Chemical Plant explosions and fires

KTRK- Yesterday 8:27 PM Tweets video
Emergency crews brought the flames from a pipeline explosion in Wallis in Fort Bend County under control about an hour after it occurred.
The explosion happened at 15400 JoAnn near FM 1952, between Wallis and Orchard. Orchard is about 15 minutes north of Rosenberg.

On the way to the scene in SkyEye, helicopter reporter Tammy Rose said the flames could be seen from 30 miles away.

According to the county's office of emergency management, this happened in an isolated area in a field.

Energy Transfer owns the pipeline.

Fort Bend County Judge KP George said that residents surrounding the area were evacuated as a precaution.

No injuries were reported and there was minimal property damage as a result.

Opinion:

 

1 man dead, 3 injured in explosion at Dorval industrial laboratory

A man in his 40s has died after an explosion at an industrial lab in Dorval, Que., late Friday morning.

The man died before he could be sent to hospital. At least three other people were also injured, the ambulance service covering Montreal and Laval said.

Emergency services responded to a call at around 11:30 a.m and rushed to the Polymer Source research centre on Avro Street in Dorval's industrial park.

That was on last Friday morning, and the authorities say they were called around 11:30 a.m.

The research center in Montreal's Dorval suburb markets itself as a chemical laboratory that supplies research grade polymers and biopolymers to scientists.

From their Website:
We work at the intersection of materials science, chemical engineering, synthetic biology and nanotechnology.
🤔
 
Remember the two years ago blast of silos in Beirut port?

Smoldering Beirut port silo risks total collapse amid fire

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Firefighters extinguish a fire at the silos in the north block of the Beirut Port in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, July 21, 2022. The silos were destroyed by a massive explosion in 2020 and the structure might have caught on fire due to fermented grains.

Lebanon's prime minister on Friday warned that the ruin of a massive grain silo risks total collapse due to an ongoing fire that's expanding amid the summer heat at the Beirut port where a devastating blast two years ago tore through the Mediterranean city.

A fire in the structure has been smoldering for the past two weeks due to 800 tons of grain inside fermenting in the hot weather. The government said the fire expanded after flames reached nearby electrical cables.


The fire and the dramatic sight of the smoldering, partially blackened silo is reviving memories and in some cases trauma for survivors of the gigantic explosion that tore through the port two years ago. Experts say part of the structure is leaning and in danger of tipping over.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who oversees a caretaker government, ordered firefighters and civil defense volunteers to step back Friday for their safety. Civil Defense volunteer Youssef Mallah told The Associated Press that they are still at the port, but have been ordered to stay far from the silo.

The August 2020 blast was caused by hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive material used in fertilizers, that had been improperly stored for years at the port's warehouse.

The tall structure withstood the force, effectively shielding the western part of Beirut from the explosion that killed over 200 people, wounded more than 6,000 and badly damaged entire neighborhoods.

The government said experts had warned that trying to put out the fire with water could worsen it due to humidity, but the Interior Minister on Thursday ordered firefighters to try to contain the fire with water anyway. Over the weekend, the Lebanese army sent a helicopter to try to douse the fire with water as well.

Another minister warned last week that the situation at the port was 'œtricky and complicated', and warned of a collapse.

Emmanuel Durand, a French civil engineer who volunteered for the government-commissioned team of experts said the north block of the silo was 'œon path for catastrophic failure' and that a collapse was inevitable at this point. He told the AP the grain fire could not be extinguished by water, which actually fuels the process of fermentation and can make the silo tilt faster.

Durand, who is based in Switzerland, has been monitoring the silo for two years via sensors, and sending warnings to the government. The silo that have been tilting at no more than 0.5 millimeters a day two weeks ago are now moving at 'œcruise speed' with 2 millimeters an hour, he said.

Earlier this year, the Lebanese government moved to demolish the silo, but was forced to suspend the decision following protests from families of the blast's victims and survivors, who have yet to see justice served. They argue that the silo may contain evidence useful for a judicial probe. Some also say the silo should stand as a memorial for the tragic incident.

The judicial probe revealed that range of government officials knew about the dangerous substance that had been stored at the port for years, but did not take meaningful action to remove it or dispose of it. No officials have been yet been convicted.

Those implicated have lodged legal complaints against the judge leading the investigation. A rally organized by the Hezbollah group against the judge leading the probe turned deadly last year, with six people were killed and dozens wounded.

I also put the info in the Wildfires around the world: Increasing in frequency and intensity? thread.

I was wondering if it should be in the Beirut Explosion as well...
 

Multiple explosions, fire at Madera County brewery

July 27th, 2022 - California

A fire and multiple explosions at a brewery rocked a Madera County neighborhood on Tuesday night.
The blaze at Riley's Brewing on Avenue 15 and Road 29 started around 8 pm.
Neighbors in the area say they hear several booms before the flames.

In fact the booms were so intense, they shook the ground.
The fire started in one of the brewery's buildings and spread to a large silo filled with ethanol. No one was there when the flames broke out.
Over a dozen fire crews responded - some came from as far as the foothills to help.
An ABC30 crew at the scene saw flames so massive, they lit up the sky and could be seen from miles away.
The intensity of the flames even burned one of the fire crews' water tanks.
CAL FIRE Madera said the fire will likely keep burning for hours through the night.
 
A doozie of an explosion in Indiana. 3 dead and a rather astonishing 11 of the 39 homes damaged in the explosion are "uninhabitable." Would a leaking gas pipe do that much damage?

 

Factory fires in 2021 was up 129%, and in Q3 alone, 2022 was set to break that record. The biggest drivers of the increase is thought to be gaps in regulatory and process execution, as well as pandemic-induced shortages of skilled labor in warehouses. Data (collected by an AI, it seems) also shows that the automotive and manufacturing industries are the most impacted by factory fires.


Factory fires saw an “exceptionally large increase” in 2022 with rates of reported incidents almost doubling, according to a report.

A record number of fires took place in 2021, but by 2022’s third quarter this record had been surpassed, driven by an increasing gap between regulations and process execution, shortages of skilled labour, component shortages, and adverse weather conditions such as extreme heat.

The report, by supply chain data collector Resilinc, said 3,609 factory fire alerts were recorded in 2022, up from 1,946 for 2021 – an 85% year-on-year increase. Fires were the most common cause of supply chain for disruption for the fourth year in a row.

Resilinc said procurement teams should be mapping suppliers far more thoroughly, past tier one, to gauge where risk of accidents lay.

In June 2022, a fire at Smurfit Kappa’s paper mill in Birmingham destroyed 8,000 tonnes of paper and cardboard, raising fears for packaging deliveries, while a fire at an Ocado warehouse in July 2021 held up thousands of customer orders. In March 2021 included an incident in March at a major semiconductor factory in Japan, which halted production for a month but took considerably longer to reach full capacity again.

A spokesperson for Resilinc told Supply Management: “We’ve witnessed an exceptionally large increase in the number of factory fires from 2021 to 2022. Supplier mapping and monitoring is an easy win for businesses looking to reduce factory fire risk.

“If most attention was given to supplying products with the greatest potential to cut into a company’s topline instead of suppliers with the largest spend, then supply chain oversight would be far more effective – minimising the risk posed to supply chains by factory fires.

“Procurement teams typically pay attention only to the top 20% of suppliers which make up 80% of the spend, however this means a significant risk remains as there is zero visibility over 80% of your suppliers who make up the other 20% of the spend.

“In changing this risky strategy, businesses will find that due diligence is a far more effective way to increase resilience in 2023: when companies map multiple tiers of suppliers, they gain a greater understanding of potential revenue risk when disruptions occur.”

The US reported the most fires in 2021 (450), the report found, with almost triple the incidents of India (150). Germany and South Korea reported just below 150, and Mexico around 100.

A case study of an incident in October 2020 found a three-day fire at a semiconductor manufacturing plant shut down production lines for around six months – leaving procurement teams “scrambling”. This cost sourcing organisations “tens of millions of dollars”.

The report stated: “Now, imagine if that risk had been flagged and escalated by one or more of the organisations who were sourcing chips from this site? Alternate suppliers could have been secured or pressure to install sprinklers could have been applied; the cost of installing an automatic sprinkler system could have been paid by one of the sourcing organisations.”

The top 10 industries affected by factory fires, ranked by number of alerts, were:

  1. Automotive
  2. Manufacturing
  3. Food and beverage
  4. Aerospace
  5. Life sciences
  6. Home furnishings
  7. Healthcare
  8. Oil and gas
  9. Industrial chemicals
  10. Consumer electronics
Bindiya Vakil, Resilinc CEO, said: “The increase in factory fires is a worrying development because of the ripple effect it causes to the whole supply chain… An increase in the cost of vital parts produced by your supply chain should a supplier suddenly be unable to fulfil your requirements could be hugely damaging to your own business. This is where the need to multi-tier map and monitor your suppliers properly becomes crucial.”

Resilinc’s report was based on its EventWatchAI platform, which monitors disruptions across 160 countries through news and social media sites.
 
Another explosion in Ohio with casualties.



At this point I am thinking our infrastructure is a mess. And there don`t seem to be anyone to care. Is it result of the cloth shot or something else maybe?

Throwing in few technical terms from my area of expertise. MRO (maintenance, repair and operations) and MTBF (mean time between failure) is now literally run to failure. People who have no business in their 'jobs' are there because of DEI. Not because they are the best at what they do.

What is causing trains to blow up, metal plants to explode and people to die? Incompetence. Laziness. Lack of capability or accountability. Not spending money to fix stuff. Not knowing that you have to spend money to fix stuff. Pedal to the metal. That gauge is in the red? Hey, isn't a needle in the red a fashion style thing?

So we can expect more of this. No need to make it a conspiracy when simple incompetence and laziness will do.
 
At this point I am thinking our infrastructure is a mess. And there don`t seem to be anyone to care. Is it result of the cloth shot or something else maybe?

Throwing in few technical terms from my area of expertise. MRO (maintenance, repair and operations) and MTBF (mean time between failure) is now literally run to failure. People who have no business in their 'jobs' are there because of DEI. Not because they are the best at what they do.

What is causing trains to blow up, metal plants to explode and people to die? Incompetence. Laziness. Lack of capability or accountability. Not spending money to fix stuff. Not knowing that you have to spend money to fix stuff. Pedal to the metal. That gauge is in the red? Hey, isn't a needle in the red a fashion style thing?

So we can expect more of this. No need to make it a conspiracy when simple incompetence and laziness will do.
There is also the following to consider:
(Niall) Who or what is behind this series of bombings in China?

A: Partly sabotage and partly natural as we have previously described.

Q: (L) Like for example this restaurant in China that recently blew up: They say it was a gas tank. That makes me suspicious. Whenever they ascribe an explosion to a gas tank... I mean, yes, we know gas tanks can explode, but things happen to MAKE them explode.

A: Exactly.

Q: (L) There are an awful lot of explosions happening all over the world. It's not just China. There are explosions everywhere.

A: And there will be more and more train derailments as the crust continues to open up.

Q: (L) So, not only are there sinkholes, but there are crustal movements and all kinds of other weird things going on. We're seeing the Earth changes right before our eyes, but it's like in slow motion!

A: Yes. Scale!
 
First East Palestine and now Bedford, both in Ohio? That can't be a coincidence! One is a metal plant for manufacturing with possibly loads of chemical and the other a train filled with dangerous and noxious chemicals.

Good lord, what is going on?
They really want the country to be completely paralyzed in manufacturing and health wise as well.
 
What is causing trains to blow up, metal plants to explode and people to die? Incompetence. Laziness. Lack of capability or accountability. Not spending money to fix stuff. Not knowing that you have to spend money to fix stuff. Pedal to the metal. That gauge is in the red? Hey, isn't a needle in the red a fashion style thing?

So we can expect more of this. No need to make it a conspiracy when simple incompetence and laziness will do.
That's a good point, sometimes pure incompetence, poor leadership, cost saving measures can lead to collapse. Specially in the US where every single event is used as a political weapon for ideological gain. To put it another way, it will not be the enemies of the US, or the ones they keep on telling us abound, the ones who will engineer it's fall, it'll be the internal incompetence and corruption that will make that come about.

But, on the other hand, it is interesting to see this right after the train derailment, and the rest of other suspicious fires and explosions in factory, specially the food processing factories.

Which is the other angle that ought to be studied I believe, whatever the origin, these crisis tend to be useful and not wasted, contrived or otherwise.
 
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