Text I Preparation, the Key to Petrochemical Fire Safety By Paul Frankland International Fire Protection Magazine Having the right equipment in place to detect and suppress a petro

Text I

Preparation, the Key to Petrochemical Fire Safety

By Paul Frankland

International Fire Protection Magazine

Having the right equipment in place to detect and suppress a petrochemical fire is essential, but so is having well thought out emergency preparedness plans, being in a position to ensure fast response, and having effective incident control.

The response in the first few minutes to a petrochemical fire is critical to the final outcome, as anyone who has ever found themselves in that unenviable position will tell you. The fact of the matter is that irrespective of how sophisticated the detection and fire suppression installations, nothing will make up for a lack of emergency preparedness, inadequate training or poorly implemented incident management. The golden rule when preparing for such an emergency is: assume nothing and test everything.

Risk assessments for petrochemical plants, indeed for any high-hazard site, should not be limited to what might be described as “internal” fire safety threats and challenges. If evidence is needed of this, it is necessary only to look at what happened at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan where the disaster was triggered by an offshore earthquake and tsunami. In the current uncertain international climate, the risk assessor also has to consider the very real prospect of acts of terrorism aimed at headlinegrabbing mass destruction of property and lives.

None of this, of course, lessens the need to provide the most effective detection, alarm and suppression equipment. This will probably take the form of fixed equipment providing primary aroundthe- clock protection for such structures as cone roof tanks; open-top floating roof tanks; covered floating roof tanks; horizontal tanks; bunds, and spill grounds. However, it cannot be overstressed that, potentially, all of this equipment is itself at risk in the event of an explosion.

While petrochemical fires are, thankfully, not everyday occurrences, when they do occur the consequences can be economically and environmentally devastating, as well as being seriously life-threatening on a significant scale. So it is essential for petrochemical workers to keep a higher attention level so that they do not risk being faced with the prospect. More time and energy needs to be devoted to implementing sustainable measures that will reduce or eliminate the risk of fire. Certainly, this means workers must do their job according to stricter rules at all times: performing both passive and active fire protection measures daily, devising and implementing fully integrated emergency and disaster management plans, and most importantly, seeing fire engineering as a dynamic and indispensable business continuity process.

Available at: <http://www.mdmpublishing.com/mdmmagazines/

magazineifp/newsview/191/preparation-the-key-to-petrochemical- fi re-safety>. Retrieved on: 28 June 2012. Adapted.

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