A Study on the Case Analysis of Chemical Accidents and Improvement of Safety Management: Focusing on Cases of Fires and Explosions That Occurred During Handling of Flammable Substances

This study investigates the characteristics and causes of fire and explosion accidents involving flammable substances and proposes preventive measures. A total of 537 chemical accidents that occurred in Korea between 2019 and 2024 were examined, focusing on the accident types, human casualties, and operational stages. Although fire and explosion incidents accounted for only 15.64% of the total number of chemical accidents, their casualty rate per case was approximately three times higher than that of leakage accidents, indicating their high-risk nature. The main causes were identified as noncompliance with safety standards and facility defects. Accidents were most frequently observed during the operation/start-up and charging/recovery processes, particularly in mixing and storage facilities. Low-flash-point solvents such as toluene and methanol were commonly involved. Based on these findings, this study suggests both managerial and technical improvements, including enhanced electrostatic control, adequate ventilation and explosion-proof systems, strict implementation of Management of Change (MOC), strengthened risk assessment procedures, and automated cooling water supply systems for condensers. These results highlight the need for systematic and integrated safety management throughout processes handling flammable substances to prevent large-scale fires and explosion accidents.