Serving a variety of industrys.

                                                               "When tanks fall."

The original post was on LinkedIn and was worded as:

"I was told that this happed earlier this year and that it was caused by straight line winds. Can you see what is possibly missing from around the bottom of this empty tank that may have led to this incident? Photo received today via email. Taken and supplied by others. For entertainment and training purposes only. No professional assessment is being offered in this post :)
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Be safe and have a great day :)"

First the tank had been in service for many years.

Even though the construction date is ukn, one could guess that the tank had been in-service since the mid 1980's, either at this present location or maybe having been moved to this location from elsewhere. With this estimate in place, we could probably agrre that the tank had seen at least 45+ years of active service. AND I JUST NOW DECIDED TO FALL DOWN???   WHY?

Something is wrong here. Something different occurred that put into place a scerario or condition that allowed the forces being applied against the shell of the tank to over-come the natural tendancey of the weight of the tank and or products to avoid tipping.

Has the tank ever operated in an empty or near empty level since ~ 1985? Who knows!! Why was the tank out of service now? Who knows.

Had the tank ever had an external and / or internal inspection performed? Who knows!! 

Well if the owners had an inspection performed, I think the subject of perifial anchor bolts and chairs should have been included in the inspection report. If so, why was the tank not immediatly upgraded or modified with some sort of holddown equirpment to prevent what the inspector should have and maybe did warn against the possibly of happening.

Conclusion:

Phone calls indicate that this is still under investigation but one could only wonder if the conciderstion of anchoring the tank down as per both API 650 Annex J and UL142 would have helped. 

After reading this artical, please let us knpw your thoughts. If they are professional and curtious and constructive, we may post them below this closing. 

Thank you,

John Cornell Sr. Storage Tank Specialist

H.I.R. Technical Service

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