Abstract
Fire and explosion accidents occurred frequently in oil depots in China which lead to great casualties, severe environmental pollution and large economic losses. Case studies of 435 fire and explosion accidents of oil depots in China from 1951 to 2013 are reviewed in this paper. From the analysis of time scale, area, facilities& equipment, ignition sources, types of accident substances, and responsibility, the statistic results show that the most dangerous area is the loading and unloading operation area, and the most vulnerable facilities & equipment are the storage tanks. Meanwhile, the proportions of ignition sources are so evenly distributed that the prevention of fire and explosion should be equally concentrated to several impact factors. The vapor cloud explosion could be the most common accident type in oil depots, and the management responsibility dominates in all of the accident causes. According to data analysis, special lessons learned from these accidents are proposed, and the majority of fire and explosion accidents in oil depots would have been prevented or avoided if security management had been improved.
