On Feb. 27 an explosion at Ven Petrochem Pharma Co., Valsad, Gujarat, India, killed at least two workers and injured several others. According to an article in The Statesman, firefighters reached the factory quickly but “could not start dousing the flames immediately as they were unaware about the type of chemicals which caused the blaze. The firefighters did not find any security personnel to guide them about the chemicals present inside, making their task all the more difficult.”
A recent Chemical Processing podcast addressed “Tactics To Help First Responders During Process Safety Incidents.”
“In the United States, obviously we have a lot of stakeholders associated with chemical processes, and we have local emergency planning committees that gather information about what chemicals are on site,” says podcast guest Patrick Jessee, commander paramedic for the Bureau of Operations of the Chicago Fire Department. “The Tier 2 reports [provide] information about extremely hazardous substances and reportable quantities. . . . [this helps us] get our arms wrapped around the scenario and understanding what is your facility — what are the hazards present within that footprint.”
Trish Kerin, director of the IChemE Safety Centre, adds “Fire brigades have enormous resources available to them in terms of understanding the chemistry of what's going on. But what they don't have when they come to respond is an intimate knowledge of your plant and what's going on in your plant and how some of the chemicals may be changing within your facility depending on what stage of reaction they might be in or where they are present in the facility. You need to make that information available to the appropriate people that are responding for you, the fire brigade and the appropriate science officers within the fire brigade, so that they can understand what your particular risks are.”
The Statesman article claimed that “explosions in chemical and petro-chemical factories have almost become a routine in Gujarat as the industrial safety authorities take a lenient view of violation of fire safety norms.”
