Study on accidental fire at a large-scale floating-roof gasoline storage tank

Abstract

For an accident involving a large-scale internal floating-roof tank with 28.4 m diameter and filled with 4600 m3 gasoline, the actual behavior of the gasoline fire and the fire-fighting strategies that were applied to it were analyzed in terms of the heat release rate, burning rate, and regression rate. During the accident, the initial fire suppression strategy failed and the gasoline was moved to an external tank. A total of 2800 m3 gasoline was burned for 17 h with a resulting heat release rate of 1475 MW. The long duration of the fire burning was attributed to the burning surface of the gasoline, which was not covered with foam at the beginning of the fire using the active foam fire-extinguishing system due to damage to one of the foam chambers. The average regression rate of the gasoline was 0.16 m/h after 8 h of burning and 0.35 m/h when the fire was completely suppressed.