CNRL FIRE !!! Coker unit explodes and burns at CNRL!

This is what it looks like when a coker burns down. A coker is a furnace about the size of a high school gymnasium, often taller.
Read the blog article here
http://bit.ly/i7e3LU

This was only a small piece of the plant and the concussion was felt kilometers away. It took them FOUR HOURS to even shut off the fuel to the fire and contain it to the one coker unit.


They burn down quite frequently at places like CNRL and SUNCOR and occasionally at SYNCRUDE where the technology is slightly newer.
Why?
Because the government allows them built to the lowest standards by the lowest quality tradespeople.

The CNRL site was built largely by foreign labour and tradespeople with questionable qualifications flown in from all corners of Canada and the world.

Basically anyone willing to work for less, live in squalor, and be under constant threat of termination or deportation while qualified Albertans sat unemployed because they couldn't and wouldn't work for low wages, in the worst safety culture in the industry.

I was interviewed today (Jan 7th 2011) by GlobalTV News in edmonton for the newshour program, commenting on this incident and the safety issues that cause problems like this. What do you expect when you break all the rules, build it like garbage by design, and ignore us when we are all telling you it is gonna explode!
This video was taken by someone up there who is now the subject of a manhunt by CNRL security. The same thing that happened when I posed pictures of the camp & living conditions at SUNCOR.

See that story here http://bit.ly/ahh1Fs

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Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• CNRL
• fire
• suncor
• union
• worker
• alberta
• coker

[pcktA]

Weren't the cokers built in Edmonton area and shipped to the site? Didn't think they were built by the foreign workers up there.

[adhdcanuck]

@pcktA they blow up because of the installation mostly.

substandard connections with pipe, lousy welds at the interconnections, and they cheap out on the wiring... bigtime... as an electrician just from what ive seen of the wiring on that site i would expect it to blow itself apart spectacularly and would suggest to anyone that they shut the entire place down and send independent inspectors through... its that bad.

[100gbrown]

The CNRL explosion exposes a weakness in the system by which investors from anywhere in the world are allowed to set their own rules in the oilpatch and abandon local labour agreements and construction practices. I guess the chickens have come home to roost. I saw far too much risk-taking to catch up on the Horizon construction schedule in 2008. Either build it safe or don`t build it. Also, regarding camp conditions, the guys at mywork were mad about the treatment given to the guy who spoke up .

[adhdcanuck]

@100gbrown that was me. thanks i appreciate the support.

There was a time when operators knew that if you feed the men well, and treat them like human beings they'd work magic for you... now its all whip cracking and blaming the workers.

CNRL should be torn down and started over, theres no part of it that was built properly. that isnt likely to happen, mores the pity for our local economy.

[N3RC18]

what happend is a dipshit operator tried to turn a pipe on and it wouldnt work so he tryed to manually start it and the fucker caught it on fire. i got a buddy who knows him, he never got fired just burnt real bad, no one else was hurt

[cz858habs]

i just got my first job up around ft mac and area wont mention with whom, and have had my eyes opened a little as to the stuff that goes on there, i thot it was safe there

[DoubleDion97]

Too bad it didn't light that whole place up.

[FallingUponDeafEars]

My I.Q. fell 10 points after reading the description and most of the comments...

[FallingUponDeafEars]

My I.Q. fell 10 points after reading the description and most of the comments...

[ALTERNATIVEROCKMAN]

man you got to fill out your own perments how fucked is that ?

[SuperOceangrl]

Everyone going one about shitty welds and leaks everyone knows its all 100% x-ray now and this one was caused by 6 operaters who all lost their jobs over it they asked a young fellow to open a valve that had no permission to do so and it leaked nitros and with all the other gases int the air it caused the explosion so it had nothing to do with the welders or leaks or bad weld. And I'm not predjudice but yes they were packi operators.