Many plant explosions result in severe injuries for workers and damage to nearby homes, businesses, and structures. Therefore, we must understand what causes such accidents so that they may be avoided in the future.
Most chemical plants contain highly combustible materials that must be managed carefully to avoid accidents, with poor maintenance being the leading cause.
Heat
An explosion at a plant sends out a devastating blast wave, damaging buildings and injuring many people. The intense heat can cause burns, while shattering glass can cut individuals, leaving permanent scarring behind. Furthermore, its force may knock people over or cause blunt force trauma, with close-by people subject to “blast lung,” as well as being exposed to smoke that suffocates them; finally, falling debris from damaged structures may cause penetrating injuries and lacerations as a result of falling debris from damaged buildings which causes severe injuries due to blast lung.
Plant explosions often stem from flammable chemicals or gases used for industrial and manufacturing processes; if not handled and stored appropriately, these can quickly become explosive and potentially lethal upon contact with water.
Heat, gas formation, and chemical reaction are the three critical elements of any plant explosion, while its location can also play an integral part in increasing the risk of explosion. Plants near rivers or bodies of water tend to have greater chances for explosion than plants in isolated locations.
Various factors, including flammable gases, insufficient maintenance, and improper storage of chemicals, may cause plant explosions. Such incidents may be avoided with regular inspections and compliance with federal safety regulations; however, negligence by plant owners or supervisors is another common source.
The Chemical Safety Board’s investigation of an incident that led to explosions at Enterprise Products Pascagoula gas plant revealed gaps in their safety management that allowed thermal fatigue (the gradual weakening of materials from repeated heating and cooling) on brazed aluminum heat exchangers. Thermal fatigue cracks allowed methane, ethane, propane, and other hydrocarbons into the unit via leakages through thermal fatigue cracks, causing its rupture and resulting in explosions at the Pascagoula gas plant.
Gas
Industrial and manufacturing plants often contain chemicals, gases, and machinery that have the potential to explode if improperly used, stored, and maintained. Such explosive compounds can create severe damage and catastrophic injuries to anyone nearby; many explosions include fire and flying debris, which can injure or kill people nearby. Most outbreaks are entirely preventable; when they happen, it’s usually because of negligence from plant owners and supervisors.
Kinder Morgan’s natural gas pipeline facility in Hickman County near Centerville, Tennessee, recently experienced an explosion. This incident occurred at their compressor building, where equipment failure led to fire and explosion. A spokesperson from Kinder Morgan stated they are still uncertain about the source of this incident; they will conduct a detailed investigation. Furthermore, all employees were safely evacuated from the building where it occurred as soon as they became aware.
The explosion was felt and heard for miles, leaving behind a devastating blast wave that tore through buildings nearby and started minor fires. This explosion is just one of many natural gas explosions reported throughout the US in recent years; many can be attributed to negligence on behalf of plant owners, while others can occur due to environmental disasters.
No matter their cause, gas explosions can be deadly to humans and animals alike. Their force can result in catastrophic burns, lung damage, disfigurement, severe property damage, and structural collapses. Furthermore, an explosion may send shrapnel ripping through flesh, resulting in severe lacerations, injuries, and life-threatening trauma to nearby individuals.
Have You Been Involved in a Plant Explosion? Seek Legal Guidance Now Those injured or lost loved ones due to a plant explosion should seek qualified legal guidance immediately to determine whether damages can be recovered from those responsible. An explosion attorney will examine all aspects of the incident to ascertain who, if anyone, shares responsibility. After making this assessment, they will work with insurance companies on behalf of injured parties to get them compensation from claims companies for compensation payments due.
Chemical Reaction
Plant explosions often involve dangerous chemical reactions. When chemicals are mixed, they form a volatile gas that may explode if the pressure gets too high – this may happen as a result of overheating or touching an open flame near them – when mixed with oxygen in the air and oxygen molecules, they become an explosive force that can destroy buildings and kill people.
Explosions may not only result from fire and chemical reactions; mechanical malfunctions may also trigger them. These issues could arise due to normal wear-and-tear wear or manufacturing flaws in equipment. For instance, a damaged pipe during refining can rupture and release highly explosive chemicals into the atmosphere.
Electrical failures can also trigger plant explosions. This could include faulty wiring, short circuits, or arcing in areas containing flammable materials; natural disasters like lightning storms or earthquakes could also damage power plants, leading to explosions.
Employees should understand the machinery and chemicals they work with and the risks they could present, including those related to mixing certain substances or using open flames nearby. Doing this will allow them to avoid situations that could trigger an explosion.
Unfortunately, even with all these precautions in place, chemical plant accidents still often occur and cause severe injuries to workers and others near these explosions. Such injuries could range from burns, lacerations, and broken bones.
Third-party explosion accident lawsuits may hold other parties liable, especially if negligence by contractors or subcontractors caused an explosion or defective equipment was involved. Third-party personal injury suits allow injured workers to recover significantly more compensation than would be available through workers’ compensation claims; thus, they must seek legal advice from an experienced attorney as soon as they become victims.
Secondary Explosions
An initial dust explosion in equipment that creates an explosive dust-air atmosphere, such as a dryer, mill, cyclone, or silo, can often set off secondary blasts or even fires due to solid turbulence that dislodges accumulated dust layers from around the equipment and ignites them, creating what is known as a dust cloud hazard.
The blast wave from an initial explosion travels along gallery corridors, tunnels, or elevator shafts. It stirs up dust layers before the following pressure wave’s flame front encounters this explosive mixture and ignites it, leading to secondary explosions or fires involving this substance.
Injuries caused by plant explosions vary depending on their intensity and force, with victims potentially suffering secondary injuries due to dislodged objects (tertiary damage), blunt trauma or impact injuries, penetrating injury if the thing entered their body, as well as barotrauma (when air-filled organs such as the lungs or intestines become vulnerable due to blast waves).
Plant management’s primary responsibility is preventing such accidents by restricting any dust explosion in equipment units to that particular unit and keeping loose and settled dust at an acceptable level. Also, by installing explosion relief vents away from regularly occupied areas and plants, placing explosion relief vents appropriately, bonding electrical and mechanical equipment properly to control static electricity, and properly grounding electrical/mechanical equipment to minimize static electricity build-up.
Example: At a sugar processing plant in California, an initial dust explosion resulted from an ineffective ventilation system operation that failed to remove sugar dust accumulated within rooms and pipes surrounding it, leading to secondary blasts that killed hundreds. Such accidents could have been avoided with adequate room ventilation, a functioning dust extraction system, and explosion relief points outside the building when production was in progress; employees usually weren’t present in those rooms during production runs.
