In Harm's way—after which nothing was the same again too close for comfort—part 2

Abstract

Learning from experience is one of the four pillars of Risk‐Based Process Safety. Incidents that occur at one facility often provide opportunities to strengthen management systems at another. Sharing technical lessons learned from incidents is vital to improving process safety performance across the process industries. Most incidents also involve human factors, often as a key causal factor. Understanding performance‐shaping factors can be essential to minimizing future failures.Most case studies on process safety incidents are written by a third party who was not directly involved in the incident. As such, the papers may lack insights that can only be properly articulated by someone directly involved.In his early career the author was involved in two major incidents while managing day‐to‐day operation of refinery process units. This article describes the second incident involving several employees rendered unconscious from exposure to hydrogen sulfide. The first incident involving two major fires was published in Process Safety Progress [Broadribb, Process Safety Progress 32 (2013) 255–259]. In both incidents, the author found himself decidedly too close for comfort and could easily have become a casualty himself.The second incident occurred during commissioning of a major process unit in which eight men were exposed to sour gas. The blank isolating the Reactor from the Main Fractionator column was being removed and the work had progressed to the point where the flanges had been jacked open and the blank removed, when the men on the job were overcome by gas. Breathing apparatus was not being worn. Members of the rescue party were also affected by gas.This article will raise awareness of lessons learned relating to a number of elements of Risk‐Based Process Safety [CCPS, “Guidelines for Risk Based Process Safety”, New York, 2007] and human factors.“This article was prepared for presentation at American Institute of Chemical Engineers 2014 Spring Meeting, 10th Global Congress on Process Safety, New Orleans, Louisiana, March 30–April 2, 2014, and American Institute of Chemical Engineers 2017 Spring Meeting, 13th Global Congress on Process Safety, San Antonio, Texas, March 26–29, 2017.” © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog 37: 140–144, 2018