When a 900,000-Gallon Tank Became a Flying Tomb: Channelview 1990

When a 900,000-Gallon Tank Became a Flying Tomb: Channelview 1990

A single instrument gave false "safe" readings for twenty days while a 900,000-gallon tank full of volatile industrial waste became explosive, launching a 48,000-pound lid into a parking lot 200 yards away and killing 17 people. What chain of mechanical failures, decisions, and ignored warnings turned a routine restart into one of the worst industrial blasts along the Houston Ship Channel?

In this episode, we tell the story of the ARCO Chemical plant on the night of July 5, 1990, the people who worked there, and the specific systems that were supposed to prevent disaster - and did not. How did a broken oxygen analyzer, a halted compressor, and a compromised nitrogen sweep align to create an explosive atmosphere inside the tank?

Person: Gerard Scannell Date: July 5, 1990 Location: ARCO Chemical plant, Channelview, Texas Event: Tank explosion and fire Country: United States

- The tank held 900,000 gallons of wastewater and its lid weighed 48,000 pounds. - The tank measured 40 feet tall and 62 feet in diameter and was found flattened like a soft drink can. - The tank's lid was thrown 200 yards into a parking lot; a 15,000-gallon secondary tank was blown 200 feet into a pipe rack. - Seventeen people died and five more were injured; 67% of the dead were contractors. - The oxygen analyzer had been giving false safe readings for twenty straight days before the explosion.

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