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    Mexico Disaster

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    Vaibhav Gulia
    The San Juanico disaster in 1984 was one of the deadliest industrial disasters in history. A gas leak at a liquified petroleum gas storage facility in Mexico caused a vapor cloud explosion, igniting stored LPG and resulting in 12 boiling liquid expanding vapor explosions over the next hour. 500-600 people were killed and 5000-7000 suffered severe burns. The explosions destroyed a town of 40,000 people surrounding the facility. It demonstrated that BLEVEs pose a major hazard and that safety procedures and emergency preparedness are critical at LPG storage sites.

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    Mexico Disaster

    Uploaded by

    Vaibhav Gulia
    59 views5 pages
    The San Juanico disaster in 1984 was one of the deadliest industrial disasters in history. A gas leak at a liquified petroleum gas storage facility in Mexico caused a vapor cloud explosion, igniting stored LPG and resulting in 12 boiling liquid expanding vapor explosions over the next hour. 500-600 people were killed and 5000-7000 suffered severe burns. The explosions destroyed a town of 40,000 people surrounding the facility. It demonstrated that BLEVEs pose a major hazard and that safety procedures and emergency preparedness are critical at LPG storage sites.

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    The San Juanico disaster in 1984 was one of the deadliest industrial disasters in history. A gas leak at a liquified petroleum gas storage facility in Mexico caused a vapor cloud explosion, igniting stored LPG and resulting in 12 boiling liquid expanding vapor explosions over the next hour. 500-600 people were killed and 5000-7000 suffered severe burns. The explosions destroyed a town of 40,000 people surrounding the facility. It demonstrated that BLEVEs pose a major hazard and that safety procedures and emergency preparedness are critical at LPG storage sites.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    59 views5 pages

    Mexico Disaster

    Uploaded by

    Vaibhav Gulia
    The San Juanico disaster in 1984 was one of the deadliest industrial disasters in history. A gas leak at a liquified petroleum gas storage facility in Mexico caused a vapor cloud explosion, igniting stored LPG and resulting in 12 boiling liquid expanding vapor explosions over the next hour. 500-600 people were killed and 5000-7000 suffered severe burns. The explosions destroyed a town of 40,000 people surrounding the facility. It demonstrated that BLEVEs pose a major hazard and that safety procedures and emergency preparedness are critical at LPG storage sites.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 5

    Case Study

    Mexico Disaster:-

    Introduction:
    The San Juanico disaster was one of the deadliest industrial disasters in
    world history The San Juanico disaster was an industrial disaster caused
    by a massive series of explosions at a liquid petroleum gas (LPG) tank
    farm in San Juanico, Mexico (outside of Mexico City, Mexico) on 19
    November 1984. The explosions consumed 11,000 m3 of LPG,
    representing one third of Mexico City's entire liquid petroleum gas
    supply. The explosions destroyed the facility and devastated the local
    town of San Juan Ixhuatepec, with 500–600 people killed, and 5000–
    7000 others suffering severe burns.
    The incident took place at a storage and distribution facility (a
    "terminal") for liquified petroleum gas (LPG) belonging to the multi-
    state enterprise, Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX). The facility consisted of
    54 LPG storage tanks; 6 large spherical tanks (four holding 1,600 cubic
    metres (57,000 cu ft) and two holding 2,400 cubic metres (85,000 cu ft))
    and 48 smaller horizontal bullet shaped tanks of various sizes. All
    together the tanks contained 11,000 cubic metres (390,000 cu ft) of
    a propane/butane mixture at the time of the accident
    HOW IS LPG MADE?  WHAT IS THE PRODUCTION PROCESS?
    LPG IS MADE during natural gas processing and oil refining.
    LPG is separated from unprocessed natural gas using refrigeration.
    LPG is extracted from heated crude oil using a distillation tower.
    This LPG can be used as is or separated into LPG products three primary
    parts: propane, butane and isobutane.
    It is stored pressurised, as a liquid, in cylinders or tanks.

    LPG PROPERTIES CHART


    LPG physical properties include specific gravity (density), boiling point,
    pressure, vapour expansion, energy content, combustion facts, flame
    temperature, flash point & more. This chart shows some of the physical
    properties of propane, butane and isobutane:-
    ORIGIN:-
    The disaster was initiated by a gas leak on the site, likely caused by a
    pipe rupture during transfer operations, which caused a plume of LPG to
    concentrate at ground level for 10 minutes. The plume eventually grew
    large enough to drift on the wind towards the west end of the site,
    where the facility's waste-gas flare pit was located.

    The Fire:-
    At 5:40 a.m., the cloud reached the flare and ignited, resulting in
    a vapor cloud explosion that severely damaged the tank farm and
    resulted in a massive conflagration fed by the LPG leaking from newly
    damaged tanks. Just four minutes later, at 5:44 a.m., the first tank
    underwent a BLEVE (Boiling Liquid/Expanding Vapor Explosion). Over
    the next hour, 12 separate BLEVE explosions were recorded. The fire
    and smaller explosions continued until 10 a.m. the next morning. It is
    believed that the escalation was caused by an ineffective gas detection.

    DAMAGE AND CASUALTIES:-

    The town of San Juan Ixhuatepec surrounded the facility and consisted
    of 40,000 residents, with an additional 61,000 more living in the hills.
    The explosions demolished houses and propelled twisted metal
    fragments (some measuring 30 tons) over distances ranging from a few
    meters to up to 1,200 metres (3,900 ft). The explosion shock wave
    destroyed a range of 5 km-7Km of houses and businesses at various
    level. Windows were found destroyed at 10 km due to the blast wave.
    Much of the town was destroyed by the explosions and ensuing fire,
    with the current statistics indicating 500 to 600 deaths, and 5,000–7,000
    severe injuries. Radiant heat generated by the inferno incinerated most
    corpses to ashes, with only 2% of the recovered.

    Practical Lessons:-
     Establish a safety philosophy and emergency procedures including
    training, drills, and exercises.
     Perform a site assessment in line with API RP 752 and 753.
     Vapor cloud explosions receive much attention, but Mexico City
    demonstrated that BLEVEs are an equally important hazard to be
    considered - CCPS (see reference below) provides methods for
    evaluating BLEVE hazards.
     Apply principles of risk-based design, but understand worst-case
    consequences and plan accordingly.
     Prevent or limit escalation to adjacent hazards (ie domino effect),
    preferably by separation and then fire protection.
     Provide and test designated emergency access and egress routes
    suitable for emergency services and to allow people to escape.

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