June 21, 2011

Electric heaters + Flammable material = Fire!

A court in UK has imposed a fine of 1.24 million pounds for an explosion in a tank in a gas terminal. A press release from HSE UK mentions the following:

"Investigators traced the cause of the explosion to a leak of highly flammable hydrocarbon liquid into a part of the plant responsible for treating waste water before discharging it into the sea.The leak was caused by the failure of a corroded metal separator vessel, which allowed water contaminated with the highly flammable condensate to enter a concrete storage tank where it was heated by an electric heater. The heater's elements were exposed within the tank, raising the surface temperature significantly causing the explosion and fire"
Read the press release in this link

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