FIRE AND EXPLOSION HAZARD ZONING OF ROORKEE FOR LPG STORAGE FACILITIES

Abstract

LPG is an essential household commodity. Every house needs it and owns it and thereby with the increase in the demand of LPG Cylinders the risk and accidents associated with it are increasing day by day. Roorkee, a town of over 2 lakhs population has been under scanner in this study. Roorkee holds 5 LPF storage facilities and 1 bottling plant of BPC at Landhaura, near Roorkee. The hazards and associated risks with these facilities are considerable. DOW'S Fire and Explosion Index is an effective tool that provides with the extent of damage that may take place in case these facilities meets with some untoward incident. Over the years the DOW'S F&EI Index has provided satisfactory results in safety studies. It takes into account various penalties associated with the process and determines the hazard level and the damage distance. The damage distances calculated for storage facilities range from 30 — 40m for common storage facilities to about 100m for the bottling plant. The damage distance calculated has been shown in the topographical map of Roorkee with the help of geo-referencing in the ARCGIS 9.3 software. This software creates a buffer zone or hazard zone around each LPG facility thus depicting the extent of damage in the map.