Fire safety is always essential—even more so when working in fire-prone industries, making industrial fire protection key.
For example, fire safety in the oil and gas industry is critical to maintaining a safe environment. This high-risk industry takes fire safety seriously, and for good reason. After all, 16% of all fatalities in the industry are due to fires or explosions.
Since oil and gas are both highly flammable substances, there are a multitude of common fire hazards. A few key ones to be aware of include:
This guide will provide an in-depth overview of fire safety in the oil and gas industry, including compliance, emergency response, and preparedness.
Fires tend to be the most commonly reported incident in the oil and gas industry, making ongoing protection critical.
But fire prevention isn’t just about avoiding fires; it’s about understanding the types of fires that could impact your business and the varying degrees of risk in each workplace.
The first thing to know is that there are five different fire classifications: Class A, Class B, Class C, Class D, and Class K. The assigned letter depends on the fire’s cause. It also helps determine the best method for extinguishing it.
In the oil and gas industry, Class B fires are most common as they involve flammable liquids.
Generally, there are four types of Class B fires to be aware of:
Though the above are the most common fires, they aren’t the only kinds the oil and gas industry is susceptible to.
It’s possible to see Class A fires, which concern organic materials like wood or paper. You could also run into Class C fires. These are either electrical-based or they involve flammable gas.
Just as there are common fire types, there are also a handful of common ignition sources in the oil and gas industry. Examples include:
Several of the common sources of fire in the industry can be avoided by following oil and gas fire regulations and safety regulations. While not perfect, following through with training, safety procedures, and equipment checks are important to maintaining industrial fire protection.
Regulatory bodies like the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) have many protections in place for fire prevention or emergency response. For instance, the NFPA has a dozen gas-related codes and one for oil.
Some of these NFPA regulations include:
These standards largely outline operations for fire safety in the oil and gas industry, such as fire and explosion prevention. It is vitally important for companies to follow these fire regulations to protect their employees and property.
Regular audits should be conducted by fire safety professionals to ensure that the business is compliant and operating safely. Per the NFPA 25 standard, these inspections should take place once per quarter or four times per year.
If OSHA or the Fire Marshal’s Office inspectors discover non-compliance, a business can expect a write-up and a fine. These fines can vary, increasing if compliance is not met or the violation is ignored. There can be serious, life-threatening consequences for dismissing safety regulations.
For a regulatory body like OSHA, the maximum penalties are as follows:
The oil and gas industry has a high fire risk since it deals with flammable and explosive substances.
Therefore, it should be no surprise that the largest OSHA penalties in history are rooted in the oil or gas industry. Many of these companies suffered explosions and were fined millions for safety issues. The largest penalty was $81,340,000 against BP Products North America after a massive explosion at their Texas refinery killed 15 employees and injured 170 more.
Safety issues need to be handled with the utmost care, especially in relation to fire prevention. Here are a few other examples of fire incidents that have happened in different oil and gas industry capacities.
These examples help illustrate why fire safety in the oil and gas industry is paramount for businesses. Fire incidents happen, but when businesses are prepared, they can better protect their buildings, employees, and the general public.
Fire prevention is key to protecting employees and facilities in oil and gas businesses. There are many ways to protect your business from damage or loss of functionality, but flammable materials pose a greater risk than in other industries.
A few key fire prevention strategies include:
Fire safety professionals can provide a full fire risk assessment for your facility. These assessments consider the materials handled at the facility along with many other factors, while strategizing how to prevent incidents.
In the same vein as the risk assessment, identified flammable materials must be stored in a secure manner. NFPA and OSHA regulations outline ways to store these materials to mitigate fire risk. A fire safety company can also advise on the appropriate ways to store this material during an audit or new site consultation.
This step includes providing personal protective equipment (PPE) to employees to keep them safe even outside of fire risk, such as masks to avoid hazardous gasses. It is also important for employees to know how to use protective equipment like fire extinguishers or to activate other fire suppression systems.
Emergency response in oil and gas businesses is critical. Employees who know exactly what to do during a fire incident can save lives and potentially reduce facility damage. A well-oiled internal process also allows firefighters and first responders to do their jobs more effectively.
Faulty equipment is a major issue for fire safety in the oil and gas industry. Maintaining the equipment as well as the facility, following audit protocols, and making repairs as needed will help prevent accidental fires in the future.
These strategies cannot guarantee that a fire will never happen. Fire prevention in the oil and gas industry is a big piece of the success puzzle, but it is not the whole picture. When incidents do happen, it is just as important to have systems in place to mitigate damage and prevent loss of life.
When the unexpected occurs, fire detection and suppression systems can make all the difference. These systems step in when prevention measures aren’t enough to protect property and people alike.
Although they work together, detection and suppression systems are separate entities. Knowing the difference is part of a successful industrial fire protection plan.
A fire detection system is an electronic program that activates when a fire begins. Depending on the type of system, it is set off when a variance occurs, such as smoke or a sudden rise in temperature.
There are a range of systems to choose from, particularly for use in the oil and gas industry:
Different fire detectors will offer different coverage options. They can be used together for optimal protection, lessening the likelihood of a false alarm.
How many of these detectors are required in your building depends on occupancy, size, industry, and materials used.
Unlike fire detection, fire suppression systems actively fight back against an active fire. These systems can stop a fire spread or limit it by extinguishing certain areas. A simple form of fire suppression is a fire extinguisher.
Let’s review some examples of special hazard fire suppression systems.
Without water, these systems are less damaging to facilities and equipment. They use gas to suppress the fire by denying it access to oxygen, an action known as “total flooding.” This method floods the room with gasses like carbon dioxide to extinguish the fire.
Another way to prevent a fire from accessing oxygen is dry chemical suppression, which uses dry chemical powder to choke the fire. This method is less damaging to facilities and equipment.
A means of smothering the fire while also reducing heat quickly, foam systems are a messy but effective option for fire suppression. They release a foam with fluorinated surfactants that can be dispensed in a larger sprinkler-like system or from a handheld fire extinguisher.
These systems are commonly known as they are present in most commercial buildings. They spray water down onto the flames to extinguish them. These aren’t as effective as industry fire suppression systems, and are not appropriate for fire and gas facilities as water does not work against oil fires or gas fires.
Fire protection systems aim to protect a building and its occupants against fire risks and damages. There are a couple of approaches, each focusing on a different area: passive and active fire protection systems.
Passive fire protection does not require further action once a fire is indicated, while an active fire protection system needs an event to trigger it. They should both be used as part of an emergency response plan in the oil and gas industry.
Because oil and gas facilities contain such high-risk materials, they require special hazard consideration. Often, this means utilizing foam suppression systems to attack fires efficiently, reducing damage elsewhere or further harm to employees.
Having an emergency response plan in place is the only way for detection or suppression systems to do the most good. Employee preparation is critical to keeping everyone safe, no matter the circumstances.
To build an effective response plan, you need to have thorough evacuation procedures in place. All employees should know what routes to take in the event of an emergency and partake in quarterly fire drills, as laid out by OSHA for high-risk facilities.
For high-risk fire locations, it is also vital to have a few key roles in place:
For evacuation maps, OSHA recommends using color coding and arrows to indicate emergency exit routes. These routes should have first and secondary exits and funnel people away from rooms holding hazardous materials.
Fire safety in the oil and gas industry is ripe with technological advancements. There are many new ways to prevent, detect, and suppress fires. Now more than ever, these emergencies are becoming easier to navigate, avoiding costly damage or loss of life.
Let’s take a look at a few key innovations:
Outside of technology, there are many innovations in fire prevention and suppression, including:
Fire suppressors can be ecologically draining. As in other industries, eco-friendly or green alternatives are emerging. Using gasses like nitrogen and argon to fight fires is becoming more popular for the oil and gas industry.
In any workplace, preventing and fighting fires is important to keeping everyone safe. For anyone in the oil and gas industry, that can’t be overstated. When workplaces, in general, see 200 fires every day (according to OSHA), it’s doubly important to have plans in place when working in a high-risk facility.
With emergency plans in place alongside prevention and suppression systems, you can be better prepared for the unexpected. When you need a fire risk assessment, equipment inspections, or new systems installed, be sure to contact trusted fire and life safety professionals to help.
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