The Effect of Fires and Explosions in Three Famous Explosions - Research Paper Example

Explosions are some of the most revered disasters in any industrial nation. Oil spills have for a long time been associated with explosion spillages on water but they are also associated with spillages on land, unlike the gas leak. The study analyzed three famous explosions in history namely; first, the Piper Alpha was an oil production rig located in the North Sea, it also produced gases. The rig was associated with one of the worst fire explosion in the world during the 1980s (Baron 2010). The cause of the fire was a gas explosion and fireballs which turned into a raging fire in the rig.

The disaster claimed 167 lives and left many others with serious injuries (Macalister 1). It took slightly more than three weeks to put off the raging fire. In the end, it was claimed to have consumed property worth millions of dollars, claimed 167 lives, and had a great impact on the environment. The report on the fire tragedy recommended many fire safety recommendations to the oil companies operating in the North Sea.Secondly, the Gulf War explosion in 1991 is the major oil spills in the world’s history.

The oil spills were a result of war; at that time when Iraq forces had invaded Kuwait. The Iraqi forces were determined to destroy Kuwait’s oil industry before they were forced out of Kuwait due to international pressures and military interventions reprimanding Iraqis to return to their country. During the Gulf War, the Iraq military placed explosives on crucial aspects of Kuwait’s oil infrastructure and also conducted airstrikes on the oil wells, pipelines, rigs, pumping stations, and other crucial installations of Kuwait’s oil infrastructure with the key aim of destroying the oil production capacity of the country (Krupa 2005).

This led to massive explosions on land, waters, and oil rigs and the resulting fire burned for many months and continued afterward. Additionally, Iraq had released about 240,000,000 gallons of crude oil into the waters of the Persian Gulf in a bid to keep off American marines from Iraq. The Gulf war spills and oil fires are by far the largest to have occurred in the world (Bridge & Lebillon 2013).