Plant Layout:
- Number of acres
- Hilly, rolling, or level landscaped
- Spaced or congested
- Exposures in all directions
- Topography
- Drainage conditions
- Oily water and the storm water sewer systems
- Protected from flood waters
Construction:
- General type and construction of each building
- Major value of the process equipment
- Fireproofing
- Control rooms
Bulk Storage Facilities:
- Cone roof, floating roof, spheres, and horizontal tanks
- Open vents or pressure-vacuum vents and flame arrestor assemblies
- Floating roof tanks have friction shunts
- Individual dikes, common dikes
- Foam protection
- Deluge water protection
- High and low level alarms
- Tanks gauged from a remote location
- Receives raw materials by pipeline, railroad, ship, or tank truck
- Products shipped by
- Truck Rack – top loading or bottom loading
- Pumps will start if the truck is not grounded to the rack
- Interlocks that shut down loading
- Railroad rack
- Rails are bonded together
- Spur tracks are isolated from the main line with insulated joints
- Loading rack and the spur are bonded together with a common path to ground
- Ship dock
- Major warehousing buildings
- Storage commodities and storage arrangements
Electricity:
- Public utility or generated at the plant
- Power company
- How dependable is the power?
- Incoming voltage
- How the power is stepped down?
- Primary substations
- Number, location and size (kw rating) of the major transformers
- How the transformers are cooled (oil, etc.)
- Do the transformers contain PCB’s?
- If oil cooled, is the transformer area diked?
- Transformers in stand-by service
- Will a transformer fire expose the power house or the process area?
- Electrical power distributed (overhead or underground)
- List number of substations
- What area does each substation control?
- Are the substations interconnected?
- Describe the generators and their drivers
- Make, size, manufacturer of the generator
- How critical is the electrical power?
- Maximum time that a power failure can exist without shutting down dependent processes
- Is electrical equipment classified?
- Emergency power
- Oil pressure for oil lubrication systems on large generators
- Oil flash point
- Capacity of the oil reservoir
- Reservoir located
- Containment features for spills or leaks
- Generator driven by; make and HP of drivers
- Safety devices provided for the turbogenerator units; do they initiate alarm, shutdown or both
- Fire protection for generators (CO2, etc.)
Steam:
- Steam is used for (heating, process, etc.)
- Plant’s steam demand
- Effect on the production if the largest boiler is lost
- Describe each boiler; manufacturer Describe each boiler; manufacturer
- Rated capacity in pounds of steam per hour
- Rated pressure in psi
- Boilers are fire tube or water tube
- Fuel the burners burn (oil, gas, coal, or a combination of fuels)
- Boiler safety controls; alarm only or alarm and shutdown
- Flame out, high pressure, low water, and low fuel controls
- Can the controls be manually by-passed when you have flame out?
- Do controls close the fuel line automatically?
- How often are steam boilers shut down for inspection?
- For oil fired boilers; size of the tank; tank construction and location; grade of oil; oil heated before going to burner
- For coal fired; description of pulverizers; fire detection/protection systems; electrostatic precipitators
- Units producing waste heat steam; size in steam per hour and psi
Compressed Air:
- Number of instruments and number of plant air compressors
- For large units list the rating of each compressor in SCFM and psi
- Compressors are driven (steam, electric, gasoline, gas)
- Where is the air used?
- Air into common storage tank or does each compressor have it’s own tank?
- Air driers to remove moisture and what material is used for the air driers (silicagel, etc.)
- If more than one air compressor, do they need all the air compressors?
- Plant instrumentation; electric or pneumatic?
- If pneumatic valves; fail-safe characteristics
- If computer, open or closed loops
- Backup instrumentation available
Fuel Gas:
- Plant fuel system; plant gas, purchased gas, oil, coal, or a combination of the four are used by the plant for fuel
- Identify the heaters that burn gas, oil, or coal
- Indicate if the mix drum has a high liquid level alarm and an automatic pump out
- Indicate if there is a knock-out drum between the refinery gas producers and the fuel gas system
- Knock-out drum has a high-liquid level alarm and an automatic pump out
- Gas fired heaters provided with small knock-out pots to remove water and residual carry over liquids
- For facilities utilizing coal, describe conveyors, crusher houses, storage silos, trippers and dust collection system; housekeeping; construction; proper electric; spare belts; explosion venting; metal separators
Cooling and Process Water:
- Cooling water system is once in and out system or a recirculating system
- Describe the cooling towers indicating the units that receive cooling water from each
- Construction of the cooling towers, and the number of cells; cross flow or counter flow?
- Tower fans equipped with vibrating alarms and shutdowns
- Does the tower have gas detection?
- Describe the source of the plant’s process water
Flare/Venting System:
- List each flare separately indicating whether it is a ground level or a high level flare
- How high is the flare stack
- For ground level flare stacks, determine if it is diked
- Note the prevailing wind direction (flame blows away from plant)
- List the units that the flare services
- Does the flare have a continuous, automatic pilot light burning
- Knock-out drum has a high level alarm and automatic pump
- How often is the liquid level in the knock-out drum checked?
- Does the flare system have a water seal? If yes, is it steamed traced to prevent freezing?
- Describe critical exhaust and ventilation systems in a manufacturing plant
- Explosion Relief walls and panel in areas employing volatile and low flash point material under this section
Maintenance and Housekeeping:
- Plant’s maintenance – good, fair, or poor
- Maintenance; equipment inspection and repair
- Care and cleanliness
- Comments concerning the inventory of expensive and hard to obtain spare parts
- Formalized preventative maintenance program in effect; records kept?
- Inspection and test procedures for fire protection equipment
- Frequency of inspections and tests
- Are inspections documented and kept on file
Control and Ignition Sources
Hot Works:
- Provide details of permit programs
- Who is responsible to implementation of the program(s)?
- Are permits issued valid for more than one shift?
- Is a fire watch provided during hot work?
- Are gas tests conducted before work begins?
Smoking:
- Discuss management’s policy
Grounding Procedures:
- Describe grounding and bonding systems
- Inspected for integrity and resistance
Metal Inspection and Relief Valve Testing:
- Metal inspection department exist?
- Equipment to do destructive metal testing
- Type of testing done such as vital, ultrasonic, maganflux, dye-penetrant, audigape, radiography, drill and cipher method, electric calipers, x-rays, etc.
- Isotopes in their instruments, type of isotopes, and is it radioactive material
- Hydro testing on equipment done up to 1.5 the operating pressure
- Use inert gas testing for hydrostatic testing instead of water?
- Type of records that are kept; on stream inspection work; frequency of unit shut down for inspection
- If the plant does not have and inspection department and employs and outside service company, name of service
- Internal and external tank inspection schedule
- How often the relief valves are bench tested
- How often are the flame arrestors removed from their housing and cleaned
- Block valves are installed under relief valves, describe precautions observed to prevent block valves being accidentally closed
- Rupture disk, find out how often it is checked
Operator training:
- Special training employees are given
- Classroom training, on-the-job or both
- Written exam
- Refresher training
Emergency Organization and Procedures:
- Safety committees or organizations in effect at the facility
- Contingency plans for fire, explosion, windstorm, bomb threats, etc.
- Plans documented
- Separate manuals concerning the emergency shutdown procedures to follow in the event there is a loss of electrical power, steam power, instrumentation, or cooling water written
- How are employees trained in these procedures?
- Do they have a written or oral examination?
- Do the employees have to walk and draw diagrams of the instrument systems, the steam lines, and the electrical systems?
- Are the exams repeated annually?
Fire Brigade:
- Describe the first brigade
- Total number of trained firemen; number of firemen on duty each shift
- Information about the training that the employees have received
- How the off duty workers are summoned
Mutual Organizations:
- Mutual aid organization that the risk belongs to
- Equipment, manpower, and chemicals available
Public:
- Size of the city water mains
- Location; number of city hydrants
- Fire mains are looped or dead-end
- Meter size and type
- Fire department paid or volunteer
- Amount of water available
- ISO rating of city
- Name and location of nearest public fire department
Private Fire Water Protection:
- Dead-ended, looped, sectionalized
- Diameters of water main
- Number of hydrants
- Fire water pumps (manufacturer, type, rating in gpm, pressure in psi, driver of each fire water pump)
- Capacity of fire water tanks or fire water reservoir
- Capacity in gpm of water make-up supply to water tanks
- Construction of fire water tank
- How is tank filled?
- Fire water tank heated in the winter? How do they prevent water from freezing?
- If fire water pumps automatic starting, give pressure maintained in fire system, pressure that the pump will start
- If fire water system is pressurized by the process water system, describe
- Make a fire water test of each pump, submit with water flow curves
Fire Hose:
- Inventory and location of the fire hose of the plant
Quick Action Hose Reels:
- Number, length, and diameter of the quick action hose reels
Plant Fire Truck:
- Manufacturer, give rated pumping capacity (gpm), amount of hose, nozzles, and other equipment carried on the truck
Sprinkler Protection, Buildings:
- Buildings protected with automatic sprinkler systems
- Type of sprinkler system; wet or dry; hydraulic designed
- Supervision; type of supervision such as water flow, valve tamper, temperature, low air pressure
- Hydraulic design of system if available
Deluge Water Systems:
- Indicate buildings protected by a deluge water system
- Hydraulic design
- Manually operated or automatic; actuated by pilot heads or rate of rise heat detectors
- Size and manufacturer of the preacton valve
- If manual operation, distance between the control valve and the protected hazard
Foam(Mechanical):
- Percentage of foam
- Type of foam concentration
- Number of gallons
- What it protects
- Foam concentration in gallons
- Foam is proportioned by a pump, (manufacturer, gpm, and pressure of the pump)
- Foam is applied by means of foam chambers or subsurface injectionFoam-Water Sprinkler Systems:
Portable Foam Towers:
- Number, diameter, height, type, and make of foam towers
- Number of foam applicators
- How often foam towers are raised into place during practice training sessions
Steam Smothering Protection:
- Equipment protected by steam smothering systems
- Distance between control valve and equipment being protected
- Any fire lances
Fixed Extinguishing Systems:
- Describe, manufacturer, type, size in pounds, how actuated, what is protected
- Will system shutdown anything? Flammable Gas Detectors:
- Areas supervised by the gas detectors
- Lower explosive limit (LEL) for alarm; the LEL for shutdown of equipment; is one or two detectors necessary for the emergency shutdown of the equipment
- Will system actuate a deluge water system?
Smoke and/or Heat Detectors:
- Areas supervised by these detectors
- Alarm local or supervised by an annunciator panel
Hand Extinguishers:
- Quantity and distribution of hand extinguishers
- Large wheeled units
- Serviced by plant people, how often inspected, how often they are dumped and recharged
Fire Alarms:
- Details of the fire alarm system and its maintenance
- List other alarms, public pull boxes, sprinkler alarms, fixed extinguishing systems, flammable gas, UV and smoke detectors
Watchman Service:
- Plant’s Security Department (total number of men and number of guards on duty each shift)
- Watchman make hourly rounds, and does he punch a clock?
- List other types of security protection, electric eyes, ultrasonic systems, plant fenced, person at the gate
Plant Fireproofing Summary :
- Describe fireproofing here
Fire Boats:
- Fire boats, capacity, pressure of fire water pumps, inventory of foam concentrate
Process Refinery and Petrochemical Process Descriptions:Describe each process unit :
- Flow description
- Who designed the unit?
- Who built the unit?
- Design capacity (barrels)
- Daily charge (barrels)
- Maximum temperature and pressure
- Major hazards and safeguards
- Possibilities of flow reversals, relief discharges, hazardous and reactive chemicals
- Special materials of construction
- High level controls on scrubbers
- Type of catalyst
- Inventory of catalyst
- Daily catalyst make-up
- Who manufactured the catalyst?
- Affluent heated by water, type of heater
- How often does the heater come down for metal inspection?
- Fire box have steam snuffing?
- Stack have steam snuffing?
- Can steam be injected into the tubes?
- Can heater be isolated?
- Location of steam snuffing controls
- Vessels relieve to the atmosphere or a closed system
- How are the vessels protected (rupture disk system-alloy of relief line)
- Report the alloy of all equipment utilizing cryogenic temperature
- Classified electrical equipment
- Plant fireproofing details
- Vertical and horizontal supports of the pipe rack are fireproofed
Process Description for Petrochemical:
- Straight line diagram of each process, indicating the maximum temperature (F), maximum pressure (PSI), the major hazards and safeguards, and whether the process is batch or continuous
- Major raw materials
- Who supplies raw materials?
- How are the raw materials received and stored?
- Average amount of raw materials of each they use daily, weekly, monthly
- What products are made?
- Production figures
- How they store finished products
- How they ship the products
- Processes are exothermic or endothermic
- If exothermic, how is the reaction controlled and how is it cooled; auxiliary cooling system?
- Shut-down procedure
- Can the process reach a point of decomposition?
- If endothermic, how is heat from reaction supplied?
- How is the process protected from boil over?
- Where are the dowtherm boilers located?
- Type of dowtherm used
- Do the dowtherm boilers expose the process area?
- How are the dowtherm lines supported?
- Describe combustion safeguards on dowtherm boilers
- Special equipment, glass lined reactors, stainless steel reactors or piping, special alloys, pyrex or glass piping, etc.
- How easy is it to get replacement parts for special equipment?
- After they make desired product, does it have to be separated by distillation, gravity, filtering, etc.?
- If distillation, find out how the still is heated (hot oil, steam, open fire, etc.)
- If they have a refrigeration system, find out what they use for cooling (ammonia system, recirculating brime, etc.)
- Used for, how long can the refrigeration system be shut down before the product stands to spoil?
- What do they do if the product spoils?
- Drying ovens; are the ovens fired (gas, steam, electrical, etc.)?
- Ovens automatically shut-off temperature; does the oven automatically start or have to be manually reset?
- Does the system ring an alarm when the drivers shut off?
- Describe any safety features
- Reactor vessels
- Relieve to the atmospheres or to a closed system
- Vessel capacities maximum rates pressure
- How they are supported (concrete pad, exposed steel supports, etc.)
- Protected (rupture disk or relief valve); size and pressure of rupture disk
- If system relieves to a closed system, find out the size and the alloy of the relief line
- Gas utilities having LNG or SNG processed
- Details of major rotating equipment (i.e. compressors, expanders); their safeguards, vaporizers and their combustion controls
- Construction details of cryogenic storage tanks such as alloy, insulation, relief valves, vacuum protections, etc.
Aircraft:
- Location of nearest busy airport