Explosion Safety Engineering - Literature review Example

Literature Review Fire safety is a term used to refer to the precautions used to reduce or prevent the possibility of a fire that may have fatal consequences, injuries, and damage to property. The precautions are for alerting those in the fire area to the occurrence of an uncontrolled fire or to cut down the magnitude of damage resulting from the fire. Fire safety precautions enable the people caught up in the area to survive or move out of the affected areas or to reduce the amount of destruction resulting from the fire (Stellman 56). The presence or absence of fire safety precautions determines the amount of damage that a fire can cause. There are various fire incidents around the world resulting from gas and oil. Some of these incidents include Piper Alpha, the Gulf War 1991 explosions and the Ufa explosion. Piper Alpha The Piper Alpha incident occurred on an oil production platform in the North Sea. The accident killed 167 people with only 62 surviving the fire. It was the most dangerous fire in the North Sea in terms of deaths caused and property destruction. The fire started from a gas explosion and the destruction of property caused was estimated at US $ 3.4 billion, (McGinty, 37). From an analytical perspective, this incident occurred as a result of human error. Fire safety is a serious issue that should be taken seriously. Whenever people are handling gas or oil, either on transit, at the production site or anywhere else, there should be rules and regulations that cannot be broken governing the operations. The Piper Alpha platform was made in a way that it could automatically fight a fire whenever it occurred. However, at the time of the incident, these systems could not help because other rules had been broken. In the day, a condensate injection pump had been used for gas compression had been stopped and a pressure safety valve removed from it for recalibration (McGinty, 60). In the night, the failure of pump made the operators to bring back pump A into use although the valve had not been replaced. This was the mistake made and from a fire safety point of view, a precaution must have been taken at this point (Kletz, 100). Because the operators knew that both pumps had a problem, then the entire operation could have been stopped until one of the pumps had been properly fixed. Negligence can be blamed for the loss of lives and property. Because the daytime operators had put 2 blind flanges on the pipe work, it was obvious that a leakage would occur at such a place. Allowing the pump to be used was an act of negligence. The accident was made severe because of more mistakes done by those involved in manning the platform. The crew on the platform had a breakdown in communication especially within the chain of command. Communication can help to avert fire incidents before they happen. It can also be used to alert those in danger to escape before the danger catches up with them. In the case of Piper Alpha, lack of communication contributed a lot to loss of life and property. Another fire safety precaution that was ignored was proper construction. The facility had fire walls instead of blast walls (Kletz, 116). Fire walls were there before the gas conversion equipment was installed. Upon installation of the gas conversion equipment, the fire walls were supposed to be changed into blast walls. However, this never happened. This was a major weakness in terms of fire safety and it may have contributed a lot to the destruction caused. Even though the first explosion had occurred and the fire was burning, there was oil being pumped by the Claymore and Tartan platforms (Nolan, 139). In order to help stop the fire, it was wise to shut down these platforms because the personnel at these ends were aware that the Piper was on fire. This crew failed to observe the requirements of fire safety because they failed to act swiftly to do whatever was in their power to help stop the fire. Lessons Learnt From the Piper Alpha incident, it is clear that fire precaution measures were ignored. No rule pertaining to the manning and control of an oil or gas production facility should be ignored. Workers should not be restricted to adhering to the chain of command or waiting to be authorized to do anything when there is an accident. They should be allowed to act immediately in the interest of saving life and property (Tellman 104). The Gulf War 1991 explosion In the Gulf War, Kuwait oil wells were ignited by Iraqi military forces and in the process 700 wells caught fire. These fires were so dangerous and trying to put then off was going to be a very dangerous operation. As a result, they were left to burn for about 10 months. The fires caused a lot of pollution to the environment because there was no possible way of putting them off without putting human life at risk (Hirschmann, 18) In the Gulf War explosion, there were clearly no fire safety precautions that could have been taken to prevent these fires from happening because they resulted from a military attack on the wells. In fact, so as to save life, it was advisable not to send fire fighters at the wells so soon because their lives could have been in great danger. However, it is unwise for anybody to cause fire of such a magnitude for whatever course. The actions of Iraqi forces were unwarranted and cruel (Hirschmann, 67). Lessons Learnt From the Gulf War incident, it is clear that the actions of the Iraqi forces were not good. Wars should be avoided at all costs because they have disastrous consequences. To the attacker, it looks good because through it they punish their enemies. However, the effects of such actions cause damage to a lot of property and even life (Nolan, 33). People in various countries should always anticipate attacks from their enemies and put in place precautions to avoid loss of property and life. For example, in 1991, if there was technology for capping the wells a lot of the oil that was lost in the fires and the pollution to the environment could have been avoided. However, at that time such technology had not been discovered. Therefore, it is important for fire safety engineers to keep discovering ways of dealing with such disasters wherever they can occur (Nolan, 56). Ufa explosion and fire The Ufa explosion and fire was caused by two trains between Ufa and Asha in Russia. The trains caused the ignition of a mixture of hydrocarbons and air which had resulted from the leakage of a liquefied petroleum gas pipeline. 500 people lost their lives from the explosion and hundreds sustained injuries (Haphaestus Books, 16). The accident could have been prevented if fire safety measures were followed. From the way the issue was handled, it is clear that fire safety precautions were not adhered to. The accidents caused between 462 and 600 deaths with many other people sustaining serious burns. Before the accidents occurred, engineers had noticed a reduction in pressure where the LPG gas was being pumped. Fire safety measures required that the engineers stop the operation and begin an investigation into the problem. However, they failed to do this but instead they raised the rate of pumping so as to maintain the normal pressure within the pipeline. The accident could not have occurred if the train drivers were careful enough (Kletz, 77). As they approached the area and noticed a fog with a strange odor they could have stopped to investigate it before proceeding. Fire safety is the responsibility of all the people who are concerned and involved in any particular operation. Everybody has the responsibility of doing something to avert such disasters. Lessons Learnt From this incident the most profound lesson is to ensure that every part of any system involved with gas or oil production or transportation is checked regularly. If the pipeline was checked for leakages at regular intervals, the leakage could have been discovered early enough. It is also advisable to take precaution whenever anything unusual is suspected. For example, the engineers on the pipeline could have stopped pumping to find out the cause of low pressure before pumping again (Kletz 88). Conclusion and Recommendations Oil and gas explosion and fires tend to be very risky and very dangerous. It is necessary for those concerned to take the right precautionary measures and make every effort possible to prevent the occurrence of explosions and fires. Most of the explosions and fires that take place around the world including the ones sampled in this paper are caused by human error. People tend to be irresponsible when dealing with the production, processing and transportation of gas and oil and their products. The incidents discussed in this people could not have been worse if those concerned were careful enough to stop them. Consequently, it is recommended in this paper that engineers working with oil and gas companies should obtain and put to use the latest technology and equipment for fire fighting whenever there is a fire. Workers should be well trained by their employers in emergency procedures. Management should also receive training on crisis management. Companies should ensure that their employees take responsibility of their actions that result in dangerous loss of life and property (Stellman, 90). Such companies should also enforce stringent rules that can bar employees from being careless when dealing with dangerous substances such as oil and gas. Employees in any facility should never be restricted to the permit to work system whereby they must be authorized to do anything even in times of disaster (Kletz, 102). Works Cited Hephaestus Books. Articles on Explosions in Russia, Including: Tunguska event, Alkhangelsk Explosion of 2004, Vitim Event, Ufa train disaster, Chechnya Spetsnaz. Hephaestus Books, 2011. Hirschmann Kristine. The Kuwaiti Oil Fires. Infobase Publishing, 2009. Kletz Trevor. An Engineer’s View of Human Error. IchemE, 2009. McGinty Stephen. Fire in the Night. Pan Macmillan, 2011. Nolan Dennis. Handbook of Fire and Explosion Protection Engineering Principles. Elsevier, 2010. Stellman Jeanne. Encyclopaedia of Occupational Health and Safety. ILO 1998. Read More