"The call came in that there was an explosion at.."

Personal protection equipment (i.e., PPE) is worn to minimize exposure to serious workplace injuries and illnesses. These injuries and illnesses may result from contact with various workplace hazards. The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog has posted incidents where PPE was a factor in the extent of the worker’s injury or a contributing factor to a fatality. PPE may include items such as gloves, safety glasses, shoes, earplugs (or muffs), hard hats, respirators, or coveralls, vests and full body suits. Here is a recent story that emphasizes the need of protective clothing.

Molten aluminum burned the legs of two men one afternoon during the week of April 20, 2014 at in the Southern United States.

Both employees who are operating technicians in a building in the rear of the aluminium company property, were wearing required personal protective equipment and fire retardant uniforms, the aluminum company corporate officer said.

“The call came in that there was an explosion at (Aluminium Company) with two people injured,” Local Fire Department spokeswoman said.

When firefighters arrived at the aluminium company in the industrial park, there was no fire, Local Fire Department spokeswoman said. Instead, she described it as an industrial incident. Within minutes, the two men were loaded onto medical transport helicopters and flown to a trauma hospital 100 kilometers away, the aluminum company corporate officer said.

One injured worker was treated and released, while the other injured worker is listed in stable condition, hospital officials said. 

Fellow employees had applied burn gel to the injured men’s affected areas. Burn gel helps prevent tissue damage. The company immediately contacted the injured men’s family members, who got to see the men before they were airlifted out from a field in front of nearby company.

“A full internal investigation is underway to completely understand why the event occurred,” the aluminum company corporate officer said in a release.

During an interview later that day, the aluminum company corporate officer said explained that water is the usual suspect in incidents of this nature.

“In most cases, something like this when you are talking about molten aluminum, there is usually water involved somehow. The guys are working and trying to find out for sure. The reason that can be an issue is because water has a 2,000 times expansion rate, so one ounce of water becomes 2,000 ounces when it is super heated. It has not been confirmed” that this is what caused today’s incident, the aluminum company corporate officer said.

“It’s what the industry calls a thermal pop,” the aluminum company corporate officer said. “Molten aluminum is extremely stable. The only way it will move out of its container is if expansion pushes it out. It makes a noise similar to a firecracker. It makes a pop, that’s why they call it a thermal pop.”

Aluminum doesn’t explode, the aluminum company corporate officer said.

The aluminium company produces aluminum for the automotive industry. There are over 250 employees at the plant, the aluminum company corporate officer said.

“We’re like a big family out there at the plant,” the aluminum company corporate officer said after visiting with the men at the trauma hospital. “No one is any more important than anyone else.”

He said the men were in “good spirits” that night.

The APSB wishes both workers a full recovery and hope they are offered both physical and mental rehabilitation if needed. We would like to commend the coworkers of the injured plant in quickly administrating care to their fellow workers.

In addition the aluminium company did a commendable job in immediately interacting with the media after this incident. The APSB has seen numerous instances when the media is not provided with information about a safety incident. Unfortunately, with no information provided by the aluminium company the media then make assumptions and innuendos. Worse yet is when social media gets involved after an incident. Which can result in a local story becoming an international story that results in negative coverage not only to the aluminium company but to our industry as a whole.

The APSB is a little dismayed by the quotes in the media attributed to the aluminum company corporate officer. We do not discount that individual’s good intentions. We feel that the individual may be unfamiliar with the negative connotation of the word “pop”.

It is true that our industry has used in the past the term “pop” to refer to a small explosion. But that word makes light of a hazard. Nothing should be said to downplay, minimize a hazard. In some minds the term “pop” brings with it a connotation of humorous, funny, etc. Which is sad and it insults the workers in our industry who are living with the painful physical scares on their bodies which occurred after small molten metal explosions. The aluminium industry’s current best safety practices refer to small explosions as Force 1 explosions. The term “Pop” should never be used.

It should go without saying that this phrase in the above story is incorrect “Aluminum doesn’t explode”. There are incident after incident posted on this blog informing the reader that aluminium does indeed explode on occasion. Our industry has studied no other hazard more than the hazard of molten aluminum explosions. Safety in our industry has been defined and altered (for the positive) after catastrophic events involving molten aluminium explosions. Decades ago the Aluminium Association in accordance with their Molten Metal Incident Reporting Program classified molten metal explosions as the following:

The Aluminium Association (USA) has put of a series of safety conferences titled "Casthouse Safety Workshop", the next one will be in June in Ontario, California. The Workshops have been occurring biannually for the past 20+ years. No other program has had such longevity and support within our industry. Resulting in thousands of workers being trained on the current best safety practices. The APSB is a strong supporter of the good work that the Casthouse Safety Workshop's have done in our industry as well the Aluminium Association. The Aluminium Association has been at the forefront of so many safety issues resulting in bringing awareness, research, and developing best practices that have saved countless injuries and fatalities. Keep up the good work! 

Below is the the Casthouse Safety Workshop's upcoming program.

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