Explosion and fire in a chemical plant

An explosion and a fire occurred at at a hydro-treatment unit of a chemical plant for lubricants.

Plant own emergency response team was activated, assisted from local fire and emergency Services and regional Police. No one was injured during the incident and flames were brought under control within 30 minutes. Hydrogen was being allowed to burn off in a controlled manner as a safety measure.

The cause of the fire was not known at that time and no estimate of damage was available.

The INITIATING CAUSE was the release and ignition of process gases containing hydrogen.

No information provided on the exact location of the leak, the composition of the escaped gases and the reasons.
The ROOT CAUSE in unknown.

Unknown

The company is one of the largest Canadian oil and gas companies, operating in both the upstream and downstream sectors.

No one was injured during the incident.
The explosion was perceived as a huge fireball, shaking houses kilometers away. Windows in the nearby homes were blown-out.

Flames were brought under control within 30 minutes. Hydrogen was being allowed to burn off in a controlled manner as a safety measure.

Despite the considerable entity of the event, which was felt kilometres away, the results of the investigation announced by local news and promised by the company could not be found in the publicly domain.
The only lesson is two disappointing observations:
(1) Despite the interests of local populations in this type of industrial events occurring at the doorstep, there is no mechanism enforcing broad sharing of their causes. It is strange that local journalism, after the peak of attention the day after the events, do not seem to follow-up o the why and how of such events.
(2) In absence of legal actions triggered by losses by third parties (including injuries & fatalities), no authority action seems in place to guarantee the public sharing of the findings.