Dangers of Hot Work: Lessons Learned from Fatal Welding Operations on a Gasoline Storage Tank

On October 23, 2009, a vapor cloud explosion occurred after an above ground gasoline storage tank was overfilled at the Caribbean Petroleum Corporation (CAPECO) tank farm facility in Bayamón, Puerto Rico. The blast registered a 2.9 on the Richter scale and sparked several fires throughout the facility that burned for another three days and damaged a total of 21 tanks before emergency responders were able to extinguish the flames.

Operations on the day of the incident included a ship transfer of unleaded gasoline to the CAPECO facility and the transfer was proceeding via four smaller capacity tanks. At approximately 10:00 pm, all of the unleaded gasoline was being transferred to tank 409 and a visible vapor cloud was noted two hours later during the walk around at 12:00 am on October 23, 2009. It was determined that tank 409 was overfilled by approximately 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons) of gasoline, which caused gasoline to flow out of the tank vents near the top of the tank and cascade down the side forming a vapor cloud and liquid pool. This is equivalent to overfilling the tank by over 20 gasoline tanker trucks, which if 10% of the liquid formed the vapor cloud it would cover an area larger than 30 American football fields of a rich flammable mixture. The gasoline vapors mixed with the air forming an ignitable vapor cloud spanning a vast portion of the facility. This mixture ignited resulting in a large explosion, which subsequently ignited neighboring tanks that burned for three days.

US regulations do not consider CAPECO and other bulk petroleum storage terminals as high hazard facilities, yet a large vapor cloud formed. This paper will present investigation findings and key lessons learned into the massive explosion and fire. This includes: effects of confinement and congestion in a seemingly open space that contributed to the incident; ship offloading and tank filling procedures that revealed significant operational deficiencies; failures to secure the confined drainage system; and level controls.