This is a story that illustrates that safety training and evacuation drills save lives. Here is the story, afterwards watch the video and then please comment.
Firefighters in Delaware County were working to determine what started a fire inside Liberty Casting Co. late Monday night.
The fire started inside the plant, located at 550 Liberty Rd., just before midnight on Tuesday, June 12, 2012.
More than a dozen employees said that they tried to fight the fire themselves, but were unable to knock down the flames with fire extinguishers.
The fire started inside the plant, located at 550 Liberty Rd., just before midnight on Tuesday, June 12, 2012.
More than a dozen employees said that they tried to fight the fire themselves, but were unable to knock down the flames with fire extinguishers.
“I ran to get the fire extinguisher and when I tried to extinguish it, the flames just got worse,” an employee said.
When firefighters arrived, they quickly got the fire under control. Rescue workers said that no evacuations were necessary, and nobody was injured.
When firefighters arrived, they quickly got the fire under control. Rescue workers said that no evacuations were necessary, and nobody was injured.
In the
event of a fire, we are all confronted with do we fight the flames with an
extinguisher or evacuate the building immediately.
This
is probably the most important decision you will face when a fire breaks out.
In our
industry, there can be many types of fires. Such as electrical, molten metal,
dust fires, etc.
Do not
use pressurized extinguishers to put out a dust fire. The pressurized air
stream will force the dust fire to become air borne, and make the situation
worse.
If you are not trained in portable extinguisher use (click here for OSHA extinguisher use), the answer is easy: you should evacuate, and never
attempt to fight a fire if you do not have extinguisher training.
If you
are trained with extinguishers, however, there are many things to consider when
deciding whether to fight or take flight.
Questions
to Fight By
Ask yourself these questions when determining whether to fight a
fire with a portable extinguisher or evacuate the building.
Is the fire small enough to be controlled by a portable
extinguisher?
The time to use a portable extinguisher is during the early
stages of a fire. Once a fire starts to spread, your best option is to evacuate
the building.
Am I safe from toxic smoke and gases?
Remember that all fires produce carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide
is a colorless, odorless toxic gas. Many fires will produce other toxic gases
in addition to carbon monoxide. If the fire is producing large amounts of
smoke, or you suspect the fire involves a hazardous material, your best option
is to evacuate the building
Do I have an escape route?
Before attempting to extinguish a fire, always ensure you have a
reliable escape route. If you are in a room or confined area, position yourself
between the fire and the exit door. In other words, when you are facing the
fire the exit door should be at your back, ensuring you are not trapped if the
fire is not quickly extinguished.
Do I have the right extinguisher?
Make sure the extinguisher’s label indicates it is rated for use
in fighting the type of fuel that is burning, and check if the extinguisher is
fully charged. If the extinguisher is not fully charged, or is not the proper
type, your best option is to evacuate the building. You can find information
about extinguisher ratings here.
What do my instincts tell me?
If you do not feel comfortable trying to extinguish the fire, do
not attempt to. Evacuate the building and let the fire department do their job.
Remember: firefighters have equipment, training, and experience that you do not
possess.
Fight the Fire
If you decide to attempt to extinguish the fire, take the
following actions:
- Activate the fire alarm system to notify
building occupants of the emergency
- Notify
the Police or the Fire Department of the fire
- Remember:
Do not attempt to extinguish a fire until these actions are completed
- Position
yourself between the fire and your escape route, approximately six to
eight feet from the fire
- Remember
the acronym PASS:
- P – Pull the pin that unlocks the
operating handle
- A – Aim the extinguisher low at the
base of the fire
- S – Squeeze the lever on the
extinguisher to discharge the agent
- S – Sweep the nozzle or hose from side
to side, and continue to sweep the extinguisher back
and forth at the base of the flames until the fire is out or the
extinguisher is empty
If your suppression efforts are unsuccessful…
- Quickly
leave the room, and close the door behind you to confine the fire
- Evacuate
the building, and, if possible, inform responding firefighters of the fire
location and your suppression efforts.
After the Fire is Out…
- Monitor
conditions to ensure the fire does not reignite
- Maintain
a reliable escape route until the possibility of re-ignition no longer
exists
- Avoid
exposure to the extinguishing agent, because inhalation of the agent may
irritate your respiratory system
Take Flight
If you do not attempt to extinguish the fire, your only course
of action is to evacuate the building. During evacuation you should take the
following actions:
- Evacuate
the room and close the door behind you to confine the fire
- Activate
the fire alarm system to notify building occupants of the emergency
- Notify
the university police or the Austin Fire Department of the fire
- Evacuate
the building
- Remain
outside until notified by the fire department the building is safe to
re-enter
Please comment
In the event of fire: 1) Remove all employees away from the facility to avoid any explosion.
ReplyDelete2) Call fire dept. which can use special chemicals to control the fire. 3) Train employees to handle the fire and what can cause the fire, example traces of water in returned scrap for remelt. Always dry the metal to about 800F and avoid stacked ingot melting procedures.4) Allow designated people to take care of the fire and keep rest of them away from the facility.
Good luck
Train, Train, Train, and when you're done----Repeat!
ReplyDeleteIt's obvious that safety is always paramount.
ReplyDeleteAre you really looking for an answer to this question?
Thanks for commenting ! The APSB concurs, safety should always be paramount. We are not looking for an answer to the question Fight or Flee?.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing that 12 workers chose to fight the fire in this story.
One would have thought that one of the 12, would have realized that their efforts were for nothing, and to flee.
They eventually did, but there are too many stories where workers try unsuccessfully to fight a fire and it costs them their lives.
I counsel my clients to make a concious decision, document it, and train and equip their employees accordingly. Facilities without a designated fire brigade typically opt for fire extinguisher use for wastebasket fires and safe egress and let the pros fight real fires.
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting! The APSB has been in two plants this calendar year that caught on fire. Both had fire brigades that performed excellent.
ReplyDeleteThat shows that they were well prepared. A brigade is a commitment of resources, but may be the best bet for facilities without a fast-response and well-equipped community force.
ReplyDelete"The commitment of Resources" is indeed true. After observing one of the brigades put out a chimney fire in a cast house this year, one stood in awe. The brigade members appeared to be well trained, well equipped, and prepared. It was very impressive on how quickly they arrived, made a plan, and proceeded to put the fire out.
ReplyDeleteTraining and resources combined are required to get the job done. A properly trained employee will have more self confidence to make the descision to fight or flee. Training using actual scenarios that might be encountered along with knowing you have good equipement and resources to back you up are key. There are many factors involved and no two incidents are the same.
ReplyDeleteYour comments are educating to someone not familiar with the hazards of magnesium fires. Wise Chem products which are used in the aluminium industry to prevent molten metal water explosions are used in several magnesium mills around the globe. Thanks again!
ReplyDeleteGood information! Here are some basic rules of thumb what we have used in the past in the combustible dust industries. Generally, they need to take evasive action from the smoke or CO levels become hazards. General combustible dust fire fighting rules of thumb:
ReplyDelete- You should only fight a fire in the incipient stage, when controllable by portable extinguishers, etc.
They should stop fighting fire if:
* They can't fight the fire with portable extinguishers.
* Continuing to fight the fire may result in their path to exit becoming blocked.
* It becomes apparent that they cannot stop the fire with their own resources.
- It is also important for them to know not to spray extinguishers in a way that creates a dust cloud - if they hit a pile of dust with a high velocity spray they could creat a flash fire.
And outside resources should be called immediately if it is more serious than a fire in a wastebasket.
ReplyDeleteGlad you posted this important topic. It should be mandatory training for all stakeholders that wotk in and around hazardous locations.
ReplyDeleteThe comments I.ve 'seen here are good, but the decision to fight or flee should be made when made long before the fire starts. The decision to avoid the fire should be made with housekeeping and basic maintenance. So many. fires are started from Housekeeping issues.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. The safety column this month in the Aluminium Times Magazine dealt with dust safety. Coincidentally the next column will deal on the benefits of general housekeeping. There are good and the bad regarding management attitudes toward housekeeping. Hopefully, the column will be able to show how good housekeeping relates to increase worker safety.
ReplyDeleteAPSB, glad you posted this important topic. It should be mandatory training for all stakeholders that wotk in and around hazardous locations.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment, A good habit to have when walking into a plant is to ask where there evacuation plan is posted. If the person you ask, does not know where it is posted, you should get concerned that facility may have not trained for evacuations.
ReplyDeleteAs someone points out, you must have a response plan in place. As someone who has worked on the floor in both molten aluminum and molten magnesium operations, and had to handle large spills in both cases, I always make it a practice to have someone (a more senior level-headed properly trained operator, usually) in the molten metal who can assess the spill and calmly take the best course of action, as per the response plan. For example, if a 100,000 pound capacity aluminum reverb furnace has a leak that cannot be plugged out the tap-out hole, the liquid metal can be directed away with creating a dam on the floor to keep it away from liquids until the hole can be plugged. I have heard, but not personally experienced, that a trained operator actually unrolled a full roll of kaowool on a floor of spilled aluminum to plug the tap-out hole. It's a mess and hard to clean up but controllable as long as the company practices the proper workplace and plant design requirements to keep liquids (especially water) away from potential locations of metal spills.
ReplyDeleteSame thing with molten magnesium but there is a different concern. Whereas aluminum has the stored energy that is greater than TNT if it explodes, Mg will be quicker to ignite other materials. Magnesium doesn't explode when it burns, it slowly and then vigorously "smolders" with the latter stages being very bright white and generating a lot of excess heat. The best way to handle this situation is immediate smothering (removal of the access to oxygen from the air) with magnesium flux (a salt), when it is containable. To flee at the onset without an attempt to smother the initial event is to pretty much guarantee it will get much, much worse. One key point: once the fire gets into a wall or the ceiling, it cannot be smothered; get out and don't let the fire department use water, regardless of the type of molten metal. Burning an empty building down is still much better than a water;liquid metal gas expansion explosion.
In either case (flee or fight), I tell operators: Never Turn Your Back On A Fire! Regardless of whether you are trying to control it or evacuate. A person's PPE is designed to protect the front of a person. One of the worst injuries I have seen was a molten magnesium salt burn when the technician put a non-preheated sample ladle into an electrolytic cell for a salt sample. When the liquid salt popped out of the sample lid hole due to the thermal shock, he turned his face away (pointing the faceshield away from the source of the event) and got burned on his uncovered neck, above his safety coat collar. Not deadly but painful, forever, since it was not only a thermal burn but also a chemical burn.
The article at the above link is very, very good regarding the steps needed to make this decision. I like that it touches on the different types of possible fires. While I always am thinking about molten metal spills, dust fires also are very dangerous.
According to OSHA, even the fighting of a waste basket fire by untrained employees can lead to companies being fined. Fire extinguishers are to be used to exit any area that has a fire in it. If you are willing to train select employees to fight even small fires with extinguishers that are available, you must give them the training that amount to fire brigade training. Otherwise the company can be open for all kinds of law suits if employees are injured. Also all employees must be trained in fleeing from a fire whenever an alarm is sounded whether a fire is observed or not. Lack of specific directions to employees can result in OSHA fines also. The advice given above is excellent.
ReplyDeleteExcellent post.
ReplyDeleteAll very good information.
ReplyDelete