Month: August 2016

CSB safety video detailing key lessons for preventing hydraulic shock in ammonia refrigeration systems based on the CSB’s investigation into the accident at Millard Refrigerated Services Inc. on August 23, 2010. 32,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia were released to the atmosphere, resulting in over thirty offsite workers being hospitalized – four in an intensive care unit.

CSB Safety Video on the 2009 massive explosion at the Caribbean Petroleum, or CAPECO, terminal facility near San Juan, Puerto Rico. The incident occurred when gasoline overflowed and sprayed out from a large aboveground storage tank, forming a 107-acre vapor cloud that ignited. While there were no fatalities, the explosion damaged approximately 300 nearby homes and businesses and petroleum leaked into the surrounding soil, waterways and wetlands. Flames from the explosion could be seen from as far as eight miles away.

On the March 23, 2005, a hydrocarbon vapour cloud explosion occurred at the ISOM isomerization process unit at BP’s Texas City refinery in Texas City, Texas, killing 15 workers and injuring more than 170 others. The Texas City Refinery was the second-largest oil refinery in the state, and the third-largest in the United States with an input capacity of 437,000 barrels (69,500 m3) per day as of January 1, 2000. BP acquired the Texas City refinery as part of its merger with Amoco in 1999.