Overview
Refer back to the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) report Section 8.5 Emergency Planning (for West, TX incident). Identify and discuss how planning and better communication might have mitigated risk. This is an open discussion so feel free to comment on anything in the excerpt from this report that caught your attention. Also please reply to the following comment:
The explosion at West Fertilizer Company in Texas nearly a decade ago claimed the lives of 12 emergency responders. The impact from the detonation injured over 260 public civilians and caused significant damage to surrounding structures, forcing the company to file for bankruptcy shortly after.
The CSB reported technical mishaps as the likely cause of the explosion; more specifically, the incident was attributed to a failure to conduct safety inspections, ineffective emergency response, poor pre-incident planning, and lack of response training.
The impact of the incident could have been minimized through the establishment of incident command and management systems, hazard response protocols, and training programs designated to enhance situational hazard awareness and knowledge of risk assessment.
Other safe practices that could have reduced the risks involved in West Fertilizer Company operations include safe storage of combustible materials, installation of proper fire detection devices, substitution of hazardous materials when possible, modifying design processes to ensure maximum safety, and simplifying techniques to reduce risk of hazard associated with equipment failure/malfunction.