Fire prompts fresh safety calls

Second incident in three days at the plant

BP has been facing renewed demands for an urgent review of safety at its Grangemouth refinery following a second major emergency in three days.

A fire broke out at the petrochemicals plant near Falkirk in central Scotland on Saturday morning and it took more than 60 firefighters six hours to bring it under control.

The incident followed a major emergency at the plant on Wednesday when there was an explosion in a steam pipe at the complex.

Michael Connarty MP: "Enraged"

Site bosses expressed disappointment at what they described as a "sizeable" blaze in a unit used in the oil refining process on Saturday.

But they stressed that it was brought under control and local people had not been at risk.

Local MP, Michael Connarty, who met managers after Wednesday's incident, said he was furious at yet another safety alert, the seventh since last July.

The Labour MP for Falkirk East said: "I'm enraged about this. I spent yesterday talking to senior management from BP. They said they had a plan of action for safe operation.

"The question is, was their inch-by-inch check good enough? Was the planning competent and the people running it skilled enough to know what they are doing?

Grangemouth's recent problems

29 July, 1999
Complete power failure

20 November, 1999
Problem with catalytic cracker, blow-out followed

25 November, 1999 Problem in a gas compressor, out of action for 10 days

26 January, 2000
Two boilers broken, major incident control committee on alert

29 May, 2000
Complete power failure, MICC on alert

7 June, 2000
High pressure pipe fracture, massive escape of steam

"There is something going wrong in the planning and implementation process. They need to get that right."

He said he would be meeting management again, adding: "I'm going for them big-time."

The MP said increasing computerisation at the plant had made it leaner and more efficient. "But is it as safe?" he asked.

"This is the seventh incident since last July, and there have been two full shut-downs of the site. The latest was two weeks ago and that is still unexplained."

He said damage would be enormously expensive, with a similar accident in the past costing BP around £5m.

BP spokesman, Colin Reid, promised that lessons would be learned, as site managers announced that a Health and Safety Executive investigation into the fire was under way.

Colin Reid: Lessons will be learned

He said: "Clearly when things go wrong like this it's very important that we learn why they have gone wrong.

"What I would also like to say is that the people who were on site at the time reacted extremely well, extremely positively.

"We've also been very well supported by central region fire brigade and the police."

BP Grangemouth said part of the refinery was back in operation but the area affected by the fire and a number of other parts of the site were still switched off.

A spokesman for Central Scotland Police said the fire had been extinguished shortly after 1030BST when the Major Incident Control Committee had been stood down.

Geoff Williams, of Central Scotland Fire Brigade, said crews faced a tough task.

He said: "The flames were very high, there was a tremendous amount of smoke.

"We monitored it through the MICC and did atmospheric monitoring and it was very well handled."