DEVELOPING STORIES

On August 4, 2020, a massive explosion occurred in Beirut, Lebanon that killed at least 160 people, injured  more than 5,000 and left an estimated 300,000 people homeless*. At this time, no estimate of damages or cause of the explosion are...

An employee used alcohol-based hand sanitizer, according to current recommendations for COVID-19 personal hygiene. After application, but before the liquid sanitizer had fully evaporated and dried, the individual touched a metal surface where a build-up of static...

There have been many fires and explosions in our industry over the years due to ignition during spark-producing Hot Work. The May 2020 Beacon covered the fatal consequences from one such event. One element of preparing for Hot Work is to check for – and prevent – the...

An explosion on October 13, 2002, propelled large fragments of debris offsite, some landed near crude oil storage tanks. Three people were injured, but fortunately, no fatalities occurred. Steam leaking through manual block valves heated crude Mononitrotoluene (MNT)...

Can a “fail open” valve fail closed?. Clearly the answer is YES or we would not have asked the question! On piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs) or other process safety information (PSI), valves may be indicated as “fail open,” “fail closed,” or “fail in...

On November 9, 2010, in upstate New York, USA, a contractor was welding new support brackets on a tank for water-based polymer slurry. The area outside the tank had been monitored for flammables and approved for hot work, but the inside of the tank was not tested. An...