New measures adopted after Opawa blast

Press, 12 March 1985, Page 2

New measures adopted after Opawa blast

Dangerous-goods inspectors will enforce a new safety measure to prevent a repetition of an explosion which happened during the testing of a diesel storage tank in Opawa last month. A Christchurch City Council dangerous-goods inspector, Mr Rob Milner, said yesterday that all tank-test-ing equipment in the city must now be fitted with a safety relief device. In last month’s incident, the lid of a steel diesel storage tank was blown about 25m at a property in Maunsells Road. The lid damaged a building, a fence, and a car at

the property, but workers there escaped injury. Mr Milner said that the explosion was caused when an inexperienced operator misread an air pressure gauge. An air pressure of 251 b a square inch had been applied by mistake, a pressure which was 201 b a square inch above the maximum standard test. A copy of Mr Milner’s report was sent to the chief inspector of explosives and dangerous goods in Wellington, as is required in such cases. The report called for strict enforcement of safety regulations.