank car was moved while it was being loaded, causing a gas leak. Positioned at[...]
Read more

Leak on grey cast iron pipe

  • FRANCE
At around 5 p.m., a massive explosion destroyed a 4-storey building consisting of 10 flats, killing 17 people and injuring 15 others. Two semi-detached council housing buildings were damaged (10 flats). One hundred firemen intervened, assisted by search and rescue teams:[...]
Read more

Explosion in a pharmaceutical factory

  • AUTRICHE
In a chemical plant, an explosion occurred when a glyoxylic acid production line using the ozonisation technique was re-started. The facility was destroyed a year ago by an explosion followed by a fire (ARIA 25337). The internal emergency plan and the[...]
Read more

Pollution of a river

  • FRANCE
Analyses carried out on the residual water at the discharge point of a waste water treatment plant at a chemical plant manufacturing a basic organic product revealed that the thresholds of the standards stipulated by prefectural order had been significantly[...]
Read more

Explosion followed by a fire in a laboratory

  • FRANCE
At a chemical facility, an explosion and fire occurred around 5 pm inside a laboratory on the first floor of a 4-storey, 400-m² building. The personnel were evacuated and the internal emergency plan activated. Air samples extracted from the premises[...]
Read more