{"id":166,"date":"2007-04-10T10:22:14","date_gmt":"2007-04-10T14:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.environmentalriskmanagers.com\/erm\/noncompliance-with-fire-safety-standards-led-to-explosion-at-bellwood-ill-plant\/"},"modified":"2007-04-10T10:22:14","modified_gmt":"2007-04-10T14:22:14","slug":"noncompliance-with-fire-safety-standards-led-to-explosion-at-bellwood-ill-plant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/noncompliance-with-fire-safety-standards-led-to-explosion-at-bellwood-ill-plant\/","title":{"rendered":"Noncompliance With Fire Safety Standards Led To Explosion at Bellwood, Ill., Plant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"margin: 1ex\"><font face=\"verdana\"><strong>environmental Strategist,  between the lines:<\/strong> Are your clients doing what they can to  avoid this type of tragedy. If a disaster like this occurs are  your clients prepared to handle it? Now is the time to find out,  not after the disaster occurs.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"verdana\">Assisting your clients to develop  and execute their environmental Management Strategy (eMS) will assure  you minimize risk while maximizing time and resources. This added  value also makes you an indispensable professional.<\/font><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><font face=\"verdana\" size=\"5\"><strong>Noncompliance  With Fire Safety Standards Led To Explosion at Bellwood, Ill., Plant<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n<ul><font face=\"verdana\"><strong><em>April 10 2007 <\/em><\/strong><\/font><\/ul>\n<p><font color=\"#616161\" face=\"verdana\"><strong>AN INVESTIGATION<\/strong>  into the explosion and fire took the life of a contract delivery driver  and injured two employees at a Bellwood, Ill., plant found that the  company was unprepared for an accidental chemical release of this magnitude,  did not have an emergency action plan, and had not conducted an evacuation  drill.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#616161\" face=\"verdana\">The June 14,  2006, explosion at the Universal Form Clamp (UFC) plant occurred when  hazardous vapors, generated by overheating a flammable liquid in an  open-top tank, ignited, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) found in  a CASE STUDY issued on April 10.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#616161\" face=\"verdana\">The CSB said  the Universal Form Clamp plant process was not designed and constructed  in accordance with fire safety codes and OSHA standards, which required  (among other things) that they have a ventilation system to control  flammable vapors. <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#616161\" face=\"verdana\">The company  manufactures hundreds of products for the concrete industry, and added  the chemical mixing area to produce two specialty products in 2002 and  2003.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#616161\" face=\"verdana\">The CSB found  the mixture likely overheated because a mixing tank temperature controller  was not installed or maintained in accordance with the manufacturer&#8217;s  specifications, causing it to malfunction. As the temperature of the  flammable mixture increased to its boiling point, vapors overflowed  the open top tank, and spread along the floor throughout the mixing  area and surrounding workplaces.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#616161\" face=\"verdana\">The worker  notified a senior operator of the vapor cloud, and the operation was  shut down. Both men exited the building and advised workers in the adjoining  areas to leave. Other workers left because they saw or smelled the vapor  cloud. There was no alarm system to warn employees to evacuate.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#616161\" face=\"verdana\">A delivery  driver, unaware of the hazard, walked into the building past employees  who had left the building. Witnesses said they attempted to alert him  to the presence of the vapor cloud, but said he was talking on a cell  phone and may not have heard them. Shortly after the driver walked into  the area, the vapor cloud ignited creating a large fireball. The driver  died several days later from burns. A temporary employee, in an adjacent  area, unaware of the hazard, suffered second-degree burns and was hospitalized.  A third employee suffered a minor injury to his arm.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#616161\" face=\"verdana\">CSB Lead Investigator  Randy McClure said, &#8220;This accident could have been avoided had  the company complied with OSHA and NFPA fire safety standards, which  require engineered safety controls such as local exhaust and floor-level  ventilation systems. In addition, there likely would have been no fatality  or injuries had the company installed an employee alarm system, put  adequate emergency action plans in place, and conducted regular emergency  drills so that employees knew what to do in an emergency.&#8221;<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#616161\" face=\"verdana\">The case study  report can be found in PDF format at <\/font><a href=\"http:\/\/www.csb.gov\/completed_investigations\/docs\/CSBUniversalFormClampCaseStudy.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"><font color=\"#d2311f\" face=\"verdana\"><strong><u>http:\/\/www.csb.gov<\/u><\/strong><\/font><\/a><font color=\"#616161\" face=\"verdana\">.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>environmental Strategist, between the lines: Are your clients doing what they can to avoid this type of tragedy. If a disaster like this occurs are your clients prepared to handle it? Now is the time to find out, not after the disaster occurs. Assisting your clients to develop and execute their environmental Management Strategy (eMS)&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/noncompliance-with-fire-safety-standards-led-to-explosion-at-bellwood-ill-plant\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Noncompliance With Fire Safety Standards Led To Explosion at Bellwood, Ill., Plant<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-resources","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}