Gasoline VCE

While we are discussing gasoline vapor cloud explosions and CFATS, it might be instructional to look at a smaller gasoline VCE explosion that happened in Idaho last month. According to news reports a gasoline tank truck was making a delivery to a gas station near Mud Lake, ID on December 17th when the incident happened. The storage tank apparently was overfilled forming a puddle of gasoline under the tanker. Some ignition source, perhaps the tractor’s engine, ignited the resulting vapor cloud causing an initial explosion and subsequent fire. Reports are confused as to whether there was one subsequent explosion or multiple explosions. Since no one was injured in this incident there is no investigation by the Chemical Safety Board, so it is unlikely that we will hear about what actually happened if the local investigation is able to determine that. It does go to show, though, that accidental gasoline vapor cloud explosions are not as rare as the gasoline transportation industry would like us to believe. And if a gasoline VCE can occur accidentally, they can certainly be initiated by a trained terrorist.