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Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Hydrogen release from the hose of a tube trailer, followed by an explosion and a fire

Event

Event ID
998
Quality
Description
A hose of a hydrogen tube trailer parked in at a specialised company ruptured. The released hydrogen ignited and exploded, followed by a fire probably fed by the continuously leaking hydrogen.
The local fire rescue team rushed to the scene after receiving the alarm call.
The fire was quickly brought under control and extinguished.
Firefighters continued to cool the tank to avoid further problems.
There were no casualties at the scene.
There were two hydrogen trailers parked at the accident site. The other truck was not affected.
Event Initiating system
Classification of the physical effects
Hydrogen Release and Ignition
Nature of the consequences
Macro-region
Asia
Country
China
Date
Main component involved?
Hose (Trailer)
How was it involved?
Rupture
Initiating cause
Material Degradation (Generic)
Root causes
Unknown (No additional details provided)

Facility

Application
Hydrogen Transport And Distribution
Sub-application
CGH2 tube trailer
Hydrogen supply chain stage
Hydrogen Transport (No additional details provided)
All components affected
hydrogen delivery to an industrial site, hose. Unclear if the hose was connected and was trasferring hydrogen when ruptured
Location type
Open
Location description
Industrial Area
Operational condition
Pre-event occurrences
It is not known if a hydrogen delivery was taking place, or if the trailer was just parked there.

Emergency & Consequences

Number of injured persons
0
Number of fatalities
0
Post-event summary
There were no casualties at the scene

Lesson Learnt

Lesson Learnt

The description of the event does not provide enough details to draw a specific lesson learnt.
The editor of the news at the website used as a source for this event, wrote the following:
"Relevant specialist enterprises should understand the risks and hazards associated with hydrogen, establish safety rules for the use of hydrogen. They should also be well prepared with counter measures to deal with accidents, prevent problems before they occur, and prevent incidents from occurring. It is also necessary to have clear understanding about how to handle hydrogen safely to prevent similar accidents from happening again." https://new.qq.com/omn/20210807/20210807A02SN600.html

Event Nature

Release type
gas
Involved substances (% vol)
H2 100%
Presumed ignition source
Not reported
Flame type
Jet flame

References

Reference & weblink

Translation from the Chinese web-news at https://new.qq.com/omn/20210807/20210807A02SN600.html<br />
(accessed June 2023, now not available anymore)

ICHEMSAFE report available at<br />
https://www.ichemsafe.com/index/IncidentInfo/detail?id=3510<br />
(accessed Jan 2026)

JRC assessment