Many major hazard installations (MHIs) are located in chemical industry zones and escalation effect maybe triggered when the fire or explosion occurs on a MHI. To investigate the mechanism of the accident escalation, a systematic quantitative assessment methodology is proposed by the considering the feature and uncertainty of the escalation scenario. The main accident energy carriers of the escalation are heat radiation, overpressure of blast and fragments. The escalation probability, joint influence of the three energy carriers and risk characterization of the accident scenarios are carried out. By the new methodology, the escalation scenario in chemical industry zones can be analyzed and the risk escalation morphology is demonstrated by the simulation software. The visualized risk cloud figure gives a supplementary way to prevent the escalation scenario in chemical industry zones planning. (c) 2012 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.