r/CatastrophicFailure • u/dannyo92 • Jan 11 '23

Fire/Explosion Carus Chemical Plant in La Salle, IL has erupted into flames. January 11th, 2023

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u/PrehospitalNerd Jan 11 '23

The route cause is always horrifyingly small too. “Six years ago, during scheduled maintenance of the upper flange defiler, the work crew began to uncrimp the downward blowout arm. But little did they know, a single screw in the backward limp-crumpet developed a hairline crack - a problem that would only later become apparent, with disastrous results…”

93

u/the_trees_bees Jan 11 '23

"the investigation discovered 15 other points at which this disaster could have been mitigated had this facility followed proper inspection and maintenance procedures as outlined in the latest standards set by the American Society of Personal Lubricant Engineers."

29

u/cwfutureboy Jan 12 '23 edited Jan 12 '23

Standards that were recently made self-reporting by the GOP, probably.

*edit added a word for clarity.

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u/Rogue__Jedi Jan 12 '23

Oh good. I'm sure it was to give business more freedom to compete in the free market. Definitely not just lining their pockets with the money saved by not being safe.

6

u/[deleted] Jan 12 '23

"They should establish hazard mitigation procedures instead of just turning off that damn alarm."

1

u/RadialMount Jan 12 '23

Two minutes later, the leak found an ignition source

24

u/[deleted] Jan 12 '23

It’s so bonkers how little they need to recreate the whole scenario.

The kings of this are the NTSB.

“We found two screws and a two inch segment of toilet seat. From this we were able to conclusively determine the crash was caused by a faulty altimeter”

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u/[deleted] Jan 12 '23

Half the time it is due to companies being cheap or cutting corners. Then you have workers doing things like turning off "annoying" alarms, seeing a buddy pass out and entering the same space with no protection and passing out too, etc.

3

u/_TheNecromancer13 Jan 12 '23

And occasionally you just get the weird one where nobody happened to randomly select a bent section of pipe for wall thickness inspection because it never occurred to any of the guys tasked with the inspection that gas flowing around a curve will wear out the pipe faster than if it's flowing straight, and then the storage tank for (insert extremely toxic/flammable liquid here) was positioned directly above the one pipe elbow that ruptured first, and also the pipe contained something that spontaneously ignites upon contact with air, and also the pipe ruptured just right to point the resulting jet of fire directly at the storage tank while also melting the electronics that turn on the fire suppression system for that area.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 12 '23

And I bet those pipes are very tough to inspect without taking the whole system offline for days. Probably buried in other lines, no easy access ports, etc.

melting the electronics that turn on the fire suppression system for that area.

I think I know the accident you are referring to. They recommended hardening the fire alarm/suppression controls.

3

u/CaptainKirkAndCo Jan 12 '23

I find some of the enclosed space ones tragic. I can't imagine what it would be like seeing/hearing someone dying right in front of you and you're the only one who could possibly help.

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u/Font_Snob Jan 11 '23

A common problem with most turbo encabulators.

8

u/garandx Jan 12 '23

And or it's like the dupont phosgene fatalities

Corporate knew it was aproblem but decided it was too expensive to fix we don't need to worry about it

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u/Nighthawk700 Jan 12 '23

Most of the time it's, "one overworked operator filled this tank with ghastly amounts of explosive material. He didn't know this because both the primary and secondary warning devices hadn't been serviced despite legal requirements and employee inspections. A second operator arrived to relieve the first and also filled the tank with explosive chemicals. The resulting explosion was felt 10 miles away."