NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 48
One Spark
" To be honest, early in the process
our project technical panel was concerned
that we wouldn't be able to
find enough incidents to have meaningful
statistics for the study, " said
Kelly Robinson, a static safety consultant
and the chair of the NFPA 77
technical committee. " Pretty quickly
we realized that that wasn't going to
be the case. "
As with the Barton explosion, several
of the static incidents found in
the report involved fires or explosions
during the transfer of flammable liquids-but
that's hardly the extent of
it. Static has also triggered dust explosions
in grain silos and factories, as
well as fires in manufacturing plants
and in facilities that coat products
with paint or solvent. Static is thought
to have sparked gas line explosions
that have flattened buildings, notably
a 2019 blast in Farmington, Maine,
that killed one firefighter and injured
six others, as well as the building's
maintenance supervisor. Static has
even been blamed for explosions that
have killed and badly injured people
as they've pumped fuel at gas stations.
In
addition,
static
NFPA.ORG/
ONESPARK
Read the Fire Protection
Research Foundation
report on static electricity
hazards.
seems to
have a
penchant
for the dramatic and strange: it is
believed to have caused a hospital
fire in Oregon in 2013, when static
electricity ignited hand sanitizer. In
China, static buildup in bundles of
cotton yarn ignited a massive fire
when a porter carrying the bundles
stepped onto the metal floor of a lorry
truck, triggering a spark.
Based on the report's findings,
researchers and experts like Robinson
now believe that the actual number
of static incidents is likely far greater
than anyone realized. " I think for
every incident that was quoted in
that report, there's probably between
10 and 50 more that happened that
are not reported, " said Robinson,
who also served as a technical panel
member for the project. Many of
these unreported events, he said,
likely include minor incidents that
caused a fright but no injuries and
little damage, or that occurred in
places with little media coverage that
made them difficult for researchers
to find. This notion is backed up by
the fact that over 60 percent of the
Static electricity inside a storage container was
blamed for an explosion and fire at a chemical
distribution facility in Kansas. GETTY IMAGES
48 | NFPA JOURNAL * SPRING 2022
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NFPA Journal - Spring 2022
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - Spring 2022
Contents
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - Cover1
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - Cover2
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 1
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 2
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 3
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - Contents
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 5
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 6
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 7
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 8
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 9
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 10
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 11
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 12
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 13
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 14
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 15
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 16
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 17
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 18
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 19
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 20
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 21
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 22
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 23
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 24
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 25
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 26
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 27
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 28
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 29
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 30
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 31
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 32
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 33
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 34
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 35
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 36
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 37
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 38
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 39
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 40
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 41
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 42
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 43
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 44
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 45
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 46
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 47
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 48
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 49
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 50
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 51
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NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 53
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 54
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 55
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 56
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NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 84
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 85
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 86
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 87
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 88
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - Cover3
NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - Cover4
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