Rain

Heavy rainfall and flooding

During the night, the fire departments of different localities of the Region (La Plata, Berisso, Ensenada, Quilmes) had intervened on the site.

When the fire started, the plant was guarded by three operators, a supervisor, and a console operator.

Employees were unable to access the locker room to wear the proper security uniform.

The man of the on-site team that first tried to put out the fire had their clothes soaked with hydrocarbons floating on the water.

500 M USD

The production was shut for about one week.
The refinery production suffered a significant reduction for months.
The coking plant was replaced two years later.
Over $500 million equipment damage.

The coking oven was replaced with a new one and the topping unit repaired for a total cost of $500 million

The foam reserves were insufficient for the task and finished quickly. The fire fighting operations were halted for two hours, waiting for new foam supplies.

A better training of the personnel and of local firefighter was needed.
"Many of the firefighters were not trained for this type of fire."
Incorrectly, they "began to attack gases that burned." Since the passage of the gas was not shut, when the flames were put off, the gases could spread into large flammable clouds, which ignited again.

The on-site fire fighting teams should be bigger.
In a refinery of that size, only 2 employees were trained fire fighters.

The units should have all the safety equipment needed to prevent such fires.
Automatic water systems should be installed to prevent fire propagation from one unit to another.

Adequate protection should be provided to all the personnel and in particular to the fire brigade.
During the accident, the personnel could wear neither breathing apparatus or proper uniforms to protect themselves.