Gas leak causes fire....

The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog has previously posted about the importance of effective evacuation plans. Here is a story of a gas leak that results in a fire. 

A gas line sprang a leak and a fire erupted on the rooftop of the Novelis plant on Speedway Avenue in Fairmont, West Virginia in the United States during the week of November 3rd, 2013. None of the 35 employees on duty at the time were injured.

Three pumpers from the Fairmont Fire Department responded to the 3:15 p.m. incident and blocked traffic going both ways on the Speedway for about an hour, said fire chief.

Eleven firefighters responded to the fire, fire chief added, and put it out fairly quickly by climbing up on the roof and spraying it with water. The gas was shut off because a gas line had been the cause of the fire.

"Novelis is going to be investigating it and see what caused it," fire chief said.

The human resources manager at Novelis, said about 35 workers were on duty at the time of the fire. The plant which works in aluminum rolled products and aluminium can recycling, employs about 185 workers.

"I don't have a lot of details about the cause," human resources manager said. "Most of our machine centers were running this weekend, and then we had our normal maintenance crew there, about 35 employees. We had zero injuries."

"The plant is manned 24/7, the human resources manager added, and "for the last seven months, we've been working most weekends - not all weekends - because demand for production had been pretty high."

Employees on the rolling side of the plant were evacuated but returned inside the plant to work after the all-clear signal was given. Employees on the other side of the plant, the slitting side, were not evacuated.

"As far as I know, the furnaces under the area where we cook the metal, those have been turned off," the human resources manager said. "My understanding is that all the employees stayed on shift and are working."

Later, the human resources manager reported that the main gas line as well as several annealing furnaces had been shut off and would remain so until today.

"But our two rolling mills on that side of the plant are fully operational."

Novelis has its own fire brigade, which was on scene, as well as their own first responders.

"Typically our first responders (Novelis) come out and if it's something bigger we call the fire department to come in, the human resources managers said.

In addition to all the Fairmont Fire Department stations, the Marion Country Rescue Squad and the Fairmont Police Department were on the scene.

The Fairmont Fire Chief called the blaze "an industrial fire," a small one, and said Novelis officials would be able to investigate it.

"They have the equipment to figure out what was wrong with it," fire chief added. "The have monitors and we'll have a get-together and have a debriefing on it."

The maintenance crew and some managers were on scene later that evening, assessing the damage.

"We'll have a better statement (today) as to the nature of the damage," the human resources manager added.

Fire brigades are common in many plants in our industry. Not surprisingly, the APSB has had experience watching several fire brigades in action. Each and every time the APSB has felt very impressed with their hard tireless work. The personnel who are involved in the fire brigades and first responders are unsung heroes in our industry. In addition the plant managers and support staff that enable the fire brigades and first responders to perform their jobs at a minute notice need to be commended too. 

It is apparent that this facility was well trained for potential emergencies and how to react with them. Congratulation to the entire staff at the Novelis Fairmont staff, as well as the Novelis corporate for continuos support and direction that enables this location to succeed when emergencies occur. 

Occupational Safety & Health Administration has a great document on evacuation plans which can be viewed here.

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