Fire on a CGH2 bottles trailer

Event

Event ID: 421
Quality: 2
Description: A trailer-tractor transporting hydrogen cylinders veered off the road to the right at around for unclear reasons and eventually tipped over to the left. Part of the 4,000 cubic meters of hydrogen caught fire.
The fire department extinguished the vehicle with foam.
The highway remained closed in both direction for the duration of the firefighting intervention and the following recovery of the vehicle.
Event Initiating system: Non-Hydrogen System Initiating Event
Classification of the physical effects: Hydrogen Release and Ignition
Nature of the consequences: Fire (No additional details provided)
Macro-region: Europe
Country: Germany
Date: 02/12/2009
Main component involved?: Valve (Generic)
How was it involved?: Rupture & Formation Of A Flammable H2-Air Mixture
Initiating cause: Impact, Rollover, Crash
Root causes: Human Factors
Root CAUSE analysis: INITIATING CAUSE was a traffic accident. In absence of information on drivers and driver behaviours, the ROOT CAUSE can be attributed generically to a human error (wrong manoeuvre).

Application: Hydrogen Transport And Distribution
Sub-application: CGH2 tube trailer
Hydrogen supply chain stage: Hydrogen Transport (No additional details provided)
All components affected: cylinders
Location type: Open
Operational condition: Normal
Pre-event occurrences: [Note of the validator: The mass of hydrogen was calculated by assuming that the value of 4000 cubic metre provided by the source related to standard condition].

Number of injured persons: 1
Number of fatalities: 0
Post-event summary: The driver was slightly injured . He was taken to hospital for treatment.

Reference & weblink: Online news of Oberberg-heute<br />
http://www.oberberg-heute.de/?act=vp&cid=1&pid=9138 <br />
(accessed December 2024)
Online news of Oberberg-heute<br />
with pictures