Blast/explosion during welding on oil tanker dismantling causes deaths/injuries

Loud blast due to explosion during welding on a oil tanker parked in ship breaking yard, caused more than 10 deaths and injuries to about 50 persons. 8 explosions took place during the incident. A fire followed the explosion. Rescue efforts were hindered due to explosions and fire.
It is stated that about 100 persons were working in the ship tanker at the time of the incident.
To protect themselves, some of the workers jumped in to the sea, after the explosion.

The photos of the incident reveal massive destruction can be seen.


Earlier, three months ago, in another blast during explosion on a oil tanker in oil terminal, during welding, three persons died and two were injured.

LPG explosion during welding inside a pipeline

While doing welding inside a pipeline below the ground level, with LPG gas cylinder outside at ground level, there was an explosion inside the pipeline. Unable to escape, four persons inside suffered burns. One person received 87% burns.

The reasons for gas leakage into the pipeline are not known. Poor quality of hoses, not following confined work procedures (like checking the flammable atmosphere, oxygen levels, having arrangement for emergency escape, buddy system), etc can be possible reasons.

The report can be read from the link below.



http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Four-welders-suffer-burn-injuries/articleshow/53757037.cms

Loss from IOC Hazira fire - Rs 45 crores

In a blast and fire incident at the oil depot of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) at Hazira on 05.01.2013 at about 1230 hr,  three persons were found dead (charred to death). It took 24 hr to extinguish the fire. Atleast 75 fire tenders and 30 water tankers of government and private organizations involved in fire fighting measures used 70 lakh liters of water and 80 lakh liters of foam. The fire incident after a blast reportedly happened during welding on tank no. 4 to arrest the leak. The tank contained about 55 lakh liters of diesel (or petrol ?). All three persons died were not regular employees and financial loss was estimated as Rs 45 crores.
The depot did not have any fire tender and its fire pump hose did not function at the time of fire incident.
Questions were raised about the reason for welding on the tank that contained diesel.
Earlier a fire in Jaipur depot on 29 Oct 2009 leading to 11 deaths and Rs 280 crore loss was attributed to not following normal safety procedures.
As per established safety procedures any where in the world, hot work will not be permitted unless the tank is emptied, washed to remove flammable material, tested for absence of flammables, tank is opened to avoid pressure buildup during hot work and safety work permit system is followed. Work will be carried out only under expert supervision.

As it is seen from the news reports, welding on diesel tank, absence/non-working of fire fighting system once again prove that Murphy's law holds good.


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/surat/3-killed-in-Indian-Oil-Corporation-Hazira-depot-fire/articleshow/17918547.cms
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/surat-fire-at-ioc-storage-tank-contained-2-killed-2-missing/314206-3-238.html

Fire from weld sparks causes 6 injuries, Rs 10 crore property damage

In a fire due to weld sparks on top floor of a shrimp feed factory falling on the plastic bags kept below causes injuries to six employees and property damage worth Rs 10 crore. Three workers fainted due to smoke from the fire and another three were injured due to fall while climbing down. It is reported that fire extinguishers in the factory did not function at the time of the incident, indicating poor upkeep of safety systems.
Any hazardous work in a factory requires following safety permit systems which helps in hazard assessment and taking suitable safety measures for the work. Weld sparks can fly off about 15 m distance and hence the area within this should be free from combustibles. It is better to spray water in this area before hot work. If it is not possible to remove combustibles within this area, they should be covered with fire resistant cloth.
In this incident, sparks fell on the combustible material in the floor below. As the extent of damage is huge and fire extinguishing took about 5 hours, it indicates lack of supervision.
There should be a program to check fire extinguishers at regular intervals, say, once in a quarter. In extinguishers containing CO2 cartridge, the quality of these should be checked as it is likely that any defect renders fire extinguisher useless.
Regular training of all employees or identified employees and ensuring their availability atleast in minimum number in every shift also must be ensured.

Electrocution during cleaning of welding machine

In an incident reported in a local news paper, a person died of electrocution while cleaning the welding machine in the morning. This implies damaged cables and improper/no earthing to the machine. Possibly the power supply was not switched off the previous day and in the same condition, the person would have carried out cleaning of the machine.
It is common to see use of structural columns as return lines and no earthing will be available neither for the machine nor the job on which welding will be done. Sometimes when proper length of cable is not available, people use rods or sheets or similar metal pieces as return lines. It is difficult to ensure safety in unorganized sector and even in organized sectors when the work is outsourced.

Fire accident in a ship at Kakinada port during welding

During welding in a ship, a fire incident took place leading to gutting of some rooms. During any welding, experts advise to maintain atleast 15 m distance around free from combustibles as sparks can travel this much distance. Otherwise, all combustibles in the area likely to be affected should be covered with fire resistant cloth and fire crew should be available in the area to avoid such incidents.

The Hindu : States / Andhra Pradesh : Fire accident in a ship at Kakinada port

LINK

A fire incident

LINK

A fire incident was reported which caused property loss of Rs 2-3 crore as per some reports. Other reports mention the loss at much higher level. The cause stated is short circuit during testing of electrical equipment. Others say it is due to sparks from welding in the area that is full of flammables. The fire spread through cables to nearby area. No  injuries are reported.
Generally, for any fire incident any where, it is common to attribute short circuit as the reason. Most of the time, the actual reason will be different.
If welding sparks are the reason, then before welding, one should check for presence of flammables atleast 15 m in the surrounding area as it is stated by experts in the field that weld sparks can fly about 15 m distance and can cause damage. If removal of flammables is not possible within this distance, then atleast they should be covered with fire resistant covers. If this is also not possible, worst case, ensure such hot works to be done only in the direct presence of Fire Service crew.

Following are some of the links on the same incident.
http://www.andhrawishesh.com/home/25660.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoE15SxbbUI