It's only a matter of time
The dirty secret of my trade is that every oil refinery, power station, chemical works and storage depot in the UK is on the verge of a major incident along the lines of the Buncefield depot explosion due to a combination of maintenance cutbacks and a reluctance to shutdown the plant and stop production. you might remember about 6 years ago a refinery on the banks of the Humber had an explosion due to a eroded pipe( it's on the BBC website, i would have posted a link but i'm clueless tbh) the thing is it happened on a bank holiday Monday, if it had happened 24 hours later, 1800 contractors (including yours truly) would have been on site for a main unit shutdown and overhaul, the majority 80 to 100 feet away from the blast. I managed to get a glimpse of the internal investigation report and the estimated fatalities would have been between 400 to 700 men.
I still work on there and there is a squad of inspectors who do thickness tests on pipes and i replace the bits that are fucked, honestly some of them are no thicker than a tin can. Since the shit in these pipes can ignite off something no more hazardous than a trucks warm brake pad it's no wonder i'm a complete pisshead. So pay attention at school kids or you will end up working on one of these shitholes. I have tons of stories that will make you wish the industrial revolution never happened so i will post more.(oh and if you think you're safe because you don't live anywhere near one of these places bear in mind that there are nearly 8500 miles of export lines carrying aviation fuel buried all over the UK. sleep tight y'all)
(studdley ruffrod no crack too slack, Sun 30 Sep 2007, 9:51, Reply)