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Citation |
Pate-Cornell E. Fire Technol. 1995; 31(2): 99-119. |
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Affiliation |
Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, Stanford University, California, USA |
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Copyright |
(Copyright © 1995, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group) |
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DOI |
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PMID |
unavailable |
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Abstract |
The offshore oil platform Piper Alpha was destroyed in July 1988 by a catastrophic fire. The causes of the accident included a combination of technical and organizational factors. In this paper, I describe the accident, its chronology, and the dependencies involved. I then examine some of the human errors that led to the disaster and their organizational roots, such as economic pressures, the permit-to-work system, and the inadequacy of regulatory oversight in the United Kingdom at the time of the accident. Risk-reduction measures can be costly, however, and priorities must be set based on costs and benefits. To this end, I describe a probabilistic risk analysis model that can be used to assess the benefits of different fire safety measures, focusing on reinforcing the emergency water pumps. |