"fire involves a large quantity of aluminium cans including aerosols...."

Outside storage of scrap materials is necessity to many plants in our industry. On occasion the Aluminium Plant Safety Blog posts an incident involving a fire that started in scrap storage piles. Here is a recent incident.

Firefighters were called to tackle the blaze along in United Kingdom at 11.58am today at an aluminium scrap recycling company.

Smoke could be seen billowing into the sky around the area. West Midlands Fire Service received four 999 calls to the fire. Three fire crews from Oldbury, Smethwick and Bourneville were sent to the scene, totalling 15 fire fighters.

They used three water hoses to tackle the flames. The fire involves a large quantity of aluminium cans including aerosols.

The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog is thankful that no one was injured in this incident. The APSB has posted incidents in the past involving aerosol cans. We are glad that this incident ended better than the previous incidents we posted involving injuries and fatalities. Many recycling plants accept used beverage container (aka UBC) without incident. But recycling aerosol cans are hazard by themselves. We strongly recommend that only companies that have the equipment and expertise accept aerosol cans as scrap.

The Aluminium Association (USA) has a great document titled: "Guideline for Aluminum Scrap Receiving & Inspection"

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