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The incident at the Tesoro refinery reminds us of effective management of the integrity of an operating plant. An explosion and fire fatally injured seven workers when nearly forty-year-old equipment catastrophically failed during maintenance while switching process flow between two parallel rows of exchangers at the Tesoro refinery in Anacortes, Washington.
The 2010 Tesoro Anacortes Refinery Disaster was an industrial accident took place at the Tesoro Anacortes Refinery in Anacortes, Washington, on April 2, 2010. Seven workers suffered fatal burns in an explosion and subsequent fire when a heat exchanger suddenly ruptured after a maintenance restart. At 00:30 on 2 April, while personnel were performing heat exchanger restart operations following maintenance, a catastrophic and violent rupture of the adjacent bank heat exchanger occurred. The resulting explosion was so powerful that many in Anacortes felt the shock wave across Fidelio Bay. A giant fireball lit up the sky above the refinery, and the southeast wind pushed a plume of black smoke toward the city. It took about 90 minutes to extinguish the fire. The families of the victims and the injured contractor filed suit against Tesoro. The lawsuit was settled for $39 million but as of 2020, the company continued to fight the fine and government allegations that it intentionally put its workers at risk. The Tesoro refinery was fined $85,700 in 2009 for 17 "serious" safety violations -- meaning that each violation involved a risk of "death or serious physical injury." These fines were later reduced to three violations and a $12,250 settlement. According to the final report issued by the CSB, the explosion was caused by a high-temperature hydrogen attack (HTHA) that severely cracked and weakened the carbon steel pipes, leading to a rupture. As a result, the CSB recommended that the state adopt more stringent process safety management attributes and functions based on the team's regulatory analysis. The Nelson curve for carbon steel has also been lowered, prohibiting the use of the material in processes that operate at temperatures above 400 degrees Fahrenheit. The accident was the state's worst industrial disaster in 50 years. A similar incident occurred in November 1998 when an explosion at the Equion Puget Sound Refinery in Anacortes killed six men.
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