Explosion in chemical plant in Tarragona (Spain)

[MGZmechanical]

https://elpais.com/elpais/2020/01/16/inenglish/1579162775_866279.html

One of the victims is a man who was sitting inside his home, two kilometers away from the site of the accident. Firefighters have located a one-ton piece of metal that went flying through the air from the force of the blast and slammed into the apartment right above the victim, who was crushed by the falling rubble.

 

[itsmoked]

Ethylene oxide.. Nasty stuff flammability wise.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[humanengr]

New Field BDMS? (Blast Debris Mitigation Systems)

 

[MartinLe]

It appears that the plant management had a clear concept about what to do that wa ignored in two ways:
- no clear communication to outside authorities
- no warning sirens for the neighbors

It's understandable that the first priority would be to find missing workers, but surely the plant manager can delegate this to the site fire brigade (if existing) and make two phone calls?

AFAIK EU's Seveso directive (96/82/E) would mandate minimum distances between the plant and residential building, but I don't know how much (I think the actual distances are specified in local law if a all, the EU directive is more "the member states shall ...") and that's no use when the plant and buildings are older than the directive.