Event
- Event ID
- 731
- Quality
- Description
The event effected a compression unit of a high-pressure hydrogen refuelling station. It started with a hydrogen release due to the rupture of a weld on a pressure switch. The resulting fire caused the melting and burning of non-metallic seals and hoses on stainless steel lines containing hydraulic oil and coolant (glycol). The released compressor oil ignited and contributed to the fires
The local fire department responded and contained the situation by shutting off the power supply and spraying water on nearby equipment.
No injury. The compressor skid was destroyed. Surrounding equipment experienced moderate damage.
- Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- Hydrogen Release and Ignition
- Nature of the consequences
- fire
- Macro-region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Date
- Component involved
- compressor / booster / pump (pipe)
- Failure mode
- rupture & ignition
- Initiating cause
- material degradation (generic)
- Root causes
- Unknown
- Date entry in HIAD
- 30/04/2026
Facility
- Application
- Hydrogen refuelling station
- Sub-application
- HRS 70 MPa
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- All components affected
weld,
pressure switch,
compressor- Process temperature range [C]
- Above ambient temperature (50°C to 100°C)
- Process pressure range [MPa]
- high pressure (above 50 MPa)
- Location type
- Open
- Location
- unknown
- Operational condition
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Number of injured persons
- 0
Lesson Learnt
- Lesson Learnt
The event provided the following lessons:
(1) Shutoff valve location and/or redundant shutoff valves at storage vessels play a critical safety role in incident containment and avoiding escalation.
(2) Additional thermal/fire protection of components of the compressor unit could have avoided the escalation experienced in this event.
(3) At the origin of the event there is the failure of a pressure-switch. This component should be better designed.
(4) Leak and fire detection system could be improved (e.g. to react earlier) and inter-linked to automatic shutdown actions.
In-depth data
- Release type
- gas
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Probable IGNITION SOURCE
References
- Sources categories
- H2TOOLS
- Reference & weblink
Event of the US database H2TOOLS
https://h2tools.org/lessons/fire-hydrogen-fueling-station
(accessed April 2026)
