LPG

This site has comparatively little on LPG, although it accounted for a large number of fire and explosion incidents reported to HSE. LPG appears everywhere, from the smallest disposable cylinders used for blow torches through to huge storage in refrigerated facilities underground. HSE once published their own guidance on storage in bulk tanks and cylinders, but eventually they decided to withdraw this, and take the publications from the Liquid Gas UK (formerly the LP Gas Association) as the requirements. These are extensive, and detailed with over 25 codes of practice, plus some guidance notes, but not always easy for safety specialists or HSE inspectors to decide just what is enforceable and what is not.
Alan covered LPG issues during 5 years working in Scotland, but not subsequently after he moved to HSE head office in Bootle.
During that time, he gave advice about small bulk LPG storage in Glasgow at ICL Plastics, otherwise known as Stockline. These premises exploded in May 2004 when LPG leaked from a corroded pipe into the basement of the factory, killing 9 and injuring many more. My advice from a visit in 1988 was largely ignored.

The official inquiry report records ‘It gives Mr Tyldesley deserves great credit for being the only person in this history who was alert to the risk arising from the unknown condition of the buried pipework. His recommendation 11 was critical. Had it been carried out, it would have shown that the pipe was unprotected. In all likelihood the pipe would have shown signs of corrosion, having been buried in aggressive soils for almost twenty years. Mr Tyldesley was perceptive in seeing that the underground pipework was as much a source of hazard as the siting of the tank.’

Other notable LPG incidents include the explosion of an overfilled road tanker at Los Alfaques campsite in Spain which killed, according to Wikipedia, 200 immediately and a similar number from burn injuries subsequently, the failure during fire engulfment of a large storage sphere at Feyzin in France, which also merits its own wikipedia page and in 1972 an American incident at Lowell gas which spread from a road tanker to two 50,000 gallon spheres. Alan has reports of these three incidents concentrating on the thermal effects on people available on request.