The aluminium plant safety blog has commented on the
importance of having emergency action plans (EAP). The EAP should meet or
exceed all the general fire extinguisher requirements plus train all designated
employees to use fire extinguishers on an annual basis. The EAP should review
each hazard in their facility and address the necessary types of fire
extinguishers needed to contain/put out the hazard if a fire occurs. Here is a
story where workers tried to put out a fire with the wrong type of fire extinguisher.
Three employees of an aluminium casting company were taken to
the hospital after a morning fire during the week of March 30, 2014.
The local Fire Department Chief said the employees were taken to
the hospital as a precaution for inhalation of smoke and chemicals after they
attempted to put out the fire.
“Most of it I think was probably from the carbon-dioxide
extinguishers they were using to try and put it out,” the fire department fire
chief said. “They wasted seven or eight extinguishers and that stuff is pretty
nasty.”
The local Fire Department Chief said several of the employees
had already returned to work early Friday afternoon. No firefighters were
injured, The local Fire Department Chief said.
The fire was caused by a build-up of aluminum dust inside
machinery. Hale said the fire call came at 10:56 a.m. and firefighters cleared
the scene at about 2:15 p.m. The fire created a lot of smoke, but The local
Fire Department Chief said hazardous materials handbooks indicated the smoke
represented no public-health hazard.
The aluminium casting company was cited twice over the past 5
years by OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, for safety
violations.
this video covers A, B, C, and D fire extinguishers
The APSB hopes all of the workers recoveries from their injuries that they sustained fighting this fire. The APSB mantra is not to place blame on the company nor worker(s) but hope that with awareness of these incidents brings education and preventative of recurrence.
This incident could have been exponentially worse. The extinguishers that were used could have made resulted with the dust becoming airborne. The video below shows the ignition and fireball of a small quantity of aluminium fines (a few grams). For instance, the aluminium fines could fit in a soup spoon which ignite in the video below.
After viewing this video, one realizes the hazard that are associated with aluminium fines/dusts.
Please comment!
2 comments:
Just read the blog about this incident... it proves, once again, that you don't know what you don't know. If the company or location does not know, or fails to teach, proper fire fighting procedures, or even have the correct equipment at hand, then the employees become the victims.
Employees at this location have now learned what not to do if this happens again in the future. They have gained knowledge form their own mistake. Hopefully other people or locations will gain wisdom from this and not repeat the incident.
This is interesting in that while many folk are aware that certain burning metals will reduce water to produce hydrogen, many remain unaware of a similar situation with respect to carbon dioxide. While elemental carbon is a very strong reducing agent, carbon monoxide is weaker, and carbon dioxide MUCH weaker. Many metals will oxidize in an atmosphere of pure carbon dioxide, in the process reducing the CO2 to CO. I have heard of an experiment in which magnesium chips or powder are placed in a container with dry ice. After the dry ice vaporizes for a while, one ignites the Mg, leaving carbon soot behind. Magnesium is a sufficiently strong reducing agent to reduce the CO2 all the way to elemental carbon.
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