Event
- Event ID
- 56
- Quality
- Description
A number of hydrogen-filled balloons burst into flames at a secondary school. About 1,500 small balloons to be used for the opening ceremony of a sport event exploded unexpectedly and caught fire at around 9:00 am on Sunday.
- Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- Hydrogen Release and Ignition
- Nature of the consequences
- Macro-region
- Asia
- Country
- China
- Date
- Component involved
- balloon
- Failure mode
- explosion (generic)
- Initiating cause
- unknown
- Root CAUSE analysis
The INITIATING CAUSE is unknown.
The ROOT CAUSE is reported by the source “China online”, as a clear violation of the law. The firm filled the balloons with hydrogen instead of helium as prescribed. The use of hydrogen in balloons violated the regulations of the central government. In addition, the number of hydrogen-filled balloons at any event was also strictly limited to 1,000, according a circular jointly released by the State Council and China Meteorological Administration in July 2006, while the number of the balloons used at the school event was well above it.- Root causes
- Date entry in HIAD
- 28/02/2009
Facility
- Application
- Other
- Sub-application
- Entertainment balloons
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- All components affected
hydrogen ballons, hydrogen cylinders
- Process temperature range [C]
- ambient temperature (-50°C to +50°C)
- Process pressure range [MPa]
- ambient pressure (around 0.1 MPa)
- Location type
- Unknown
- Location
- populated area
- Operational condition
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Number of injured persons
- 64
- Post-event summary
64 Students brought to hospitals
Lesson Learnt
- Lesson Learnt
As reported by “China Daily”, this case is a violation of the law. The firm filled the balloons with hydrogen instead of helium as prescribed. The use of hydrogen in balloons violated the regulations of the central government. In addition, the number of hydrogen-filled balloons at any event was also strictly limited to 1,000, according a circular jointly released by the State Council and China Meteorological Administration in July 2006, while the number of the balloons used at the school event was well above it.
In-depth data
- Release type
- gas
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Release temperature [°C]
- 25
- Probable IGNITION SOURCE
- Explosion type
References
- Sources categories
- News
- Reference & weblink
China Daily news of 22 September 2007, available at
https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-09/22/content_6126839.htmscreen shot of the web-source (BBC) - links lost
