Scribd
Upload
173 views1 page

Oct 2013 Process Safety Beacon

The document discusses a 1913 coal mine disaster in Wales that killed 439 people from a methane gas explosion. It provides context on electrical safety in hazardous industrial areas and maintaining the integrity of electrical equipment to prevent ignition sources. The summary encourages plant personnel to understand their facility's electrical classification and hazardous areas, and to focus safety inspections on electrical safety issues.

Uploaded by

sapperxl
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
173 views1 page

Oct 2013 Process Safety Beacon

The document discusses a 1913 coal mine disaster in Wales that killed 439 people from a methane gas explosion. It provides context on electrical safety in hazardous industrial areas and maintaining the integrity of electrical equipment to prevent ignition sources. The summary encourages plant personnel to understand their facility's electrical classification and hazardous areas, and to focus safety inspections on electrical safety issues.

Uploaded by

sapperxl
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 1

This issue sponsored by

What can you do?


On October 14, 1913, one hundred years ago, the
Senghenydd Colliery in Glamorgan, South Wales
exploded resulting in 439 fatalities. This was the
worst coal mine disaster in the history of the United
Kingdom. The incident is believed to have been
started by methane gas (firedamp) ignited by
electric sparks from equipment, possibly an electric
bell signal. The gas explosion disturbed coal dust in
the mine, creating a coal dust cloud that ignited. The
dust explosion raised still more coal dust and the
explosions continued to propagate.
http://www.aiche.org/CCPS/Publications/Beacon/index.aspx
Messages for Manufacturing Personnel
Understand electrical safety in your plant!
AIChE 2013. All rights reserved. Reproduction for non-commercial, educational purposes is encouraged. However, reproduction
for the purpose of resale by anyone other than CCPS is strictly prohibited. Contact us at [email protected] or 646-495-1371.
Electrical Equipment in Hazardous Areas
The Beacon is usually available in Arabic, Afrikaans, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese,
Korean, Malay, Marathi, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, and Vietnamese.
www.aiche.org/ccps
October 2013
Understand the hazardous areas and electrical
classification in your plant. If you have not seen
electrical classification drawings for your area, ask for
these, and make sure that they are up-to-date.
Invite your plant electrical classification experts to
give a safety meeting describing the hazardous areas in
your plant. Ask them how to recognize electrical safety
issues and problems that you might observe as you work.
Focus one of your routine plant safety inspections on
electrical safety. For example, look for damaged wiring
or electrical connections, damaged electrical boxes,
problems with gaskets, seals, inadequate air purge for an
enclosure, or missing bolts on electrical enclosures.
www.acutech-consulting.com
Monument to the victims of the
Senghenydd disaster
The Senghenyddexplosion was one of the events that led to a recognition of the
potential hazard of sparks from electrical equipment igniting a flammable vapor, dust, or
mist cloud. One protective approach is the use of intrinsically safe equipment. This is
defined as equipment and wiring which is incapable of releasing sufficient electrical or
thermal energy under normal or abnormal conditions to cause ignition of a specific
hazardous atmospheric mixture in its most easily ignited concentration. This is
accomplished by specific design of the electrical equipment - for example by limiting the
amount of power available to electrical equipment in a hazardous area to a level below
that which will ignite the fuel mixture.
While a thorough discussion of electrical safety in a hazardous area is beyond the
scope of the Beacon, there are some important things (see below) that you, as a plant
operator or maintenance worker, can do to maintain the integrity of electrical equipment
in areas which are classified as hazardous.
Be careful when bringing any electric equipment into
a hazardous area, either yourself or when authorizing
permits to work. Some examples: anything with an
electric motor such as a portable pump, portable
instruments, flashlights, communications devices, motor
vehicles (including fork trucks, lift trucks, etc.). Ask
about anything that must be plugged in or which needs a
battery! Be certain that all equipment is acceptable for
use in the specific hazardous area where you intend to
use it. If you are not sure, get help from an expert who
knows!
Make sure that electrical safety in hazardous areas is
addressed in Management of Change (MOC) reviews.

You might also like