14 Fire Departments and 55 Fire Extinguishers....

How much firefighting supplies need to be on hand in case an emergency breaks out in an aluminium plant? The answer is difficult to determine because of so many variables. The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog has a recent story of a plant fire that deals with the question:

The industrial fire one evening during the week of September 7, 2014 caused minimal damage to the roof at Pennex Aluminum Co., Sugar Grove Township, Pennsylvania in the United States but took the cooperation of 15 fire departments to snuff it out.

“It was a logistical nightmare for awhile,” Hempfield Township fire Chief said. “It was a lot of hard work.”

The fire was trapped between a roof that was recently built over an old roof, with a layer of insulation between. Emergency personnel from Mercer and Crawford counties arrived at around 8 p.m. to find heavy smoke and a smoldering fire that was hard to get to.

Firefighters spent at least six hours sawing through the roof, pulling stuff out and dumping materials over the side of the building, Hempfield Township fire Chief said.

No firefighters or Pennex employees were injured and the damage, which the company said was minimal, was centered in the roof area in back of the building.

At one point, the guys from nearby Campbell-Peterson Trail and Turf came to the rescue to replenish a supply of steel saw blades after firefighters went through theirs.

“They brought a bunch of chainsaws right down to the scene,” King said. “I wanted to make sure to thank them for that,” Hempfield Township fire Chief said.

At about 11 p.m., Pennex officials and all the fire chiefs on hand held a pow-wow and decided to use dry fire extinguishers to snuff out the elusive fire once and for all.

Since using water to douse the blaze wasn’t an option because of the danger in using natural gas to melt aluminum there, 65 to 70 portable dry fire extinguishers from every truck, Ilsco (extrusion company located nearby) and Pennex were used up in the end, King said.

By 2:30 a.m. Monday the aluminum parts manufacturer was in full production again, said Pennex’s daytime supervisor. First reports of the blaze sounded dire as word spread among social media. “I had family members call me,’’ said Pennex’s daytime supervisor. “I thought my plant burned to the ground.’’

What likely whipped up fears was that this industrial fire had the potential to be a repeat of a major April 2014 blaze at Greenville-Reynolds Development Corp.’s industrial park. A total of 50 fire companies in a five-county area responded to that fire, which destroyed a warehouse and heavily damaged a couple other buildings.

Five departments from as far as Trumbull County traveled to the Greenville and surrounding area and were positioned in the local fire stations in case of another emergency.

Another media article:

When Fire crews from Hempfield Township and Greenville worked to control an industrial fire one evening during the week of September 7, 2014 in Mercer County the issue was what chemicals were best to use on the fire, and how to keep it from spreading.

That fire started just after 7 p.m. at the old Werner Ladder building on Werner Road in Hempfield Township. That property is now ILSCO Aluminum Extrusions. Crews were able to put the fire out, and secure the scene which is today still being cleaned up.

The operations manager for the parent company, Pennex Aluminum, said the fire started after a furnace was started up but fire crews are unsure why the flames were so large, and what cause the system failure in the furnace.

Flames from the furnace ignited the roof. Greenville Fire officials told Allen Media, that the fire was inside the building between the roofs.

Fire crews cut holes in the roof to gain access to the fire, vented the fumes and flames and they used every extinguisher they could find on their trucks and at Pennex, and had to call in White Fire Extinguisher Inc. of Mercer to refill more than 55 extinguishers. Water on a fire of this nature can cause explosions. Area crews are trained for these types of fires as many local facilities produce material that can, when in contact with extreme heat explode when hit with water, foam and dry chemical are the local departments only answer to these types of fires.

Fourteen departments were called to assist Seven others were put on stand bye to replace those on the scene. The scene was cleared about 1 a.m. the following day.

Another media article:

It’s one thing to say that oil and water don’t mix, but if H2O gets under the surface of molten aluminum, it can explode. That means that when dozens of local firefighters tackled a fire inside the roof of aluminum remelt operation Pennex Aluminum Co. Sunday night, they had to leave their hoses on their trucks and turn to drychemical extinguishers.

In fact, they used every extinguisher they could find on their trucks and at Pennex, and had to call in White Fire Extinguisher Inc. of Mercer to refill more than 55 extinguishers.

 

“We used everything we could get our hands on, and we still needed more,” said chief of Hempfield Township Volunteer Fire Department, which covers Sugar Grove Township.

Hempfield and about 10 other departments fought the fire in the roof of the former Werner Ladder facility on Werner Road from about 8 p.m. Sunday to 2 a.m. Monday.

To be sure, running out of extinguishers and sure water didn’t drip to the molten aluminum below weren’t their only challenges.

The fire started at about 7:30 p.m. in a 50- foot-high bay covering the Pennex casting pit and remelt furnace, and ate through foam that was layered between two roofs, one older below and the one on the surface that replaced it.

Up to nine firefighters at a time sawed through the top metal roof with K- 12 saws — which have a round blade designed for fire rescue — and chainsaws with carbide tips.

Like the extinguishers, chief of Hempfield Township Volunteer Fire Department said, “They used up the blades and called in local retailer Campbell- Peterson to bring more. He brought us everything he had.”

“The professional reaction and response of our area’s fire and emergency medical teams controlled this event, and as a result, there were no injuries and no damage to operating equipment,” said the building owner.

In addition to no one being injured, said all companies at the industrial site operated as normal on Monday.

The president of Pennex, also commended the emergency crews for their work, as well as his employees who identified the smoke and informed security, which contacted 911.

According to the president of Pennex, firefighters isolated the fire to a 15-foot by 20- foot section of the structure, and as a result, “only minor roof damage was incurred.”

The president of Pennex said the company is investigating the cause of the fire.

The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog mantra is not to place blame on the company nor injured worker(s) when an incident occurs. Therefore when an injury or fatality occurs the company name nor location is listed in the blog post.

For instances that result in no injuries, the APSB may mention the company name and location. Which is done not to demean, pick on, ridicule, and single out, etc. the company but to acknowledge their good efforts. The actions performed by the Pennex personnel were not by luck, but by extensive safety training involving both company management and employees. Good Job Pennex!

The APSB would like to congratulation Pennex Aluminium for contacting the local emergency management services immediately and evacuated the building. It is assumed that Pennex personnel informed the fire department personnel of the hazards associated with fighting a fire in the vicinity of molten aluminium. It is strongly recommended that aluminium plants never, ever make the assumption that the local fire department is aware of the specific hazards in our plants. There have been several fire fighters who have been killed fighting fires in our plants when they unknowingly poured water on the fuel feeding a fire (e.g., dross, molten metal, dust) resulting in an explosion.

Congratulations to the local fire departments that responded to this fire. The second article mentioned that a previously unrelated fire in April 2014 involved a number of fire companies. After that incident the fire companies decided that further coordination would be needed when dealing with large fires. Without that coordination this fire would have had the opportunity to grow.

So the original question was "How much firefighting supplies need to be on hand in case an emergency breaks out in an aluminium plant?" This stubborn fire took 55 fire extinguishers to contain. Does that mean that every facility needs to have 55 fire extinguishers on hand, no it does not. The APSB recommends that you first find out how many class d fire extinguishers the local emergency management have on hand. Knowing how much are available if an incident arises the aluminium plant should be able to determine how many to have in stock. When in doubt, ask other aluminium plants of similar size. Our industry should take great pride in the continued communication between companies that involve safety information. When in doubt  feel free to drop the APSB a line and we'll assist you on getting some industry recommendations. 

It is recommended that all aluminium plants invite the local fire departments to their facility for a tour. The Aluminium Times Magazine had an informative article recently about the importance of training local fire departments. Here it is:

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