Commercial Marine Shipping Accidents Understanding Risks Canada

48 Commercial Marine Shipping Accidents: Understanding the Risks in Canada
Box 4.2
Factors That Influence Impacts: The Explosion and Fire of PETROLAB
On July 19, 1997, the crew of a 41m tanker named PETROLAB was
washing the ship’s cargo oil tanks in preparation for a loading
of stove oil while alongside Newfoundland’s St. Barbe wharf. At
about 7:30 p.m., an explosion of accumulated petroleum vapours
occurred below deck, resulting in two deaths. Two other crew
members were seriously injured. This accident was made worse
by the subsequent fire and is illustrative of how the degree of
impact can be influenced by factors that arise after the accident
itself. According to the TSB (2013), “[t]he ensuing fire was limited
to the ship’s stores burning in the ‘tween-deck until, some two
to three hours after the explosion, the paint on the outer hull
began to burn and spread fire to the creosote impregnated dock
pilings.” The fire would continue to burn for another 60 hours,
during which time part of the town of St. Barbe was evacuated
out of concern that the fire might spread from the wharf to
the adjacent tank farm. In the end, in addition to the onboard
deaths and injuries, the entire wharf, ferry ramp, and pipelines
were destroyed.
In their investigation report, the Transport Safety Board found
that, while the wharf served both oil tankers and passenger
vessels, the local volunteer fire department had neither shipboard
firefighting training nor the necessary foam to fight petroleum
fires. Despite these inadequacies they were being relied upon
for emergencies by the terminal operator, Ultramar, as set out in
their own contingency plan. Thus, when several local volunteer
fire departments responded, they were reluctant to fight the
fire with water. As for onboard firefighting equipment, although
in compliance with regulatory requirements, much of it was
left inoperable after the explosion disabled the ship’s service
generator. Thus, for two to three hours, no effort was made to
fight the fire while it was contained below deck. It took the arrival
of the Canadian Coast Guard in the morning of July 20 th before
a major firefighting effort began, at which point the dock was
ablaze and the mooring lines had burned through, casting the
ship adrift before it grounded across the harbour. The impacts
could have been greater. A passenger ferry had been sharing the
wharf for 90 to 135 minutes on the day of the explosion, with
passengers embarking and disembarking, all while PETROLAB was
conducting hazardous operations and with minimal precautions
to separate such activities from ferry passengers.
(TSB, 2013)
Box 4.2 discusses a particular accident that occurred at a
wharf in St. Barbe, in northwest Newfoundland, in 1997.
The impact of the accident was worsened by an inadequate
contingency plan set out by the terminal operator, insufficient
training and resources for local firefighters, damage of
onboard firefighting equipment during the accident, and
a delayed response. Some of the regulations and voluntary
initiatives described in Chapter 2 have led to improvements
since this time.
4.4 CONCLUSION
The potential environmental impacts of a spill are heavily
dependent on the nature and volume of the cargo, the
local physical and social environment, the time of year, the
location, and the response capacity. Marine spills can create
significant challenges for respondents due to both the volume
of cargo being moved by ships today and the challenges of
conducting clean-up operations.
Oil dominates the marine pollution landscape in Canada in
many ways: it is the most common type of pollution spilled
in Canadian waters; it is the substance for which environmental
impacts — and the resulting social, cultural, health, and
economic impacts — have been most heavily documented
and studied; and the potential impacts of an oil spill are great.
Most impacts have been reported as the consequence of large
spills, although smaller spills occurring much more frequently
may be associated with cumulative chronic impacts. There
are gaps in understanding the behaviour and impacts of oil
spills in cold and freshwater environments. In addition, little
is known about other potentially dangerous cargo types such
as HNS. Other types of impacts (socio-economic and health)
have been subject to less analysis, and these are more likely
to depend on the activities that are important to the region’s
economy or survival (e.g., commercial fishing in Atlantic
Canada and subsistence fishing in the North). Overall, there
are many knowledge gaps surrounding the potential impacts
of spills resulting from marine shipping accidents.