By Robyn Joubert and Tania Sandberg

07/12/07

MD, Quentin Hurt

Bryan Taylor

Robin Bissett

The damaged tanks at Island View Storage

 

Rapid responses

Engen!Fire at Engen

The second major blaze in less than two months lit up the sky above the south Durban residential area on Monday 19 November, when a storage tank at the Engen refinery in Tara Road containing more than seven million litres of petrol, was struck by lightning at around 07:30 pm , and caught fire. Given their experience of the previous fire ECOSERV was well-prepared to deploy and determine results quickly, even though the nature of this fire was very different to the previous one.

ECOSERV Senior Consultant, Bryan Taylor, was notified of the fire at 8:30 . By 9:00 pm he had collected three pumps from the office and met up with Anthony Stoffels from the Engen refinery. He picked up seven canister samples and had them send to the SGS laboratory, in Italy . Bryan then set up charcoal tube sampling on the pumps, capturing Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC's) for chemical analysing. Utilising ECOSERV's wealth of expertise and resources, results were reported to the client the following day.

Late afternoon, Tuesday, a wind change posed a challenge and subsequently Engen requested three more pumps to the Southwest of the plant. ECOSERV continued sampling, while the fire was burning. In total four days of active sampling was done. In addition, ECOSERV also took a sample of some fall out material and send it to the laboratory for SV analyses, maintaining their outstanding one-day turnaround, results were reported to Engen the following day.

ECOSERV jumps to assist eThekwini Health and Island View Storage with Port of Durban blaze.

A series of massive explosions on 19 September at the Island View Storage (IVS) chemical storage company at Durban harbour sparked off a blaze that tore through eight tanks storing highly volatile liquid fuels.

With strong winds fanning the flames and dispersing smoke over nearby Bluff homes, residents panicked that the fumes were toxic to their health.

While emergency services evacuated buildings and homes in the vicinity and cordoned off the depot, ECOSERV jumped right into the thick of things.

ECOSERV MD Quentin Hurt and senior consultant Bryan Taylor were on the scene at 10am on Wednesday morning, just a few hours after eThekwini Health urgently appealed to them for help in determining the impacts and nature of the fumes.

“The wind was blowing the smoke towards the community both during the explosion and the day after,” said Bryan . “In order to establish whether additional homes needed to be evacuated, eThekwini Health requested that ECOSERV undertake chemical sampling at nearby residences and sensitive receptors in the area adjacent the Island View depot.”

Bryan and Quentin took readings at various strategic residential locations directly downwind of the explosion site and also at sensitive receptors such as schools and clinics. Initial sampling was performed using an FID (Flame Ionization Detector), measuring total organic compounds (TOCs) in order to determine ambient TOC concentrations.

Bryan performed active sampling for Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in terms of NIOSH method 1501. Calibrated sampling pumps and charcoal tubes were deployed at the five locations.

The first set of sample tubes were flown up to Pretoria on Wednesday night for analyses to determine which organic compounds were impacting on the community. “Our logistics administrator, Colette Willard, personally flew to Johannesburg with the samples and delivered them directly to the lab in Pretoria ,” says Bryan . “We reported the results the following morning to eThekwini Health.”

This one-day turnaround is incredibly fast and almost unheard of. “It says a lot about our ability and that of our support companies to react in emergencies,” says Bryan . “We normally quote a two-week turnaround time but by having the appropriate expertise, human resources, sampling tubes, hand-delivering the samples directly to the lab and requesting fast analyses we managed to achieve it.”

Lab results gave the team a better idea of what they were dealing with. The Island View complex houses more than 1000 tanks containing millions of litres of liquid products, ranging from jet fuel, solvents, spirits, power paraffin, petrol, diesel, methylene chloride, vinyl formic acid, isopropylamine, propylene oxide, ethers and phenols.

“We didn't know what compounds we were dealing with until Thursday, when we found out that cresol was one of the solvents that caught alight. Phenol also falls into that category and so we were asked to measure phenols and cresols in residential areas.”

The following day senior consultant Robin Bissett took over the reigns, changing the samplers and sending the samples for urgent analyses.

Robin also conducted measurements next door to the explosion sight. “IVS, which stores and distributes fuels and chemicals, was incapacitated by the fire and could not function. Their opposition, Vopac, was requested by IVS to pick up the slack in terms of keeping the flow of products moving. But being so close to the blaze, particularly during south westerly winds, Vopak was concerned about the potential impact of the fumes on their workers.”

Vopak closed their site adjacent to the damaged tanks and asked ECOSERV to urgently assess the potential impacts of VOCs and cresols on their premises. “I worked through the weekend and samples were flown to the Pretoria laboratory on the Sunday night,” said Robin. “By late Monday initial results were received and were fed through to the client by 8am on Tuesday morning. Luckily the concentrations were considered low and Vopak made the decision that same morning to reopen.”

A big plus of dealing with ECOSERV is their depth of expertise and resources, in terms of having ready access to hardware like sampling tubes and pumps, and manpower.

“Within an hour or two of being asked to do the job for eThekwini Health, we were on site, and when Bryan was not available, I dropped what I was doing to take over,” says Robin. “We even hand-delivered the samples. It felt good to be able to mobilise and we are happy that we were able to assist the municipality, the Island View companies and the people that live in the vicinity of the terminal. I dealt with a number of the school principals in the process of taking the samples. It brings me huge satisfaction when my work is of direct benefit to the community in which I live.”

Quentin and Robin both drove around the area with a portable FID gas analyzer, taking real-time readings for hydrocarbon concentrations. But the first sample, and perhaps the most crucial one, was taken during the heat of the blaze by eThekwini Health.

“City Health official, Peter Roberts, took a canister sample of the emissions close to the fire and this was one of the few samples taken on the evening of the fire,” says Robin. “We have sent this sample to the SGS specialist laboratory in Italy for analysis and results were received within a day of their receipt. The analysis confirmed that the constituents in the air on the night of the fire were similar to those found the following day. The remaining sample has been retained for further specialist analyses, if required.”

The week before, Quentin, had visited the Italian facility in Padova, north west of Venice , and met with Laboratory Manager, Vladimiro Bonamin, where they discussed potential applications of this specialist service and reviewed the lab's impressive quality control and international assessment record. This was also one to the first times that the SGS acquisition and its benefits was clearly demonstrated to Ecoserv and its customers.

Shipping operations at the Durban Container Terminal and Pier One resumed once the fire was brought under control. The Island View complex was established in 1928 and there are about 17 companies in the area, which is known as Cutler Complex.