Lack of parking for oil tankers potential fatality

Local authorities are endangering the lives of residents by failing to provide designated parking areas for fuel tankers. This is in contravention of the Energy Act of 2006. Access by fire fighters to fuel installations in Nairobi’s Industrial Area in case of an emergency is difficult due to traffic jams caused by tankers stuck on Nanyuki Road as the area lacks parking zones.

A delegation from the Office of President and police among others will on December 3rd embark on a fact-finding mission of the dangers posed by welding along the road and illegal storage of fuel siphoned from trucks. According to the Petroleum Institute of East of Africa (PIEA), Kenya’s fuel security is at risk as an outbreak of fire in one depots can spread to other installations in close proximity.

“Nairobi City Council has to give priority by providing parking facilities for the depots accessible to fire fighters and emergency crews to evacuate people,” said PIEA’s general manager Wanjiku Manyara. She said that although industry players have agreed on a joint strategy of sharing fire fighting and human resources, local authorities have to adhere to regulations requiring designation of tanker parking facilities.

Kenya’s regulations stipulate that no vehicle containing more than 65 gallons of petrol shall remain stationary for more than 30 minutes within 100 yards of any building. According to oil marketer Shell, traffic congestion on Nanyuki Road makes access to depots hard and it will be very difficult to evacuate injured people or for emergency crew to get in if an incident occurs.

“There are unsafe acts around parked trucks by people milking petroleum remnants which could lead to a fire in the event of an ignition source. This is a big risk and an incident waiting to happen,” said Shell’s external affairs manager Ngaari Mwaura.

 He said although they are prepared internally to deal with emergencies, the firm’s depot is exposed due to congestion of the access road and the behaviour of people making a living out of the parked trucks. Industry experts say a truck loaded with 24,000 litres having internal pressure of 5 psi (pressure level) is as dangerous as a quarter pound of trinitrotoluene (TNT) which is the worst explosive ever known in the world.

According to Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC), empty tankers pose a potentially significant threat from explosions as they contain vapour in the flammable range. “With smokers all around such tankers, it is surprising that we have not witnessed a major explosion yet. Most of the tankers are parked and left unattended to by the drivers,” said KPC’s head of communications Jacinta Sekoh.

She said maintenance of most of the vehicles is not assured and some of the tankers also need their air reservoir filled before the gears are engaged limiting the response time. KPC has a well documented elaborate response procedure which covers emergencies occurring within its facilities but cannot guarantee the same level of response outside its jurisdiction.

Welding done openly on Nanyuki Road poses a risk in case a vapour column develops from one of the petrol tankers. “Most people who perform welding openly on the road are either risk averse or ignorant of the hazards associated with welding empty petrol tankers without gas freeing,” said Ms Sekoh.

Unsafe condition

The most unsafe condition of the tanker is when it is empty as the flammable vapour concentration is greater than when it is fully loaded. There are several incidents of fatalities in other parts of the world that have been caused by such unsafe practices.

A deadly fire recently broke out in Sanganer in India due to an explosion at an oil depot. The depot stores gasoline, kerosene and diesel for several oil companies. A number of people were killed and many others injured as the fire spread and damaged industrial units as far as three kilometres away.