A Slim Jim meat products food plant is shown after an explosion in Garner, N.C., Tuesday, June 9, 2009. Scores of people were injured and a toxic cloud was left behind as authorities searched for the missing. (AP Photo/Jim R. Bounds, Pool)
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board last night approved issuing urgent recommendations for changes to toughen federal fire and gas codes to better address the dangers to workers of purging gas lines.
Board members acted in response to their agency’s investigation of last June’s explosion and ammonia release that killed three workers at a ConAgra Foods Slim Jim factory in North Carolina, and after initially refusing to issue the urgent recommendations proposed by the CSB’s own staff.
There’s coverage available from The Associated Press (whose Mike Baker has done great work on this issue before), from the Raleigh News-Observer, and from The Raleigh Public Record.
WRAL-TV’s Web site has video of the CSB’s news conference yesterday, held prior to last night’s public meeting. And if you’re into Twitter, board spokesman Daniel Horowitz tweeted the public meeting and you can go back and read those by checking out his feed here.
In releasing preliminary investigation results last night, the CSB described what happened at ConAgra this way:
… The catastrophic explosion resulted from the accumulation of significant amounts of natural gas that had been purged indoors from a new 120-foot length of pipe during the startup of a new water heater in the plant that made Slim Jims, a popular beef-jerky product. During pipe purging, workers feed pressurized gas into a pipe in order to displace air or other gases so that only pure fuel gas remains in the piping when it is connected to an appliance such as a water heater or boiler.
CSB investigations supervisor Donald Holmstrom said his team made the urgent recommendations after discovering gaps in fuel gas codes:
Purging flammable gases into building interiors is a recipe for disaster. At ConAgra, we determined the accident would not have happened had the gas been vented safely outdoors through a hose or pipe
As proposed, the CSB recommendations would urge the NFPA and the American Gas Association (AGA), enact tentative interim and then permanent changes to the National Fuel Gas Code. These would require that purged gases shall be vented “to a safe location outdoors, away from personnel and ignition sources.” In cases where outdoor venting is not possible, companies would be required to seek a variance from local officials before purging gas indoors, including approval of a risk evaluation and hazard control plan. The recommendation would also require the use of combustible gas detectors to continuously monitor gas concentrations; the training of personnel about the problems of odor fade and odor fatigue; and warnings against the use of odor alone for detecting releases of fuel gases.
Holmstrom added that the CSB has examined several other similar accidents in which gas was purged indoors and not detected
We have determined that workers cannot rely on their sense of smell to warn them of danger, in part because people become desensitized to the odorant added to natural gas and propane. Gas detectors must be used.
Other incidents examined by the CSB include: a 1999 explosion at a Ford power plant in Dearborn, Michigan, killing six, injuring 38, and causing a $1 billion property loss; a 2008 explosion at a Hilton Hotel under construction in San Diego, California that injured fourteen people; a 2005 school explosion in Porterville, California, burning two plumbers; and an explosion at a hotel in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 2007 severely burning two plumbers.
It’s worth taking a look at the News-Observer coverage … if for nothing else for this part:
Debra Pettiway of Selma has worked at the plant for 30years. Her son Lewis Watson, also an employee, died in the explosion. During tearful comments, she asked the board to approve the recommendations. It is still difficult for her to go to the plant every day.
“I’m afraid to go to work, but I’ve got to go to work and make a living,” she said. “Please, please, for the people who died: please don’t let them die for nothing.”
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Thanks again, Ken. Sure wish we could clone one of your for each at-risk chemical community in the US.
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