The health and safety executive has issued a safety alert to operators of fuel storage sites, following an initial progress report into the Buncefield explosion and fire last December.
The HSE has asked operators with consent to store quantities of oil or other fuels that make them subject to the Control of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH) Regulations 1999, to review their operations in the light of the investigation so far.
The safety alert says the Buncefield incident shows that a very large hydrocarbon leak could create a massive explosion, with a destructive power beyond the worst case scenarios previously envisaged. “The incident is a reminder of the need for operators to maintain the highest levels of plant integrity and operational capability.”
The advice says that operators should:
– review the safety of their operations and plant to ensure that major accident hazards are being well managed
– ensure that staff are adequately trained and competent to manage these hazardous operations
– ensure that management systems are robust and subject to effective review
– ensure that relevant good practice precautions are in place and fully operational, and
– ensure that there are appropriate measures in place for responding to, and dealing with, emergencies involving loss of containment.
The HSE will work with relevant trade associations to develop a targeted and nationally consistent plan. Operators are asked to submit the outcomes of their reviews by Easter. In addition, this will be accompanied by targeted HSE inspections to:
– confirm the pattern of storage of flammable substances and review storage tank utilisation
– review preventive and mitigation measures in place
– review the adequacy of maintenance arrangements for storage tanks and bunds, and their associated safety critical equipment, such as level-measuring and alarm systems
– check that assumptions have been reviewed for detecting and dealing with loss of containment and flammable atmospheres, and
– encourage operators to review and promote sharing of information.
Meanwhile the Buncefield Major Incident Investigation Board has issued a progress report, which does not constitute a substantive initial report, as some of the main facts have yet to be established. It says that a key task will be to establish exactly how the flammable mixture that caused the explosion was able to form.
Among its initial conclusions, the investigation says that the explosion(s) were probably due to the ignition of a flammable mixture associated with the visible mist seen by eye-witnesses and recorded on CCTV footage. This is assumed to have arisen from the evaporation of more volatile fractions of an escape fuel.
Although the source of the fuel release is not yet known, CCTV footage indicated it was in the vicinity of bund A on the HOSL part of the site. The main explosion seems to have been in the car park area between this part of the site and the office buildings of Fuji and Northgate, two of the businesses badly affected by the incident.
For the full report go to: www.buncefieldinvestigation.gov.uk
I truly hope that fuel storage and their operators are not only required to have adequate safety measures installed in their premises only when there’s a fire or accident going on! That’s just horrible and not a good solution to the problem which is that the companies and their storage facilities should be better managed from square one!