On 11/20/207 a cosmetic plant in NY suffered a fatal fire. The explosion and subsequent fire was caused by static electricity and Flammable liquids. I need to point out that the fatality was from smoke inhalation and was an employee who was not involved in the handling of the flammable liquids in the initial event. The investigators determined the static was generated when the employee making the transfer wiped up spilled material from the top of the “tote” with a rag. This is certainly plausible, but as we can see from the report,
the transfer was from “smaller metal containers” into a plastic tote that appeared to be suspended from a special tote hand cart handling device. The report makes no mention of any bonding or grounding, nor the specific flammable being transferred at the time. One could “theorize” that a transfer into a suspended plastic tote would generate a tremendous static charge, especially if the transfer involves “splash filling” and a non-conductive liquid. The accumluster charge would be trapped inside the PLASTIC tote and as soon as it found a path to ground (i.e. grounded worker), the charge pass throw the worker and to “ground”.
Not knowing the specific flammable liquid (never stated in the report), whether bonding and/or grounding was utilized, or if “splash filling” was the method used, we may never fully understand the true “root cause” and “contributing factors“; however, this incident with its video evidence and report pictures we can learn the followin:
- plastic is NOT a suitable materials of construction for transferring large quantities of non-conductive flammable liquids
- even with plastic, containers MUST always be on the ground/grounded; suspending a plastic tote is just not a good idea for a flammable liquid transfer
- of “splash filling” will occur it MUST be done within an inert atmosphere
- flame retardant clothing (FRC) must be a serious considerstion for workers who regularly handle, especially transferrin, flammable liquids.