February 17, 2010

"Non observance of safety norms caused Jaipur oil depot fire"- investigation report

The investigation committee into the Jaipur oil depot fire has pointed out the lack of written operating procedures, absence of leak stopping devices and lack of understanding of hazards and risks as root causes of the incident. See this report for further details.
The committee also has recommended improving operating discipline. This requires a lot of commitment from top management. Operating discipline is easy to bypass in times of cost pressures. I have observed many times that incidents are caused when operating discipline is set aside even though management knows that it is being bypassed. Process Safety Audit reports should be given due weightage by management. The observations pointed out in the audit report are indicators that something is wrong and unless they are attended and root causes are found out, a big incident could occur. How many times can we be lucky?
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