Tank areal on fire

On 3rd of February there was a explosion of a tank filled with liquid fertilizer at the Port at the Pier 24  in Fredericia, Denmark. Several alarms came in at 9.15/9.16 p.m.: fire in industrial building, extensive fertilizer pollution and extensive chemical pollution. The exploding tank damaged five further tanks in the area.

The fire brigade arrived at 9.17 p.m. and after 30 minutes, flowing out palm oil of two damaged tanks caught fire. The amount of palm oil the tanks were filled, was 10.000m³. 

The fire extended strongly, so all buildings in the area of 500 m had to be evacuated and people in 1000 m surrounding were appealed to stay at home. 

At 1 a.m. the fire brigade Aarhus arrived at the port and brought their industry tank pumper, further more, a tactical command center was established to discuss the proceeding. 

The operation had a lot of challenges for the fire brigades:

• There was no cooling for the Yara Praxair CO2 tanks filled with 1.000 tons of CO2
• Emission of CO2 and ammonia from a broken cooling system
• Reasons for broken cooling systems were not found. Possibilities: leakage of CO2 pipelines, leakage on TVIS transmission wire, leakage on the 2 FDO pipes (filled with 275.000 liter of diesel)
• A semitrailer wird 30 m³ hydrochloric acid in the area
• Fire in pipe bridge for Port 23
• Fire started spreading to Fredericia Shipping and Dangodning
• Fire also started spreading from burning oil towards the container
• Ship is situated at pier 23 and 24, where the fire is located
• 3 trucks are loaded with pressurized cylinders at Yara Praxair
• Tank with ammonia at Yara Paxair 

More than 20 km of fire hoses had been laid and when the fire was at its peak, over 125.000 liter of water per minute were spent. 480 fire fighters took 4 days until the fire was under control.