TOPICS-1:Challenge of reducing frequent industrial disasters

Safe society, which must not be a vulnerable one. We will not stop making efforts until the world where we can prevent every calamity before it actually happens is realized.

Industrial disasters can have a grave impact on neighboring residents' lives

A petroleum tank fire started at the Hokkaido refinery of Idemitsu Kosan after the occurrence of the Tokachi offshore earthquake on September 26 2003. The fire triggered a big social anxiety in addition to extremely difficult fire-fighting activities. In the beginning, a fire started from the ring area of a crude oil storage tank (33,000kl). This was attributable to crude oil leaking from the perimeter of the floating roof lid of the tank. Fire services had expected and were prepared for a fire of this type as a possible fire caused by an earthquake. In fact, the Tomakomai Fire Defense headquarters, the jurisdiction of which the fire broke out in, fought against it and successfully put it out. On the 28th, however, another fire broke out from a separate naphtha storage tank (33,000kl). It was caused because the floating roof lid of the tank sank and volatile naphtha was exposed to air, and resulted in a total fire. With reinforcements sent from within Hokkaido and Emergency Fire Response Teams mobilized, 91 fire-fighting teams consisting of 298 firefighters in total engaged themselves in fire-fighting operations, divided into forces to carry out their respective assignments, such as the direct fire-fighting operation, an operation to prevent the spread of the fire to other tanks, an operation to transport foam extinguishing agents to the site, etc., and continued their urgent efforts. The fire, however, continued burning for about 44 hours until 6:55 A.M. on the 30th, when it was finally put out.

In recent years, there have been a number of serious accidents, including fires and explosions that have occurred at industrial establishments of representative major Japanese businesses. Fire and leakage accidents at facilities handling dangerous materials registered a record high with 540 cases in 2000 and today remain at that level. The year 2003, however, turned out to be the worst year ever with frequent large-scale industrial disasters, which included the above-mentioned petroleum tank fire in Hokkaido, a fire at Exxon Mobil in Nagoya, and the complete incineration of the tire plant at Bridgestone's Tochigi factory. Such a large-scale fire at an industrial establishment, once started, can result in a serious, fatal accident, and will take tremendous time and effort to put out. Further, nobody can deny that it causes a huge amount of damage to corporate assets, threaten people's lives in the surrounding neighborhood, and has a significant impact on society. Fire and Disaster Management Agency has started its effort to address this problem in cooperation with the relevant government departments to improve the present situation for fire defense, disaster prevention and industrial security points of view and is developing measures aimed at stopping such industrial disasters.

Action plan for industrial disaster prevention calling for unified efforts by the relevant authorities and industry

Fire and Disaster Management Agency intends to develop an action plan to prevent dangerous material-induced accidents for the prevention of industrial disaster, which can develop into a serious disaster, and promote disaster preventing measures calling for unified efforts by the government and the private sector. It clarifies requisite items for implementation by corporations, associations and various industrial establishments. More specifically, it states clearly the responsibility of a corporation痴 top management for ensuring safety and that safety should be given priority in corporate activity. It also calls for actions on the part of corporations to perfect necessary arrangements for ensuring safety, implement measures to identify risks and mitigate possible damage, and disclose information necessary for smooth fire-fighting activity.
Further the Fire and Disaster Management Agency has enhanced cooperation with regional authorities such as prefectural fire defense organizations to develop systems realizing faster fire-fighting operations. In FY2004, it will launch the 釘 lock cooperation conference for dangerous material-induced accident prevention・ to reinforce government-industry cooperation at regional levels. With this, integrated administration to ensure security of dangerous materials across the national and regional governments will be put in place.

Introduction of a large-capacity foam spraying system

A large-capacity foam spray system is a firefighting system that can discharge an over 10,000 liters per minute. In comparison with the 3,000 liter per minute discharged from a large fire engine for elevated point fire fighting, its superiority in capacity is obvious. It may be more adequate to describe it as a capacity corresponding to any large fire engines for elevated point fire fighting to convey its image correctly. Presently, the introduction of a large-capacity foam spraying system is being considered to improve the ability to fight complex petroleum disasters because of the lesson learned in a petroleum tank accident in Hokkaido. Fire and Disaster Management Agency has undertaken this project by first revising the Petroleum Complex Disaster Prevention Act. Presently, the Agency is studying the most effective measures for utilizing a large-capacity foam spray system.