Carbon Dioxide System Put The Fire Out Initially....

Prevention of fires is the foremost goal in any industry. The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog has posted incidents and commented on how our industry prevents fires successfully. When a fire does occur in our plants, there are a myriad of options to extinguish the flames.  From a combination of onsite fire brigades, local fire departments, to fire suppression systems. Carbon dioxide gas is the most widely known agent in fire suppression system.

For fire extinguishing purposes the advantages of carbon dioxide gas have been long known. If we look at the fire triangle, we realize that an interaction between fuel, air (oxygen) and heat is necessary to produce a fire condition. When these three elements are present in a proper relationship, fire will result. Carbon dioxide extinguishes fire by physically attacking all three points of the fire triangle. Carbon dioxide has been used for fire suppression as early as 1914, the Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania installed a number of seven pound capacity portable CO2 extinguishers for use on electrical wiring and equipment. By the 1920's, automatic systems utilizing carbon dioxide were available. In 1928, work on the NFPA (National Fire Protection Assoc.) Standard for carbon dioxide extinguishing systems was begun.  Here is a recent  story:

A structure fire at the Novelis plant in Fairmont, West Virginia, USA early Sunday morning is being investigated.

The Marion County 911 Center received a call about the incident around 4:40 a.m. Sunday and the Fairmont Fire Department responded, a dispatcher reported.

No one was hurt during the fire. Novelis, located on Speedway Avenue in Fairmont, works in aluminum rolled products.

Local Fire Chief explained that the facility’s Cardox CO2 System put the mill fire out right away, but the fire had gone up into the large chimney system. The flames could be spotted from East Park Avenue, he said.

“They did evacuate the building for a while, until everything was under control,” Local Fire Chief said.

The Fairmont Fire Department used a ladder truck and a pumper for the situation, he said. About 13 city firefighters were on site working with the fire crew at Novelis, called the Novelis Fire Brigade.

Emergency responders began leaving the scene around 6 a.m., Emerick said.

“The fire occurred at the plant and all employees were safely accounted for and no injuries,” said a senior communications manager for Novelis North America.

“The incident was isolated to a piece of equipment on the outside roof of the plant and the fire was extinguished both by the Novelis Fire Brigade and the Fairmont Fire Department. We have an internal investigation under way to determine the cause.”

The senior communications manager for Novelis North America said Novelis is also looking into the damages caused by the incident.

“The plant is currently running, but we do have one portion shut down for repairs,” the senior communications manager for Novelis North America said.

The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog would like to commend Novelis Fairmont facility for successfully extinguishing this fire. The used a combination of carbon dioxide fire suppression system, their own fire brigade, and local fire department(s). As well as a successfully completing an emergency evacuation resulting in no injuries.

Further information regarding carbon dioxide suppression systems can be found at the National Fire Protection Association, click here.

Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) has information pertaining toward  fixed extinguishing systems here.

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