Incident Report

Subject:                   Update - South Korea, Hube Global, HF Release, 5 Dead 18 Injured

Date of Email report:   Fri 12/10/2012

Report Detail:

There have been plenty of incidents recently where fire officers responding to fire’s have poorly positioned fire apparatus resulting in loss of the firetrucks and in some cases loss of life  - what about toxic gas releases?
how committed into the hot zone were these fire-fighters and their fire trucks?

Two workers at top of tank lorry for transfer and two worker at ground level for pump repair and one officer at office building close to tank lorry died.

Anhydrous HF leaked from the liquid valve as two workers were on top preparing to connect a Anhydrous HF ISO Tank for offloading. They accidently fully opened the quarter turn valve. An estimated 8 tons of HF was released. 5 people including the 2 workers perished, 18 responders, workers, reporter wound-up in the hospital, almost 3000 villagers from 2 villages downwind of the facility were treated for irritation, exposure.
 
Some pre-report key issues in my mind are:
 
1.      Both workers had no chemical protective clothing or SCBA
2.      Emergency response equipment/systems to mitigate the leak
3.      Emergency Responders were not aware of the treatment for HF
4.      Calcium Gluconate was not readily available
5.      Valving on the ISO should be reviewed
 
This has been reported to be the worst chemical accident in Korean history

Additional Documentation:

Video:  http://tvpot.daum.net/clip/ClipView.do?clipid=44910985

Video: http://tvpot.daum.net/clip/ClipView.do?clipid=45028120