Review of Massive Fire Incidents of Multiple Aboveground Oil Storage Tanks due to Vapor Cloud Explosion

Abstract

The vapor cloud explosion (VCE) begins with a release of a large quantity of flammable vaporing liquid from a storage tank, transportation vessel or pipeline. If VCE occurs in an oil storage facility, multiple tanks burn simultaneously. There is no effective extinguishing method for multiple tank fires. It will be extinguished when oil burnt out spending several days. Many incidents of multiple tank fires due to VCE have occurred all over the world in recent 50 years. This paper reviews the past 6 incidents of multiple tank fires due to VCE. Furthermore, the outline of 12 incidents is described briefly.