Vapor cloud explosions losses from

J.H. Lee, C.M. Gutrao, G.G. Bach, Blast effects from vapor cloud explosion. Loss Prev 11(1), 59-70 (1989)... 

The total cost of the 100 losses is 7.52 billion in 1997 dollars, The largest loss was 252,500,000, from a vapor cloud explosion at a gas processing plant at Cactus, Mexico. The average loss was 75,800,000. 

Pritchard, D. K. 1989. A review of methods for predicting blast damage from vapor cloud explosions. 7. Loss Prev. Proc. Ind. 2(4) 187-193. 

In the present context, the term BLEVE is used for any sudden loss of containment of a liquid above its normal boiling point at the moment of its failure. It can be accompanied by vessel fragmentation and, if a flammable liquid is involved, fireball, flash fire, or vapor cloud explosion. The vapor cloud explosion and flash fire may arise if container failure is not due to fire impingement. The calculation of effects from these kinds of vapor cloud explosions is treated in Sections 4.3.3 and 5.2. 

Fire is more likely tlian an explosion where tliere is a loss of contaimiient of a flammable material from a railroad car, barge, ship tank, or from a pipeline. However, both unconfmed vapor cloud explosions (UVCES) and boiling liquid-e.xpanding vapor e.xplosions (BEEVES) can occur as a result of transport accidents, (see Section 7.5)... 

In 1967, it was believed this incident was the largest vapor cloud explosion reported to date. A company spokesman presented details of this incident to the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Loss Prevention Symposium. [11] The next four paragraphs are direct quotes from that technical paper ... 

Incident The loss of containment of material or energy (e.g., a prmcture or fittings leak of ammonia on a railcar). Not all events propagate into incidents. Incident Outcome The physical manifestation of the incident for toxic materials, the incident outcome is a toxic release, while for flammable materials, the incident outcome could be a boihng liqtrid expanding vapor explosion (BLEVE), flash fire, vapor cloud explosion (VCE), etc. (e.g., for a leak of chlorine from a railcar, the incident outcome is a toxic release). Likelihood A measure of the expected probability or frequency of occurrence of an event (e.g., events/year). 

The hydrocarbon and chemical industries have traditionally been reluctant to immediately invest capital where direct return on the investment to the company is not obvious and apparent, as would any business enterprise. Additionally, fire losses in the petroleum and chemical industries were relatively small up to the 1950s. This was due to the small size of the facilities and the relatively low value of oil, gas, and chemicals to the volume of production. Until 1950, a fire or explosion loss of more than 5 million dollars had not occurred in the refining industry in the US. Also in this period, the capital-intensive offshore oil exploration and production industry was only just beginning. The use of gas was limited in the early 1900s. Typically production gas was immediately flared (i.e., disposed of by being burnt off) or the wall was capped and considered an uneconomical reservoir. Since gas development was limited, large vapor cloud explosions were relatively rare and catastrophic destruction from petroleum incidents was essentially unheard of The outlays for petroleum industry safety features... 

A Latin American chemical plant experienced a catastrophic fire and series of Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosions (BLEVEs) that resulted in the loss of one life and 5 million in direct damages (1977 dollars). The initial vapor cloud occurred as a maintenance mechanic started to remove a pneumatic actuator from the liquid discharge line below a tank of flashing flammable liquid that had a boiling point of 7° F (—14° C). 

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