Page 7 - Hot Tapping - CCPS Safe Work Practice

Need/Call To Action

Incidents Continue to Happen

On February 18, 2017 three contractors were fatally injured and seven
contractors sustained injuries in an explosion at the Packaging Corporation
of America facility in DeRidder, LA. The contractors were conducting
hot work activities near a tank which contained a flammable atmosphere
and ultimately exploded. Air ingress to the tank allowed air to mix with
turpentine vapor and thereby form an explosive mixture in the tank’s vapor
space. On the day of the incident, contractors supporting the annual outage
work made repairs by welding on water piping above and de-coupled from
the tank. This hot work appears to be the probable source of ignition.
https://www.csb.gov/packaging-corporation-of-america-hot-work-explosion-/

On November 9, 2010, a contract welder was fatally injured and a foreman
was seriously injured because of an explosion at an E.I. duPont de Nemours
and Co. Inc. chemical plant in Buffalo, New York. The welder was repairing
the agitator support atop an atmospheric storage tank containing flammable
vinyl fluoride (VF). The explosion blew most of the top off the tank. The U.S.
Chemical Safety Board (CSB) determined that flammable VF vapor from
interconnected, in-service process tanks flowed undetected into the tank
and ignited when the welder was repairing the agitator support assembly.
https://www.csb.gov/e-i-dupont-de-nemours-co-fatal-hotwork-explosion/

SAFE WORK PRACTICE, HOT TAPPING 4