Japanese explosion updated

This is the update on the explosion in Japan. The original post can be found here. We continue to pray for the lost, injured and those who survived this catastrophe. Here’s the update.

Industrial accident specialists have begun looking into what caused explosions at an aluminum recycling factory during the recent torrential rainfall in western Japan.

An aluminum furnace at the plant in Soja City, Okayama Prefecture, exploded on July 6th. A number of local residents were injured and 3 buildings burned down. The incident also damaged roofs and windows of homes across a wide area

City authorities say the plant had been inundated due to the heavy rain before the blasts, prompting its workers to suspend the furnace's operation and leave.

The Fire and Disaster Management Agency sent the group of specialists to the plant on Thursday to look into the cause of the explosions and possible links to the rainfall.

The experts will interview local firefighting authorities and others. They will also view the premises of the plant.

Takahiro Tsukame, a senior official of the agency's National Research Institute of Fire and Disaster, says only the framework of the plant is still recognizable at the site. He adds that pipes have been scattered around, indicating a huge explosion occurred.

A man in Okayama says the dashboard camera of his vehicle captured the explosions. The footage shows orange flames shooting up followed by several smaller blasts.

The man says he heard big noises and felt light impacts from the explosions. And he adds he saw countless small objects burning and scattering like what happens in a  volcanic eruption.

This photos should scare everyone in our industry. Out of all of the molten metal explosions through industry’s history this explosion maybe known as one of the largest explosions in terms of force. It is utterly shocking. Several news media articles have commented that nearby homes caught on fire after the explosion. It will be interesting to see what the final report from the Japanese government states. No doubt the rising water came on suddenly. In our opinion we are not sure of what they could have done to minimize the explosion. No doubt the plant management who were present at the time were given a horrible situation. We do know that the evacuated the plant and none were hurt and all indications are no residents were killed because of the explosion. There have been numerous reports that numerous residents were hurt from broken glass as a result of the explosion.

Most of our older plants were built far from their local communities. Overtime development encroached to the point where many plants have development at their gates. Can you imagine if this explosion happened at one of those locations? We shudder to think of the possibility.  

We will continue to update on this posting when new information comes forth.

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