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Faulty fuel monitor likely caused Puerto Rico fire
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| Published on Wednesday, November 18, 2009 | Email To Friend Print Version
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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (Reuters) -- A malfunctioning fuel monitoring system was the likely cause of an Oct. 23 explosion and massive fire at a Puerto Rican fuel storage depot, the US Chemical Safety Board said on Tuesday.
No one was killed at the Caribbean Petroleum Corp (Capeco) facility in Bayamon, near the Caribbean island's capital, San Juan. But hundreds of people were evacuated as firefighters battled for nearly three days to contain the blaze, which grew to engulf more than half of the fuel depot's 40 tanks.
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| The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Matinicus enforces a safety zone following a fuel-tank-farm explosion near San Juan. Photo courtesy of US Coast Guard |
The blast damaged homes and businesses more than a mile from the facility and officials are still working to ascertain the environmental damage it caused.
"The filling of a tank without a functioning monitoring system is the type of activity the CSB will be examining very closely," Investigator-in-Charge Jeffrey Wanko said as the agency announced a full investigation of the incident.
The blast resulted from the accidental overfilling of a tank with gasoline from a ship docked in San Juan harbor that occurred because of a faulty monitoring system, CSB officials said.
Employees were unaware of the overfilling because the facility's computerized level monitoring system was not fully operational.
As the gasoline spilled undetected from the tank, it vaporized and spread across the facility, creating a 2,000-foot (610-metre) wide vapor cloud that ignited once it contacted an ignition source.
"The CSB will conduct a thorough and comprehensive investigation of this accident. Our team will uncover exactly what events led to an explosion of this magnitude. Our goal is to determine not only what happened, but why it happened," CSB board member William Wright said.
The CSB is an independent US agency charged with investigating industrial chemical accidents. It does not issue citations or fines but makes safety recommendations to regulatory agencies and industry and labor groups.
Caribbean Petroleum has a refinery that was shut down in 2000 and a tank farm that stored gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel and crude oil prior to last month's shutdown. | | | | Reads : 1726 | | | |
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