Tenerife tragedy: Explosion at oil refinery claims lives of five workers
In 1992, a leak of gasoline vapors at an oil refinery in Santa Cruz de Tenerife caused a powerful explosion and fire, claiming the lives of five workers and raising questions about the safety of locating such facilities in the city.
On June 22, 1992, at 2:25 PM, a powerful explosion occurred in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. People said it felt like a bomb had exploded. A leak of gasoline vapors occurred at the oil refinery during cargo preparation. This led to a massive fire that destroyed everything in its path.
Unfortunately, five workers died and several were injured. This is considered the worst accident in the plant's history.
The investigation revealed that the cause was residual heat in the hydrotreating furnace-1. It was turned off after a leak was detected, but it was still very hot. This heat ignited the vapors coming from the damaged flange of pumping unit-2. It was there, in the center of the plant, that the fire broke out.
At that moment, four workers were trying to fix the breakdown, and another was finishing his shift. The latter was immediately engulfed in flames and died on the spot. The then director of the plant, Javier Martín Carbajal, told the newspaper DIARIO DE AVISOS: "I had just got out of the car when I heard a muffled explosion and saw the flames cross the street. It was terrible."
The plant's fire brigade responded quickly, and they were assisted by firefighters from Santa Cruz, who arrived within minutes. The fire was extinguished in just over half an hour.
"This is a very sad and tragic event. We are very sorry that we could not save our employee and his family from grief. They knew the risk and acted very bravely," said Martín Carbajal at a press conference.
Two people with severe burns were sent to the burn center of the Virgen del Rocío Hospital in Seville that same evening. Two others remained in intensive care at the University Hospital of the Canary Islands. One of them said after being discharged that everything happened "in an instant" and that there was no time to react.
The next day, two patients from the University Hospital were transferred to La Fe Hospital in Valencia. One of them died during the flight, even though he was in a medical plane. Unfortunately, everyone in the hospital later died from severe burns.
This incident raised again the question of whether it is right to locate an oil refinery in the city itself. This was not the first such incident.
A study by the Medical Physics and Environmental Radioactivity Laboratory of the University of La Laguna showed that after the closure of the capital's oil refinery in 2013, the level of total alpha activity in the air decreased by 76%. This study, which covers 22 years (from 2001 to 2022), clearly shows how the oil industry affects the environment and the health of people living nearby.
Today, with the Tenerife oil refinery already dismantled, it is hard to imagine that such a dangerous industry operated next to residential buildings, which over time surrounded the plant on all sides.