Fire in a Transformer
A short circuit occurred in a bus bar system in a transformer building, causing a fire in adjacent switches. This was followed by the tripping out of the three refinery turbo-alternators, cutting off the National Grid supply, and loss of refinery electrical power, steam and air supplies for some 30 minutes.The cause of the incident was a fault in a 15 kiva circuit breaker voltage transformer which led to a bus bar fault During the power loss and shutdown of plant, a hydrogen leak developed on a valve, and a tube of a fin-fan condense bank failed. Total damage attributed to the incident has been estimated at between 500,000 and 700,000 Frs.The fire fighters were busy for one and a half hours, they had to face ventilation problems and to ensure effective electrical isolation, before opening up electrical equipment casings.
Event Date
October 20, 1975
Record Quality Indicator
Region / Country
Event Initiating System
Classification of the Physical Effects
Nature of the Consequences
Cause Comments
Leak and short circuit, power supply failure
Facility Information
Application Type
Application
Specific Application Supply Chain Stage
Components Involved
transformer and circuit breaker, hydrogen valve
Storage/Process Medium
Location Type
Location description
Industrial Area
Pre-event Summary
A short circuit occurred in a busbar system in a transformer building, causing a fire in adjacent switches. This was followed by the tripping out of the three refinery turbo-alternators, cutting off the National Grid supply, and loss of refinery electrical power, steam and air supplies for some 30 minutes.
Currency
Event Nature
Emergency Action
Black toxic smoke prevented immediate access to the transformer building despite the opening of doors and ventilation panels, and difficulty was found in extinguishing the fires in the switch cubicles. The fire fighting was not fully successful in the transformer building for about 1 1/2 hours, the time being employed in dealing with the ventilation problems and to ensure that effective electrical isolation had been established before opening up electrical equipment casings.
Release Type
Release Substance
Ignition Source
Detonation
No
Deflagration
No
High Pressure Explosion
No
High Voltage Explosion
No
Flame Type
Source Category
References
References
Event description extracted from the UK database ICHEME in PDF
ICHEME database is no longer available for purchase, but data can be download as PDF for free.
https://www.icheme.org/knowledge/safety-centre/resources/accident-data/
(accessed October 2020)