Rim seal fire under the rolling ladder proves difficult to extinguish
In December 2018, a rim seal fire started at 00:15 (during the night shift) in one of the crude oil storage tanks in Egypt. The cause of the fire was deemed to be a lightning strike and a faulty old seal. Tanks had no detection, or first attack systems installed.
The resulting rim seal fire kept burning for 3 days, upon further investigation it was found that rim seal fire started under the rolling ladder. Fortunately, the rim seal fire did not evolve into a full surface tank fire and the fire crews were able to control the fire after 3 days.
The key takeaways from the rim seal fire incident:
- Fire under the rolling ladder prevented the fire crew from a direct approach, it took the fire brigades a long time to control the fire (3 days)
- Severe losses to property and assets, an intervention was required by several oil companies to bring the fire under control
- Massive amounts of foam and equipment was used to put out the fire -$$$.
Watch the footage of this incident below:
Video credit: Alaa Eldin/Youtube
Video credit: Power News/Youtube
Read how the CFI rim-seal fire protection system could have prevented the fire in Egypt: