Although much of this will change in the coming years, the NFPA 704 label is still very much valid today. We came across these NFPA labels that were COMMERCIALLY BOUGHT and no one seemed to notice until audit day!!! Do you see the problem(s) with these labels? Post your answer(s) in the comment section below. CLICK "read more" link below to see the full size images...
causes of the fire that have been eliminated: Rekindle (no earlier fire), Spontaneous Combustion, 480v electrical system in building, NH3, AN, Smoking, and Weather.
The following three (3) causes have NOT been eliminated: 120v electrical in the building, a golf cart, and arson.
Timeline of events (see my breakdown with radio traffic BELOW): 7:32 FD was dispatched, 7:33 in route, 7:38 on scene, 7:41 requested assistance, 7:51 explosion
Damage was over a 37 block radius; 2.5 miles was the farthest evidence recovered
LODD investigation on-going for the next several months
Fire originated in the "seed room" where the golf cart was parked; seed room backed up to the AN storage bin area
AN was stored in wooden bin(s) stacked in a column and filled from the top (23:30 in video)
There were two explosions milliseconds apart (see my analysis below - NOT a missle!!). 1st explosion was smaller and was likely caused by falling debris/equipment, which then set of the larger explosion of AN
28-34 tons of AN exploded; 20-30 additional tons were in the building that did NOT explode; 100 tons in RCar did not explode
crater was 10' deep and 93' across
28-34 tons of AN = 15,000-20,000 pounds of TNT
Fire water system was functioning as normal that day (no mention on capacity of the system)
In 2012, the National Board launched a new effort to report the occurrence of pressure equipment incidents across the United States by researching information on the OSHA public website database. OSHA’s resources were chosen due to its decades-long, fact-based, detailed reports of on-the-job accidents. A team of National Board staff searched the OSHA database using industry-specific keywords to customize the results. Over 5,000 reports were generated. Each report was reviewed by National Board staff, and those reports identified as relevant to the purposes of the National Board and the boiler and pressure vessel industry were added to the Incident Report statistics. The following graph reveals the initial findings...
This month IN-OSHA has issued citations to a "service contractor" in the amount of $99,250 after one of their service technicians entered a roll-off type trash compactor to perform equipment repair, replacing a hydraulic pump and a directional valve on the Marathon Trash Compactor. The plant was NOT cited and the contractor company involved in the repairs received 10 citations, one (1) Serious) and nine (9) Willful/Knowing. Here is a breakdown of the citations:
Does your facaility have hazardous machinery? Does your facaility have E-Stops on that hazardous machinery? 1910.144(a)(1)(iii) is a rarely used OSHA standard, but it does exist and it is VERY specific. In fact IN-OSHA issued a citation against the standard this month. Here is what it says...
As with any safety effort there are varying degrees of what all of us would consider being compliant vs. world-class safety. When we enter the PSM/RMP realm this line gets even blurrier since these are "performance oriented" standards. But a PSM/RMP audit SHOULD be much more than looking at just 1910.119 and Part 68! There are dozens of other OSHA standards that have a DIRECT link to 1910.119 or an association with PSM/RMP that should be included in all PSM/RMP 3-year audits. Here they are and how they are connected/associated to process safety...
Reps. George Miller (D-Calif.) and Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) have requested that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigate gaps in regulatory oversight of the West, Texas fertilizer plant where an April 17 explosion killed 15 and injured more than 200. Miller, the senior Democratic member of the Education and the Workforce Committee, and Courtney, the senior Democratic member of the Workforce Protections Subcommittee, also asked the GAO to catalog similar facilities across the country and examine the risks to workers and surrounding communities.
OSHA has cited an industrial cleaning contractor for 28 serious safety violations following the death of a worker who fell from a ladder inside of a storage tank, apparently after being overcome by methylene chloride vapors at a chemical manufacturing facility. Eighteen of the serious violations involve confined space entry requirements, such as...
"Bryan worked for me during the time we were both employed at a Great Lakes Chemical Company plant in Omaha. He led the effort to develop a world class safety program in the factory. I found Bryan to be an extremely high principled individual, with boundless energy and a high level of credibility...
SAFTENG Safety Info Posts
Although much of this will change in the coming years, the NFPA 704 label is still very much valid today. We came across these NFPA labels that were COMMERCIALLY BOUGHT and no one seemed to notice until audit day!!! Do you see the problem(s) with these labels? Post your answer(s) in the comment section below. CLICK "read more" link below to see the full size images...
In 2012, the National Board launched a new effort to report the occurrence of pressure equipment incidents across the United States by researching information on the OSHA public website database. OSHA’s resources were chosen due to its decades-long, fact-based, detailed reports of on-the-job accidents. 
