Texas City, TX

Amanda Engler

Texas City, Texas

Explosions and
tragedy a way of life in Texas city

BP oil refinery in
Texas City

March 24, 2005 was it

preventable?

April 16, 1947

The port of opportunity
Thriving community Chemical plants and refineries provided good jobs

The Grandcamp was at the port loaded with

oil-field machinery drill stems Peanuts sisal twine small-arms ammunition ammonium nitrate fertilizer

The fire
The ship caught on fire shortly after 8:00
AM
The smoke was a peach color Many people from the town came to watch Ship hatch had blown off Fire was too hot to put out with water

8:45 AM the fire department came The fire could not be controlled

9:12 AM the ship exploded

Heard from 150 miles away The sky appeared as if it was on fire Mushroom cloud rose 2,000 feet A tidal wave swept people away Heavy debris flew thousands of feet 1.5 ton anchor flew 2 miles Secondary explosions were ignited

The explosion

The Grandcamp's propeller shaft

Tidal wave damage

Secondary explosion at a refinery

The High Flyer

In the port that day for repair Loaded with fertilizer Damaged by the first explosion Tried to move the ship away from shore Flames were spotted The alarm was sounded Exploded at 1:00 AM More secondary explosions

The aftermath
Death toll 576 people 5,000 injured
Broken bones Lost limbs

Thousands of homes destroyed Local churches and businesses gone Area refineries destroyed

The recovery
People opened their homes to those

whos had been destroyed. Many major industries pledged to rebuild Received $1 million in relief funds Received $4 million in insurance payments Sunday, June 22, 1947, a day of closure

Industry changes
Improved disaster preparedness
Ports evaluated their safety procedures Community Awareness Response in
Emergencies (CARE)

BP oil refinery Texas City

Constructed in 1934
BPs largest refinery at 1,200 acres

Third largest in the nation

1,600 employees Worlds most complex refinery

A history of accidents
October 1988 fire halted operations in the

isomerization unit April 6, 1992 leak of flammable liquids explodes severely burning an employee, he died 15 days later July, 1995 another explosion, no one injured April 19, 1999, 50 pounds of hydrogen ignited, worker suffered second degree burns

History continued
August 2000, fire in cooker unit, 20 people

escaped without injury March 30, 2004, explosion and fire, no one injured, OSHA found 14 safety violations Sept. 2, 2004, three men exposed to superheated steam, two died March 23, 2005, explosion in isomerization unit kills 15, over 100 injured

March 23, 2005

Where it happened?
Isomerization Unit
Converts low octane feeds to higher octane components Feed octane is between 67-70 Product octane is between 83-85

The isomerization unit

Sulfur Nitrogen Light raffinate

Final Product Hydrotreater Isomerization Reactor Raffinate Splitter Heavy raffinate Vapor Recovery Unit

Nonaromatic stream

What happened?
Unit was shutdown Explosion happened during the restart Vapor and liquids shot out of a ventilation

stack Truck may have provided the spark for the explosion Explosion was felt in buildings up to 5 miles away

Was it preventable? A closer look

The vent stack The American Petroleum Institute says that vent stacks
Used as pressure relieve from fluids and gas buildup in the isomerization unit The industry norm is to use a flare for this

are old technology and are slowly being phased out 1992 OSHA citing

The equipment at the center of the blast allowed toxic gases to vent to the atmosphere ... thus exposing employees to flammable or toxic gases." OSHA recommended that the unit should be reconfigured so the vapors went to a flare or air monitors should be installed on the unit

Could the death toll have been less severe? Trailer placement

11 of 15 were in a portable trailer 100 to 150

feet from vent stack
"People who were injured or suffered fatalities had nothing to do with that unit," said Charles Ramirez, a safety representative for contractor JE Merit. Other industry leaders place trailers as far away from equipment as possible BP's own 2001 internal form for siting trailers - a 31point checklist - set a threshold of 350 feet between trailers and refining units or else a special risk analysis must be performed.

Two blast-proof control rooms at the site

seemed to have suffered minimal damage

What can we take away from this tragedy?

Questions/Comments

References
The Explosion 50 years later, Texas City still remembers,

http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/metropolitan/txcity/phoenix.html Investigation Into Plant Explosion That Killed 15 Under Way, US News March 24, 2005. FBI rules out terrorism in plant explosion, US News, March 25, 2005. Fiegel, Eric, Death toll in refinery blast rises to 15, US News, March 24, 2005. Moran, Kevin, 15th body pulled from refinery rubble, Houston Chronicle, 2005. BP EXPLOSION; LOCATION OF TRAILER DIDN'T MEET GUIDELINES; Mobile office at refinery was too close to stack, Houston Chronicle, April 10, 2005. THE BP EXPLOSION; Refineries under stricter rules overseas; Laws in the U.S. do much less to protect workers than those in Great Britain ,Houston Chronicle, April 5, 2005. Idling engine may have set off BP explosion; Witnesses claim the driver tried to turn off the truck during vapor vent, Houston Chronicle, April 1, 2005. Ignition, hydrocarbon release likely explosion cause, The Associated Press State & Local Wire , March 30, 2005. Volatile liquid distilling device may be cause of refinery blast, Houston Chronicle, March 27, 2005.

References Continued
Two-inch error killed two BP workers in 2004, report shows, The

Associated Press State & Local Wire, March 26, 2005. Explosions and tragedy a way of life in Texas city, The Associated Press State & Local Wire, March 24, 2005. Facility has costly history; Past incidents have cost owners millions in OSHA fines and lawsuit settlements, The Houston Chronicle, March 24, 2005. OSHA faulted BP for unrepaired Texas City chemical leak, The Associated Press State & Local Wire, April 13, 2005. Probe is closing in on BP blast's cause; The refinery's computer records are being analyzed, The Houston Chronicle, April 14, 2005. Other accidents happened at Texas City refinery unit, The Associated Press State & Local Wire, April 11, 2005. Fatal industrial accidents in Texas, The Associated Press State & Local Wire, March 23, 2005. Texas City, Texas, Gasoline Refinery Returns to 'Near Normal' after Blaze The Houston Chronicle, April 1, 2004. OSHA issued warning about dangerous ventilation stack in 1992, The Houston Chronicle, April 8, 2004.