"suffered first-degree burns all over his body...."

 

It is never our intentions, but some companies around the world have disliked our comments of their posts our safety observations on LinkedIn. We explain that our observations are based on past incidents. Sadly this incident will be cited as an example when we comment that open forklifts should not be used in any department that handles molten metal.

An aluminum casting factory in (location omitted) where a fire occurred due to an explosion. Provided by the (local) Fire Department.

Upon receiving the report, the fire department mobilized 53 people and 22 pieces of equipment to extinguish the fire at 3:26 p.m on afternoon during the week of February 12, 2023, 45 minutes later.

A man in his 50s who was working on the fire suffered first-degree burns all over his body, and a forklift was burned.

The fire department is investigating the exact cause of the accident, assuming that the snow on the roof of the factory melted and went into the blast furnace, causing an aluminum casting to explode and catch fire.

We pray that the injured worker recovers from his first-degree burns. We are amazed they are first degree burns. From the photo it appears that the injured worker was in fact a forklift operator charging a furnace.

Please note that the forklift appears not to have sides, windshield, nor roof. Why? Viewing the photo we can see no tire tracks into the solidified metal. Also, in our experience we have never heard of a forklift operator who willing drove through a molten metal spill. With that, the forklift operator had to have been charging the furnace.

Charging with what? We don’t know. At the next furnace we can see a bailed square of scrap. If that scrap was stored outdoors and snow or changing temperature moisture could accumulate. Worst yet is if the scrap is stored outdoors and it rained. Scrap should be preheated or charged into a dry hearth. We recommend never charging scrap into a bath.

The Aluminum Association has two safety reference documents that are must if your workplace receives scrap to charge into a furnace. These documents can be found here.

 

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