Worker in critical condition with burns, firefighter breaks his leg....

The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog has posted incidents involving fires that were ignited by a variety of sources. Including but not limited to furnaces, molten metal, moveable equipment, flammable liquid, maintenance activities, etc. Here is a recent incident that emphasizes the need for identification and mitigation of ignition sources:

Two people were hurt, one critically, in a blaze that started when work done outside a large manufacturing plant ignited flammable aluminum, the local fire marshal's office said.

A worker was in critical condition with burns at a nearby hospital and a firefighter also was rushed there after his leg was fractured by falling duct work, said the head of investigations for the local fire marshal's office.

The blaze was reported one afternoon during the week of June 21, 2015 in the Northeast United States, a business that uses flammable metals to make parts and coatings, authorities said.

The worker, 46, went outside to fix a malfunction in a duct and machine unit that sends aluminum powder, a byproduct of the company's metallic coatings and machine parts, into a drum, fire investigators said.

The worker was using power tools in the rear of the facility, the head of investigations for the fire marshal's office said.

"It looks like he accidentally ignited some metal dust," he said. He was in critical but stable condition with second-degree burns over 25 percent of his body, including his head and stomach, Hickman said.

The firefighter, 27, from a local volunteer fire department, was in good condition just before surgery later that afternoon, he said. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating, the fire marshal's office said.

Special fire extinguishers, which spray a dry chemical, had to be used by the fire marshal's hazmat team, the head of investigations for the fire marshal's office said. Certain metals burn "vigorously" and react "nastily" to water, he said.

A drum of aluminum powder also caught fire and the contents had to be dumped out so the fire could be put out, authorities said. The fire was confined to the outside and five departments helped contain it at 4 p.m., authorities said.

A next door school for adult education told dozens of staffers to leave early, said an employee, who was answering phones: "Everybody was let go for safety reasons."

She said a "sour" odor was in the air outside. School was out for the year, and night classes were canceled.

The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog prays that both individuals injured in this incident recover fully from their physical and any mental injuries. For both individuals the physical healing will may take less time than the healing of any mental injuries. We hope that they are offered any mental counseling to deal with the aftermath of this incident.

It appears that the worker who was burned over 25% of his body was performing maintenance on or near the dust collector. The worker was operating under a false safety belief. A false safety belief is where a habit or procedure is thought to be safe but only after an incident occurs is that procedure found to be actually unsafe. The APSB has posted incident after incident where worker(s) stated that they performed the same procedure (where they were injured) in the past. But for whatever circumstances no incident occurred. That is the reason why your plant should periodically review procedures and not to make the assumptions that because “that’s how we have always been doing it” is fine. The APSB acknowledges that the previous statement may not apply to newer facilities. But, nevertheless no matter the age of the plant all procedures should be periodically reviewed.

Also, the APSB wonders if the worker’s clothing was flame resistant. Was his underclothing (e.g., undershirt, underwear) cotton based or synthetic? Hopefully the company will reevaluate what clothing their workers wear. The APSB has posted incidents where worker’s clothing catching on fire resulted in severe burns and many succumbed to their injuries.

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