(101b) Insights from 650 Tank Farm Fires – the Second Database Update

This article updates earlier publications of an ongoing multi-year research project on worldwide fire incidents that occurred in tank farms, which store products ranging from low flashpoint materials to crude and heavier hydrocarbons. The incidents and information in the database came from over 170 sources, including technical and news reports. Updating of the database takes place when new studies require analysis of previous incidents. The database contained over 650 fire incidents at the time of preparation of this article. This research has already supported the analyses of the reliability of fire water protection systems, hazard identifications, and risk assessments for several tank farms.

The research provides valuable insights regarding the frequency of tank farm fires, the frequency of boilover, the frequency of injury/fatality, the expected number of injuries/fatalities per incident, the frequency of dike fire, the probability of failure of the fire water system, the time to extinguish (TtEx) the fire, the ignition source, and the type of tank roofs. When the database provided sufficient information, these numbers appear as a function of the stored product. The data also allowed plotting TtEx as a function of (a) time for over a century, (b) tank diameter, and (c) number of tanks on fire.

This article also discusses issues that impact (a) the confidence level on the parameters developed under this research and (b) the confidence level in risk assessments that use these data. It illustrates the results of the confidence analysis for a risk assessment of a distribution terminal that handles low and high flashpoint materials. By showing the risk estimates excluding and including the results of the confidence level analysis, this case study shows that this type of analysis can significantly impact risk decision making.