Wake Up Call: Refinery Disaster in Philadelphia

A CSB safety video about the June 21, 2019, fire, explosions, and toxic hydrofluoric acid (HF) release at the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A severely corroded pipe elbow ruptured, releasing process fluid into the refinery’s HF alkylation unit, which then ignited. The incident caused the release of over 5,000 pounds of highly toxic HF, launched a 38,000-pound vessel fragment off-site, and resulted in an estimated property damage loss of 750 million dollars.

[LANless]

Kudos to that shift supervisor, walking into that to turn on the sprayers is very brave.

[Moose]

How do you all manage to make process safety videos simultaneously understandable, educational, AND entertaining? Unreal. Thank you for yet another video!

[BWillsIncognito]

I was also a console operator on a Alkylation unit. A few things I’d like to point out. 1.) It’s actually insane that no one was seriously injured. I was actually driving across the commodore Barry bridge after a night shift and witnessed the sky turn from night to day from the explosion. At the time I didn’t know what it was but it was absolutely intense how bright it got. 2.) So much respect for this console operator and her ability to dump the HF out of the unit. With the explosions that acid could have traveled miles. 3.) I ended up working with a lot of PES guys after this explosion and they were all incredible to work with and extremely experienced. 4.) You hate to say it but a lot of times corners are cut or things are rushed in the hopes to save or make money. 99% of the time we get away with it but that 1% chance something like this will happen. In a perfect world no corners should ever be cut and it seems that it’s the people on the business end that are making the calls from hundreds of miles away in office buildings out of harms way. 5.) The two refineries I worked at had constant x-raying/thickness reading taking place. Once they finished the whole unit, they would start over again on a steady rotation. Even then it’s possible not to catch everything because a compromised flange or valve or etc. can become an issue almost immediately with forewarning. Glad no one was seriously harmed. Great video.

[muB]

THIS is how you make public safety reports! Not only informative but engaging to watch even as an outsider!

[wintersloistice]

Overall, this accident was far better than could have been expected. The onsite staff did everything correctly, activating safeguards remotely and manually. It's rare to see an accident that doesn't involve operator error on the USCSB channel. Excellent breakdown and thankfully no deaths or severe injuries.

[walkie]

The CGI in this is absolutely incredible. What ever investment / effort your team made for this was worth it, it kept me hooked the entire video. Very impressive

[shaunburke]

It takes a special kind of person to walk into that to turn on some pumps. I’m in awe of their bravery

[Hugh_Janis]

The Console Operator is the true hero in this incident. Her actions saved the lives and health of the entire surrounding community. The fact that she had the wherewithal to dump the acid within 30 seconds of the incident is absolutely incredible. From one console operator to another, I salute you.

[leslieanderson]

The operator that transferred the HFA - she prevented an unimaginable disaster by her quick thinking. Wow ❤

[CaelanAegana]

As a chemical engineer and hazard analyst, I deeply appreciate these videos not just for their value to me, but because they're friendly to being shared with non-experts (visually interesting and using understandable terminology). Thank you for your efforts!

[Travelinmatt]

I love watching these videos! I work in a plant environment and these videos have helped me keep an eye on my workplace's safety shortcomings.

[billschannel]

I greatly appreciate these videos. I do not work with chemicals but I am a big proponent of cross industry learning. You would probably be shocked at how many times I've referenced one of these videos while discussing an actual situation we face in the technology space. Just wanted to let you know that your driving value in completely different directions than intended. Thank you for all your awesome work!

[calyodelphi]

Holy smokes the studio that the CSB has been contracting all these years has SERIOUSLY stepped up their game between just the last video and this one! This is an excellent overview of the entire incident, and it's refreshing to see one where there were no fatalities and the incident was overall handled competently.

[dimetimec]

Mad respect to the supervisor for risking his life to go in and turn the water system on.

[Ski]

Holy shit these animations are beautiful, just look at those reflections of the explosions in the water. The production quality just keeps getting better and better.

[MaplePanda]

I will never get over the strange juxtaposition between wanting more of these beautifully animated videos, and wanting fewer of these incidents to occur.

[Tonatsi]

The on-site team did atypically well to mitigate problems considering how frequently we get negligent workers making the problem worse.

[Painrunner]

Yeah, working with HF is always fun, remember doing a job for 3M where we had to expand the current storage facilities on-site. The HF was brought in on railway carts but the unloading of the carts was done in airtight bunkers, the piping between facilities was all done underground and the storage tanks were also placed in airtight bunkers. even so there were still walkways between all facilities 4 stories in the air to be able to get around with any gas clouds forming above ground. There was also a rule that no machinery that pumps HF could be operated as long as there was a person inside of those bunkers.

[asclepi]

The new CSB leadership is only 3 months in, and here is already the first safety video. Hoping this means videos will be published more frequently again. Thank you for these valuable learning resources; these videos are the billboard for the vital work of the CSB.

[jbBLOP]

I'm a simple man, I see a new USCSB video, I click