Event
- Event ID
- 171
- Quality
- Description
- A LH2 road transporter experienced a fire on a rear tire. The driver tried unsuccessfully to extinguish the fire out with the on-board fire extinguisher, then he called the 911 and disconnected the tractor from the trailer. The local fire-fighter team arrived, closed the highway and started to extinguish the fire. At this point the rupture disc opened due to high pressure built up insider the LH trailer, releasing hydrogen gas into the atmosphere. The hydrogen did not ignite. Approximately 35 kg were released.
The emergency lasted two hours. - Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- No Hydrogen Release
- Nature of the consequences
- Leak No Ignition (No additional details provided)
- Macro-region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Date
- Main component involved?
- Prd (Burst Disc)
- How was it involved?
- Correct Activation
- Initiating cause
- Over-Heating (Conventional Fire)
- Root causes
- Root CAUSE analysis
- The INITIAL CAUSE and the ROOT CAUSE were a conventional fire on a truck tyre, which increased the temperature and consequently the pressure of the LH2 tank.
The pressure control system of the trailer functioned as expected. Although not described in detail, the fire fighting strategy appears having been successful, because the emergency lasted only two hours.
Facility
- Application
- Hydrogen Transport And Distribution
- Sub-application
- LH2 tanker
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- Hydrogen Transport (No additional details provided)
- All components affected
- burst disc
- Location type
- Open
- Operational condition
- Pre-event occurrences
- A tyre fire had started on a rear wheel.
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of injured persons
- 0
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Environmental damage
- 0
- Currency
- US$
- Property loss (onsite)
- 101500
- Post-event summary
- Approximately 35 kg were released.
- Emergency action
- A fire lasted about ten minutes.
Event Nature
- Release type
- gas
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Released amount
- 453.592
- Presumed ignition source
- No release
References
- Reference & weblink
Incident E-2007080143 of the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration PHMSA: <br />
https://portal.phmsa.dot.gov/analytics/saw.dll?Portalpages&PortalPath=%… />
(accessed September 2024)Fireworld magazine. The link to this technical magazine is lost
JRC assessment
- Sources categories
- PHMSA
