Lastfire Update
Approximately 12 years ago, recognising the need to have validated data on the risks associated with fires in large, open top floating roof storage tanks, 16 oil companies joined together to form a project group to thoroughly investigate the issue. The project was known as Lastfire - Large Atmospheric Storage Tank Fires.
The project was initiated due to the oil and petrochemical industries’ recognition that the fire hazards associated with such tanks, although known to be relatively low, were insufficiently understood to be able to develop fully justified site specific fire response and risk reduction policies. Open top floating roof tanks, introduced to reduce evaporative losses of product to atmosphere, had always been recognised within the industry as having a relatively good fire incident record when compared to other types of facility.
However, the associated risk had not been sufficiently quantified. It was also recognised that when a major incident occurred, such as a full surface fire due to ignition when the floating roof had sunk, control measures, mechanisms for incident escalation and consequential potential damage to life safety, the environment, business interruption and asset value were largely misunderstood.
When such major incidents, albeit infrequent, occur, media interest is high and consequently there is considerable pressure on tank operators to demonstrate that they are taking all reasonable measures to minimise risk. In many cases there has been insufficient data to determine whether some risk reduction measures were truly effective or justified. Often the only information available was from organisations with a strong commercial interest in promoting one particular product or service. It had thus been difficult for operators and legislative or statutory authorities to base risk reduction requirements on credible scenarios or proven effectiveness of mitigation measures. When this situation was coupled with a general international recognition that prescriptive standards for fire protection were not always appropriate, it is clear there was a need to investigate, in depth, the fire risk associated with such facilities.
A true Fire Hazard Management (FHM) approach to reducing fire associated risk to as low as is reasonably practicable was adopted during the project. This was in line with international regulatory trends towards preparation of safety cases whereby all aspects of risk mitigation including incident prevention are reviewed. Previously, fire hazard management has tended to be very prescriptive and concentrated on fire fighting measures rather than incident prevention. As risk is defined as the product of incident probability and incident consequence, it is as important to reduce incident frequency as it is to minimise or mitigate potential incident consequences.
