Incident Report

Subject:         JOIFF Peer Assist – Removal Of Roof Plates ?

Date of Email report:  Fri 05/09/2014

Report Detail:

Hi Kevin

Below a question I would like to ask to JOIFF members – Can you forward please?

Recently , we experienced a fire incident on the fixed roof (inside) of atmospheric residue tank  during maintenance activities. Tank was out of service for more than 1 year ….   The fire was initiated during the removal of the first row of roof plates (start of the replacement operation for the full roof).
Works were executed under normal daily permit requirements and the specific permit was found in line with our current rules and procedures.  As a cause for the incident the first investigation shows  that an underestimation of  sporadic product remains present  on the roof beams and supporting structures are in combination with the heat input from the cutting torch  the cause for the ignition of the fire. The incident was brought under control by the internal fire department

Do you have any information on:

• Removal of roof plates – What is/are , from a cutting point of view,  the methodologies to be used (grinder-torch, cold cut,….?)

• Up front of the cutting process – What is the common practice with respects to the cleaning standard for fixed roof fuel oil/residue tanks – Default cleaning Yes/NO ? and if Yes, what methodologies are  used

Thanks for your help

Additional Documentation: