NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 44

A winery burns during California's
Kincade Fire last October. The fire
resulted in damage estimated at
nearly $384 million. GETTY IMAGES

S

hortly after 1 a.m. on November 27, 2019, a
powerful explosion occurred at a petrochemical
plant in Port Neches, Texas. Firefighters on duty
at a nearby fire station were awakened by the
blast and walked to the rear of the station to see
what had happened. They found the rear door
blown in and saw a large fire with heavy smoke
in progress at the nearby plant. They attempted
to notify dispatch but found that their computers and radio traffic had been disrupted. A portable radio
was used to notify dispatch of the explosion and fire. All of
the department's units, as well as mutual aid companies, were
asked to respond.
When the first firefighters arrived at the plant's main gate,
workers indicated that all personnel had been accounted
for. It was not known if there were injured workers at that
time. A command post was established with the local fire
chief, mutual aid chiefs, and plant officials. At that time, the
authorities determined that a half-mile radius around the
plant needed to be evacuated. Local and mutual aid firefighters and police officers handled the evacuation.
According to media reports, the blast was felt up to 30
miles (48 kilometers) away. Thirty people were working in
the plant at the time, and several injured employees were
treated and sent to local hospitals. A second major explosion
occurred about 13 hours after the first, and several smaller
explosions occurred throughout the day. The fire continued
to burn over the next several days and involved the chemical
1,3-Butadiene, which is used in the production of rubber and
is a health hazard. Local evacuations took place in the following days, and a curfew was enacted.
A large portion of the plant's process and storage areas
was damaged, as was much of the infrastructure for those
areas. A number of properties throughout the surrounding

community were also damaged. The plant was one story in
height and had a floor area of 840,000 square feet (78,039
square meters). The plant had a wet-pipe sprinkler system,
but it did not operate, the reason for which was not reported.
The explosion occurred when a spark or ember ignited flammable/combustible liquids in the processing area, though
what caused the spark was undetermined. The blast knocked
out the power to the plant. There was no report as to the
number of liquid storage spheres or tanks on the property.
The estimated damage caused by the explosions and fire
was $1.1 billion, making it the largest dollar loss fire or explosion in the United States in 2019.
NFPA reports annually on large-loss fires and explosions
that occurred in the U.S. in the previous year. These fires are
defined as events that result in property damage of at least
$10 million. In 2019, there were 26 such fires and explosions,
resulting in an estimated $1.9 billion in direct property
damage and losses.
In order to compare losses over the past 10 years, we
adjust losses for inflation to 2010 dollars. When adjusted for
inflation, the number of fires in 2019 that would have been
categorized as large-loss fires-that is, fires resulting in a loss
of $10 million or more in 2010 dollars-drops to 19 fires, with
an adjusted loss of slightly more than $1.8 billion.
In 2019, 10 fires, two fewer than the previous year, resulted
in more than $20 million each in property damage. These
fires resulted in a combined property loss of $1.7 billion, or
89.3 percent of the total loss in large-loss fires in 2019.
The Texas petrochemical explosion and fire was the
ninth-largest loss incident in the nation's history, according
to NFPA records. In terms of property losses, this incident is
surpassed only by the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade
Center and seven wildfire conflagrations in California that
occurred between 2003 and 2018.

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NFPA Journal - November/December 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - November/December 2020

Contents
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - Cover1
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - Cover2
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 1
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 2
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 3
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - Contents
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 5
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 6
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 7
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 8
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 9
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 10
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 11
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 12
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 13
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 14
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 15
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 16
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 17
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 18
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 19
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 20
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 21
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NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 24
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 25
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 26
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 27
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 28
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 29
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 30
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 31
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NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 33
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 34
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NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 44
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 45
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NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 79
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - 80
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - Cover3
NFPA Journal - November/December 2020 - Cover4
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