Explosion at filling station remains a mystery
Tank truck driver managed to extinguish resulting fire
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A tank truck driver, with a help of a fire extinguisher, managed to snuff out the flames caused by a fuel pump explosion at an unmanned petrol station in the municipality of Loppi in Southern Finland on Wednesday.
The explosion took place while the tanker driver was filling the station's underground tanks.
Simultaneously, another driver, who had just finished filling up his car, replaced the pump handle, fastened the tank cap, and walked to the other side of his car. Without any warning, an explosion ripped apart the pump he had just used.
Fortunately nobody was injured in the blast, and neither was there any serious damage to the environment.
Though the force of the explosion twisted the entire island consisting of two fuel pumps and a petrol meter, at least according to a preliminary investigation the station's tanks and fuel pipes remained intact.
The fuel tanks' sheathing consists of two layers separated by a bed of glycol. Filled to their maximum capacity, the station's tanks can hold 92 tons of fuel.
The damage caused will be further examined today, Thursday.
The cause of the unusual accident is as yet unclear, but apparently some fuel under the pump had gasified and then caught a spark from somewhere.
The first fire truck arrived at the scene 10 to 15 minutes after the explosion, and firefighters blanketed the area with protective foam as a precautionary measure.
For security reasons, traffic on the adjacent main road was rerouted and a nearby café was closed for a couple of hours.
The exploding fuel pump was of a type that is widely used in Finnish petrol stations. In the past 25 years, there have been a dozen of similar instances of an explosion in conjunction with the filling of a station's tanks.
The most common reason for such accidents is neglecting the earthing of the fuel truck to prevent sparking. Other reasons for gas station blow-ups include toying with cigarettes and other foolish behaviour while filling the tanks.
Tank truck driver Pekka Mäenpää confirms he did everything "by the book". He had just finished filling one of the gasoline tanks and was topping up the diesel tank when the explosion occurred.
To Mäenpää the reason for the blow-up is also a mystery, but he remembers there was a heavy thundershower during the accident.
The unmanned station was only two years old. All the equipment was new.
Gasoline is extremely flammable, but to blaze up it requires air and a source of ignition, such as electricity, heat, a spark, or a flame.
In enclosed spaces, fumes vaporized from petrol can form a flammable mixture with air.
A full petrol tank hardly ever explodes, as there is no room for air inside the tank.
At the end of last year, there were 1,894 manned or unmanned petrol stations in Finland.
Helsingin Sanomat
