Industrial accidents triggered by flood events: lessons learned from case studies

The frequent occurrence of extreme weather and geological disasters poses challenges to the safety production of chemical industrial parks. When these disasters affect chemical industrial parks, they are highly probability of fire and explosion-level accidents, known as Na-tech events. In this study, a Bowtie model was used to conduct in-depth analysis of the Arkema and La Plata accidents. It was found that the current risk assessment framework mainly focuses on assessing the risk of main equipment failure, while there is little attention paid to the evaluation of civil works and emergency equipment facilities involved in emergency rescue work. This lack of focus may have adverse effects on emergency rescue work after accidents occur. Based on lessons learned from typical cases, some suggestions are made for operators to consider civil works, public works, safety barriers and emergency facilities in risk assessment. In the event of an accident, a comprehensive and dynamic risk assessment of the chemical park can be conducted to assist emergency command personnel in making scientific and reasonable emergency decisions.