Good Lord, what's going on today?
Tank at Thai refinery explodes, at least two killed
2.49 p.m. ET (2001 GMT) December 2, 1999
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) A storage tank exploded Thursday night at an oil refinery in Thailand, killing at least two people, police said.
Radio station Jor Sor 100 FM reported five dead after the explosion at the refinery at Laem Chabang in the Sri Racha district on the Gulf of Thailand. The differing figures could not be immediately reconciled.
At least 10 people were injured, police said.
A fire was still burning at the refinery more than an hour after the explosion, but was under control, a police officer said at the Laem Chabang station. He declined to give his name.
Police said they did not know the cause of the explosion.
-- Roland (nottelling@nowhere.com), December 02, 1999
Folks
There has been several times now that I have alueded to an 18 month failure time frame for time senstive micro processors, we are well into the beginning of the bell curve. Things should really start to become interesting as we close on 01/01/2000. But Mr. Another Engineer has quite correctly stated that there is another time sensitive chip which will fail (after it has been ran successfully through the roll over). When it is taken off power and then re-booted in 2000.( Remember...The powers that be have decided to take their oil refineries, pipe lines, chem plants etc. off line, then re-boot them after the roll over...Can we say HEART ATTACK! This might just be the effect when these micro processors hit the 2000 date on their re-booting).
The other factor here is that many, if not most of the offending chips are "on site" of the explosion, fire etc. And thusly are destroyed completely in the heat generated. So you will run into a lot "of unknown causes" statements in the days to come.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Shakey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-- Shakey (in_a_bunker@forty.feet), December 02, 1999.
Update...
Thai Oil Refinery Fire Rages On, Four Dead
4.50 a.m. ET (1002 GMT) December 3, 1999
SRI RACHA, Thailand Fire blazed at one of Thailand's biggest oil
refineries on Friday 15 hours after an explosion killed four workers
and destroyed millions of litres of gasoline stored in tanks.
The blast at Thai Oil Co's 220,000 barrels per day plant in eastern
Sri Racha on Thursday night also injured several workers, overturned
parked cars and shattered windows of nearby houses, witnesses said.
It was also felt in nearby towns.
Fire destroyed four of nine gasoline storage tanks, rescue officials
said, adding that the number of bodies recovered from the site had
risen to four from two earlier on Friday.
They added there was a real danger of the remaining tanks also ending
up in flames because of intense heat and winds.
A local municipal official said the intense heat was taking a toll on
fire fighters who had been working non-stop since late on Thursday
and could not get close enough to act effectively.
Thai Oil managing director Chulchit Bunyaketu said: "The fire is
still raging. So far it has destroyed some 30 million liters of
gasoline (in some tanks). We are doing our best to save the remaining
30 million liters (still left in other tanks).''
ONE HUGE FIRE BALL
Lieutenant General Lertrat Rattanavanich, assistant army chief of
staff (civilian affairs) directing operations at the site, said more
fire engines both private and public-owned were being mobilized
to sustain the foam spraying.
"Chances of the other tanks catching fire are quite high. The heat of
the first four tanks are accumulating and the fourth and fifth tanks
are only about 10 meters apart,'' he told reporters.
"The lingering fire at the first, second, third and fourth tanks is
blending together into one huge fire ball,'' he said.
A Thai army plane was being sent to Singapore to ferry back 52 tons
of protective foam to boost dwindling supplies.
Thai Oil and state-owned Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT)
officials said gasoline stored in the undamaged tanks would be
siphoned off to safety.
Chulchit said the whole refinery would be shut indefinitely and
estimated the cost of damage so far at 500 million baht (US$13
million). The refinery was insured for $2 billion.
"Initial investigations found that the explosion was caused by fire
sparks. But we do not know yet exactly what the reason was. But we
have ruled out sabotage,'' he added.
"The plant has a track record of 31 million man hours of accident
free operations over our past 40 years of operations.''
Due to the fire, Thai Oil declared force majeure on crude oil imports
and sales of refined products but did not specify the tenure of the
action or detail the kind of products affected.
(US$1 - 39 baht)
-- Roland (nottelling@nowhere.com), December 03, 1999.