When most ordinary people hear the term “Hazardous Location” many conjure images of a dangerous location associated with typical hazards; however, when a safety engineer or engineer from the process industries hear the phrase we immediately elvate our antenna and sit up and pay close attention to what is being said. But for those outside of chemical processing indutries, most have no idea as to when an area needs to be classified as a Hazardous Location (HAZLOC), how big of an area is impacted, how to go about with their hazard analysis. A lot of my work in process safety, and my professional roots in process safety, involves flammable liquids. I learned HAZLOCs from “Garth” during my MSU Internship and in the most unusal places to learn HAZLOCs – hospitals! Then in my first job out of school I met “Roy” and “Roger” who went great lengths to get me up to speed on HAZLOC. Back in those days, Factory Mutual had a set of binders much like NFPA that covered just about any hazard that could be found in a processing plant. I did a lot of reading in those days and was lucky to have Roy and Roger’s instruction along the way. But not everyone was as lucky as I and they did not have P.E.’s to teach them and guide them in their hazard analysis and this leads to a lot of facilities who should have areas designated as a HAZLOC and for whatever reason have not. With the recent explosion in TX involving a suspected flammable gas, I have received a number of inquiries from clients who, in the past, have balked at my inquiry about their lack of “calssification” within their facilities – simply because “we are not a chemical plant Bryan… that stuff does not apply to us”.
In this article I hope to help those who are NOT a chemical plant understand how this engineering practice may apply to your business and how best to implment this critical engineering control.