A series of explosions occurred on a Sunday afternoon inside a pyrotechnic facility, when only the guardian was onsite. He sounded the alarm. The fire would have been ignited in warehouse D22 by the fall (most likely caused by rodents,[...]
A release of hydrochloric acid vapours occurred during cleaning of a 50-m³ tank that had contained sulphur chloride. The water introduced by site technicians reacted with the sludge at the tank bottom (approx. 30-mm thick), composed for 50% of sulphur[...]
A tank glazed with 85% H2SO4 ruptured leading to a workshop to close down for five days in an explosives factory. Given the waste acid storage autonomy period of four days for production, 3 tank trucks hired in February and[...]
The number of casualties resulting from the Florrifoux silo explosions is high: 5 dead and 4 injured. Debris were scattered over a 100-m radius, windows were broken and damages to homes were observed as far as 300 m away. This[...]
In order to seal the sidewalls of a tunnel under construction, a mix of acrylamide and sodium silicate (ROCHA GIL) was employed. Injection tests were conducted in March 1997 without informing local authorities, the municipality or the region. On 24th[...]
In order to fill a lorry with phenol, an operator undertook the necessary steps but forgot to position the loading arm. The three detectors on the filling station were defective and did not indicate a flaw in the coupling manoeuvre.[...]
A 20-car convoy left a tunnel around 11:30 pm in order to cross a train station when 7 tanks carrying 80 m3 of gasoline derailed. An axle with an overheated roller bearing broke on one of the railcars. Traces on[...]
An extremely violent explosion occurred at 5:20 am inside a refinery operating normally; this blast, felt up to 30 km away, was followed by several others. The internal emergency plan was activated at 5:45 and rescue teams called to the scene.[...]
Around 4:10 pm, six people were killed by the explosion of nearly 300 tonnes of expired munitions and production wastes inside the "Steingletscher" underground storage, located on the slope of the Susten pass facing Bern. The explosion, whose TNT equivalent[...]
At around 6.30 pm, 5 t of ammonia (NH3) was released over a 15-minute period from 2 valves at a height of 8/10 m on equipment used to manufacture an ammonium nitrate solution. 4 persons located at 1,100 m to[...]
