Event
- Event ID
- 1240
- Quality
- Description
A truck carrying hydrogen cylinders was destroyed by fire after a crash against a tree. The truck driver lost control of its vehicle when a tyre burst and took fire. The fire engulphed the whole vehicle.
it is unclear what happened to the cylinders. The truck was delivering them to a factory, so it is plausible to assume that they were full. Apparently, the cylinders did not explode due to the fire. According to a speaker of the fire brigade, they did not even leak, because the fire was easily brought under control in 45 minutes.- Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- No Hydrogen Release
- Nature of the consequences
- Macro-region
- Asia
- Country
- India
- Date
- Component involved
- CGH2 cylinder(s)
- Failure mode
- damage, no release
- Initiating cause
- conventional component failure (fire-tyres)
- Root CAUSE analysis
INITIATING cause was a traffic accident. In absence of information on drivers and driver behaviours, the ROOT CAUSE can be attributed generically to a human error (wrong manoeuvre)
- Root causes
- Date entry in HIAD
- 25/12/2025
Facility
- Application
- Hydrogen transport and distribution
- Sub-application
- CGH2 cylinders truck
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- All components affected
tyre, truck
- Process temperature range [C]
- ambient temperature (-50°C to +50°C)
- Process pressure range [MPa]
- medium to high pressure (10 to 50 MPa)
- Location type
- Open
- Location
- countryside or desert
- Operational condition
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Number of injured persons
- 0
- Post-event summary
The truck was at total loss.
- Emergency action
A villager, who was passing by the area, noticed the fire and informed the police. The nearest fire station was 28 km away, so it took approximately 20 minutes for firefighters to reach the scene. The fire was extingushed in 45 minutes.
Lesson Learnt
- Lesson Learnt
From the point of view of hydrogen technologies, this was a near miss. From a broader point of view, this was a road accident, by which hydrogen systems were at risk but not involved. If the news is confirmed, this can be explained with the fire resistance of the cylinders design.
In-depth data
- Release temperature [°C]
- 25
- Probable IGNITION SOURCE
References
- Sources categories
- News
- Reference & weblink
Online news of the Times of India (23/06/2023)
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ludhiana/truck-carrying-hydrog….
(accessed December 2025)News of on Hydrogen Insight
https://www.hydrogeninsight.com/transport/truck-towing-hydrogen-cylinde…
(accessed December 2025)
